Helping 7,000 business owners access support during the pandemic

Freshfield has been the outsourced marketing partner for Boost; Lancashire’s Business Growth Hub since 2013. In March 2020, the business community faced a crisis due to the pandemic as the UK went into lockdown. Boost’s primary aim to help Lancashire businesses grow was irrelevant for most companies as thoughts turned to survival.

Freshfield worked in partnership with senior Lancashire County Council executives and devised a strategy to temporarily reposition Boost from growth support to providing help for troubled business owners and managers. Our strategic and tactical teams worked closely with Lancashire County Council to swiftly develop #AskForHelp within just four working days.

The campaign launched on the first day of the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown and focused on engaging with those people who run businesses. The launch prompted an immediate response from people running businesses who engaged with Boost’s Growth Hub team to seek advice and support. Our programme included the creation of a dedicated content and digital hub to provide business owners with tips and advice from Boost’s experts on the rapidly moving situation.

Results:

• #AskForHelp helped more than 7,000 businesses through direct phone calls and online support.
• Record unique web visitors visited the Boost site between March and June.
• The campaign had an online readership of 8.31 million.
• #AskForHelp won Best B2B Campaign at the Northern Marketing Award 2020, was Highly Commended at the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA)’s National Awards 2021 as well as being Highly Commended for a string of other marketing awards.

Throughout the campaign, Boost’s coronavirus response was commended as among the best from any UK Growth Hub.

Discover more about Boost at www.boostbusinesslancashire.co.uk.