Commercial Group.



Commercial sought growth. They wanted to take advantage of the current climate issues and what they mean for business. They wanted Montpellier to form a PR campaign that would help them achieve these aims. Montpellier set up and managed Commercial’s PR campaign and a CSR event that put Commercial at the forefront of climate CSR for potential clients. Commercial demand the best and don’t deal in excuses. They met their equal in Montpellier PR.


Saving the earth doesn’t have to cost it

Challenge
With an annual turnover of £25 million, The Commercial Group is the largest independently owned office services company in the UK. In its 17 years of business it has built a reputation based on exceptional customer service, superior consultancy and a quality product range.

From a complete re-brand through to van livery, website, brochures, catalogues and media relations, Montpellier has been responsible for the development and roll-out of the company’s entire marcomms strategy since 2002. In that time Commercial has continued to buck its industry trend of consolidation with an average growth, year on year, of 33 per cent.

Yet with a commitment to doubling in size in the next five years, Commercial realised it was not only essential to continue spearheading change within its market place but demonstrate how true leadership can have a significant impact on industry-facing issues.

As the climate crisis and corporate social responsibility began to hit boardroom agendas nationwide, Commercial turned to Montpellier to develop a strategy that would catapult the company to the forefront of corporate best practice and further differentiate it from competitors in order to support its ambitious strategy for growth.

Since achieving Carbon Neutral status in 2006, Commercial has embarked on a programme to reduce its carbon footprint by a staggering 75 per cent in the next three years. Montpellier seized this opportunity to showcase the company as an innovator and beacon of best practice whilst reinforcing its culture and brand values through a dedicated event and campaign.


Objectives

To reinforce the company’s position as an innovator and model for best practice
• To promote Commercial’s expertise and knowledge of climate crisis issues and CSR
• To demonstrate Commercial’s commitment to growing responsibly as it moves into
   its  next phase of development
• To differentiate Commercial’s offering through its environment and CSR programmes
   in order to support its strategy for growth
• To  create a persona for the business that would make it attractive to potential
   clients and partners
• To raise further awareness about the impact UK business is having on the
   environment


Solution

Montpellier developed a CSR day event that would bring together like-minded businesses to share knowledge and best practice. In order to gain maximum attendance, the national event was positioned as an informative day where delegates could learn how environmental and CSR initiatives could streamline processes, increase cost efficiencies and retain that all important competitive edge.

This effectively became the focus for an eight month media relations programme which was endorsed by the client Board – Montpellier was given the green light to devote all of its retainer time to CSR initiatives to focus on media relations across a range of audience types. These included local community, business communities, client vertical sector and trade. This would support the objectives of positioning Commercial as business pioneer with a key differentiation in a marketplace notorious for tight margins and cut throat competition.

Held at The Racecourse, Cheltenham, in February 2007, the day began with a private screening of the Al Gore movie An Inconvenient Truth. This was followed by keynote presentations from Commercial, CarbonNeutral and Green Standards. The underlining theme for all presentations was the huge impact that industry and modern consumerism is having on the future of our planet and the required commitment from business to change in order to prevent the potentially catastrophic effect on the environment.

The campaign would rely heavily on a regular and planned drip-feed of press articles to not announce the event but ensure maximum visibility of Commercial’s position as a voice of informed experience regarding climate and CSR issues.

This would assist in the company gaining further credibility in the business community, instil confidence in its existing and potential customer base and demonstrate in a compelling way the reason for attending the landmark event.

12 weeks prior to the event personalised invitations were designed and posted with a covering letter to Commercial’s customer base. Rather than focusing on Commercial, this approach was taken in order to gain support for the issues the event would address.
 
Eight weeks prior to the event an email campaign comprising four blasts as a count down to the event was developed and distributed by Montpellier to a list of 8,000 existing and prospective customers of Commercial. This would ensure continued momentum over the Christmas and New Year festivities.

A dedicated events website was designed for delegates to find out more about the event and register. The site included a trailer of the movie, the day’s itinerary, speaker bios and facts and figures about the climate crisis to reinforce the primary focus of the day which was to inform and share knowledge.

Whilst the chosen venue could accommodate 200 delegates the client specified that, in order for the event to be considered a success, Montpellier needed to achieve an attendance of 100 delegates.


Result

Over 200 delegates attended the event, double the client’s requirement to make the event cost effective. Over half of those delegates committed to assessing and changing their processes to reduce their impact on the environment.

Commercial has won over £5million worth of business since implementing its CSR and environmental programme which has been in no small part due to its commitment to the environment and local community. 90 per cent of that business came from delegates who attended the event.

The successful positioning of Commercial as an innovator, model of best practice and a point of knowledge regarding the climate crisis and reduction of emissions has led to the company launching a division to provide a consultancy service to other businesses (an additional revenue stream).

Maximum coverage gained in key media including interviews with BBC World TV, BBC radio Gloucestershire, Western Daily Press, The Gloucestershire Echo, Business XL CorpComms, Qube, Business 5/50, FMX, Dealer Support, OPD etc. AVE estimated to be over £300K.

As Commercial continues to roll-out its programme to reduce its carbon footprint the media has already committed to following the various initiatives including the conversion of the company’s van fleet to bio-diesel, the installation of a bio-diesel tank on the company’s HQ forecourt and the installation of solar panels on the company’s HQ roof.