Your campaign, Your Success

Nearly 5000 people can’t all be wrong.

When we started out with the Local Food is Miles Better campaign we set ourselves a modest target of 500 people registering their support for the campaign.

By the end of week two, 682 people had registered and it was clear the goalposts needed moving.

In fact they’ve been moved several times since then and we’ve been amazed by the depth of interest and backing the campaign has received – from 4770 people (as it stands today) to be precise, plus a plethora of other enquiries.

But it hasn’t just been Farmers Weekly’s campaign…it’s been your campaign.

Our purpose was not only to get you to engage with the campaign by contacting us, but also to provide you with the tools to do things for yourselves.

Examples?

Scores of enquiries asking for campaign materials – car stickers, lapel badges, leaflets, downloading information from our dedicated food miles website.

One hundred thousand car stickers were sent out with the campaign launch issue of FW.

Demand was so high for more we produced another 20,000 and the majority of those are now displayed in vehicles across the country.

Requests for blank campaign petition forms – which calls on supermarkets to support local food – which you’ve filled in and returned to us.

Requests to promote the campaign on your websites.

Over 140 of you nominated as food miles heroes.

Use of the campaign logo in brochures, advertisements and literature you have produced for events you’ve organised.

Requests for our Royal Show “measure the miles” game – sponsored by Waitrose – to be made available as an educational resource through Farming and Countryside Education.

The list goes on.

When we launched the campaign, we set ourselves a number of objectives against which success could be measured. So how did we do?

• Overall we wanted the campaign message to reach at least 5m people through national and regional media – we’ve smashed that with over 18m hearing the message.
  
• We wanted coverage of the campaign launch and research findings in two national and 10 regional newspapers – we achieved one national and over 20 regional papers.
  
• We wanted campaign coverage on at least two national broadcast slots and three local broadcast slots – national coverage included BBC1 Breakfast, Radio Five Live, Tonight with Trevor McDonald, and BBC News 24; interviews have been given by FW staff on over 40 local radio stations; information about the campaign was disseminated across the BBC News network; FW also had an appearance on The Politics Show; plus the campaign launch was pushed out on several of the main on-line newswires.
  
• We set a target of 30 formal endorsements of the campaign by celebrities, politicians, and interested organisations – we have nearly 40, including Rick Stein, David Bellamy, David Miliband, David Cameron and Tom Parker-Bowles.
  
• We wanted at least five supporting organisations to carry campaign information in their hard-copy or on-line literature – the NFU, CLA, Green Party, think tank Sovereignty, the Countryside Alliance, and NFU Scotland are among a burgeoning list that have done just that.
  
• We targeted a minimum of 500 people registering with the campaign and 250 signing the petition – 4770 have registered and over 95% of those have signed the petition.
  
• Our dedicated food miles website has attracted 44,000 page views – we targeted 50,000.
  
• Our Low Food Miles lunchbox competition received 160 entries from 10 schools – we were hoping for a minimum of 10 schools. We also wanted a well-known figure in food and farming to present the winners with their prizes at the Royal Show – DEFRA secretary David Miliband obliged.
  
• We wanted to include the Food Miles campaign as part of Farming and Countryside Education’s educational trail at the Royal Show – scores of kids came onto our stand to take part in the activity we devised for them.
  
• We sent an open letter about the campaign to over 100 regional newspapers.
  
• And we wanted direct feedback from at least 50 of you – we’ve had over 60 letters and on-line forum contributions.

We couldn’t have done it without you. It’s been your campaign…your success.

For more information on the campaign go to www.fwi.co.uk and click on the Food Miles link