The Burnley Bondholders is an alliance of more than 150 businesses working alongside the council’s economic development unit to change perceptions of the town.
Our brief was to convince the world that Burnley is not a struggling former mill town, but in fact a great place to live, work, invest and visit.
We uncovered and placed dozens of impactful stories across the media, playing to the strengths of Burnley as a town punching above its weight in manufacturing prowess and emerging as a leading tech town.
Three years into the project, which had begun as a 12-month contract, Burnley was given the Most Enterprising Area in the UK award.
The compelling news coverage we had secured in the Sunday Times and many other key media outlets, played a pivotal role in the Government Department for Business Innovation and Skills naming Burnley as the Most Enterprising Area in the UK.
We set our sights high, and through our contacts within TV, we secured a in a 5 minute film as the lead item on The One Show, drawing in 5 million viewers.
BBC and ITV news programmes all ran the story, and we even got Alastair Campbell to break his holiday in France to come to Burnley and handle the interviews, appearing on BBC World, This Morning and a host of other channels. The story also ran in all the national newspapers and several international news platforms.
