TV personality Billy Byrne, best known as the team joker on BBC’s DIY SOS, helped PRG launch the Herts Essex Energy Partnership (HEEP) boiler campaign in December by dressing up festively as a Christmas Fairy.
PRG was tasked with organising a local press event to inform residents in Hertfordshire and Essex of the council grants available for installing new gas condensing boilers to reduce heating bills and improve energy efficiency in the home.
PRG chose a Christmas theme for the event to tie in with the Partnership’s key messages of ‘giving’ and ‘warmth’. To entice local media to attend the press event, PRG researched local celebrities and chose Hertfordshire-born and bred TV personality Billy Byrne.
Other event management activities included researching suitable venues; inviting local media; appointing and briefing a photographer; writing press packs and a press release; distributing press release and photo; follow up phone calls with local media, and collating and evaluating resulting media coverage.
Coverage from the event has already appeared on local radio and on a number of local news websites, and PRG will be looking out for further coverage in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
About Herts Essex Energy Partnership
HEEP is a government funded and council approved scheme made up of fifteen local authorities – Brentwood, Broxbourne, Chelmsford, Dacorum, East Herts, Epping Forest, Harlow, Hertsmere, North Herts, St Albans, Stevenage, Three Rivers, Uttlesford, Watford and Welwyn Hatfield. Together these local authorities are working to tackle fuel poverty and help improve energy efficiency in homes across Hertfordshire and Essex.
