York Business Week (YBW) has been a firm fixture in the city’s business calendar for the last seven years. When destination management organisation Make it York took over the organisation and running of the event in 2018, they were keen to make it a week to remember.

The business team enlisted our help to generate a buzz around YBW by identifying and placing stories in local and regional media, as well as engaging people and businesses in the city and beyond through social media.

In the ten weeks leading up to York Business Week, which ran from 13-19 November 2018, the campaign generated 18 pieces of print, online and broadcast media coverage highlighting different aspects of the event.

A consistent posting schedule on York Business Week social channels made sure that awareness increased in the lead up to the event, engaging speakers, sponsors, partners and potential delegates across the region.

Through organic activity alone, the York Business Week LinkedIn audience grew from a standing start to over 100 followers with a post reach of almost 10,000 people over ten weeks. The Twitter campaign generated over 120,000 impressions, with a daily average of almost 3,000 in November.

Andrew Sharp, Make it York’s Head of Business said, “We knew that we wouldn’t have the time or resources to deliver a full-blown publicity campaign this year.

"Our main priority was to create some noise around York Business Week, and get people talking about it.

"The campaign Partners ran for us well and truly delivered on that, as well as giving us plenty more ideas that can be rolled out for future events.”