Objectives

To create and tell the story of the newly launched Isle of Skye flag travelling between the Atlantic Islands of Skye, La Gomera (Canary Islands) and Antigua during the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. To create a relationship between the two islands to start diplomatic communications and mutual promotion for tourism and positive messaging.

Strategy

• To secure support from businesses across Skye to sponsor Force Genesis with the Isle of Skye flag.
• To organise the branding and flag delivery from Skye to La Gomera and the start of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.
• To deliver all photography and creative content for use across Social Media.
• To tell the story through impactful PR across the North of Scotland.
• To orchestrate a meeting and develop a relationship between the Isle of Skye, La Gomera and Antigua for future collaborations and relations.
• To carefully plan logistics for the trip including kit, media equipment, travel, accommodation and coordinate schedules between the athletes, the trainer and the GRM team effectively.

Outcome

GRM Marketing planned and delivered all aspects of the journey of the Isle of Skye flag telling the story through Social Media and PR. GRM organised a series of meetings between Skye, the British Embassy in Madrid and the tourist board in La Gomera to engage in a ‘flag exchange’ at the beginning of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. This ‘flag exchange’ would mark the beginning of a diplomatic relationship between the Atlantic islands of Skye, La Gomera and Antigua. However, due to COVID restrictions, the meeting and exchange were not possible. Instead, the Skye flag was delivered to Force Genesis (the team rowing with the flag) who then rowed 3000m into Antigua.

GRM Marketing used photography and PR to tell the story of the journey of the Isle of Skye flag and produced releases that were distributed to the local newspapers in the North of Scotland.

The event was a logistical challenge for GRM due to numerous COVID restrictions. Changes had to be made to flights due to quarantine rules changing and there was limited access to the race to secure photography and video on both sides of the event. Despite the difficulties, value was secured for the Skye businesses involved as the flag was captured in Skye, La Gomera and Antigua and the story and content delivered had a strong reach on Social Media and in local publications.