TWO COMPANIES who came together to help raise funds for the Rivington Terraced Gardens’ 'Squarea' Campaign are now finalists for a prestigious award.

Ad-Hoc PR and KRPR, both based in Lancashire, are in the finals for two categories at the PRmoment Awards 2021 thanks to their work with the campaign.

The agencies came together to share tactics, a strategic approach and their bank of both influencer and media contacts to embark on an outreach campaign on behalf of Rivington Heritage TrustT that has now seen them nominated for both the Best Community Engagement Campaign of the Year and Best Low Budget Campaign categories.

Ad-Hoc PR managing director Emma Starrs said: “It’s been brilliant to work with KRPR on this project and achieve fantastic results for the trust.

"Rivington is such a beautiful asset to the area and we’re both glad to have been able to help raise awareness of the work of the trust and the volunteers to keep the gardens maintained for even longer.”

Rivington Heritage Trust faced a challenge in lockdown to find the £100,000 annual maintenance costs for the Terraced Gardens as the events calendar had to be cancelled.

The Trust came up with the ‘Squarea’ concept, where members of the public could sponsor a 10m sq virtual patch of the gardens for £20 to help towards the renovation costs for the next five years, which the two companies have worked hard to promote.

KRPR managing director Kara Rose said: “We hit the ground running with the influencer campaign, and the results were immediate, with Mark Radcliffe, Dave Spikey, Sammy Winward and Steve Royle coming on-board within weeks to support the initiative.

"Tess Daly and Vernon Kay also pledged their support and provided a quote and image to be included in the campaign push which was a huge coup and certainly encouraged people to dig deep and pledge their support."

“In addition, Mark Radcliffe has become a patron of the Gardens as a direct consequence of the outreach campaign, that’s the sort of result money just can’t buy!”

The trust itself has said that the companies help has been vital.

Rivington Heritage Trust director Richard Galloway said: “The PR management and execution was pivotal to the campaign’s success.

"The results in just a short space of time and the celebrity involvement secured is nothing short of remarkable and we are very happy with what the team brought to our campaign.”

The award winners will be announced at a virtual ceremony on June 3 2021.