Helping to inspire the engineers of the future
Ongoing PR support helps to attract extra funding and opportunities for children’s community race car project to grow. Hilton Formula 24 relies on the support of local businesses and outside funding to help young people to design and build their dream car as part of a project to inspire the young engineers of the future.
Who
Hilton Formula 24 (HF24) is a community STEM project designed to inspire young minds by helping children from all backgrounds to find out more about the world of engineering.
Based in Hilton, South Derbyshire, youngsters aged 9 – 16 can design and build a race car which they then get to race at world renowned tracks such as Goodwood – home to Festival of Speed in Chichester.
Focused on creating independence and improving social and educational skills HF24 is led by the youngsters who must carry out all the mechanical improvements on race days and make decisions themselves on how best to create and race the car.
Supporting greener travel, the kit car is powered by a solar powered battery providing an insight into the mechanics of electric cars as well as promoting discussions on the future of electric vehicles.
Project
Working with HF24 Creative Word PR looked at how to use PR opportunities to raise awareness of the project not only to create additional funding opportunities but encourage more children to take part.
Focusing on the success of their launch with funding from global process engineering company Briggs of Burton for the first car, for children aged 11-16, the project was promoted in regional and national children’s press.
The activity saw HF24 feature in local press and secure regional and national TV coverage. BBC Midlands Today filmed youngsters at Briggs of Burton talking about the project and coverage was also secured in Sky News’ flagship news program FYI, which makes national news accessible to young people, as well as its sister publication First News.
First News is read by 2,500,000 young people across the globe, with over half of all UK schools subscribing to the publication.
Activity
Working with Holly and the HF24 team Creative Word PR helped to support a number of PR opportunities.
- Regular press releases to announce key milestones
- Worked with regional and national publications
- Created broadcast opportunities with BBC and Sky to promote the project to a wider audience
- Focused on raising awareness of the need for additional funds and skills to support the project
Result
The activity saw HF24 increase its awareness locally as well as highlight the project on a national stage. This drove up engagement across all social media platforms and saw a number of companies approach HF24 to provide additional funding and support to enhance the project and provide new skills and resources to develop its reach.
Cheryl is pretty much solely responsible for the success of our project so far. I can attribute at least £10,000 of our sponsorship income to Cheryl’s hard work and fantastic contacts.
Holly davies, founder of Hilton formula 24
Highlights
- Increased awareness of the project across the Midlands and wider area
- £10,000 of funding secured directly from seeing the campaign in the media
- Increased engagement on social media
- A second car has been launched with additional funding for the younger age range (9 to 11 year-olds) allowing the project to reach a wider age range.
- Opportunity for children to race at several events including a prestigious Young Drivers event
- Access to industry leaders in the field of engineering and racing who have been able to share their knowledge and experience
Cheryl’s promotion of our community project led to us being filmed by BBC Midlands Today – this experience was so special for the students.
holly davies, founder of hilton formula 24
I would encourage anyone looking for a media boost to get in touch with Cheryl at Creative Word PR today.
Creative Word PR 