The National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI), which combines the Science Museum, National Railway Museum and Museum of Photography, Film and Television brought together its collections and artefacts to create a vast online resource - www.ingenious.org.uk. Grappa’s task was to launch the new site in the media and raise awareness for its content across a broad target audience. 

Our objective was to secure features and news in the nationals and relevant specialist or enthusiast magazines. The website was funded by the Lottery-backed New Opportunities Fund, which stipulated that a physical launch should take place prior to the site going live, so it was important to make sure this was a success and it was also crucial to position the role of NMSI and the three constituent museums correctly. 

Our strategy was to embargo coverage until the launch date, but provide information to the media in advance in order to create understanding and interest, as well as set up appropriate editorial opportunities.

Once the launch date was set, we worked closely with the in-house PR team at the Science Museum to prepare succinct and informative press kits tailored to each target market. We selected appropriate ‘threads’ from the web site and highlighted these to editors demonstrating the breadth of subject matter on www.ingenious.org.uk and its relevance to their sector. In all, over 240 key media contacts followed the launch, leading to 53 articles appeared in the immediate post-launch period, six daily picture slots in The Independent, a full page in Metro, a quarter page in The Guardian and a full page story in the Mirror.

Commenting on the launch, Graham Coult, editor of Managing Information, said: “What Grappa did with the Ingenious launch was a model which should be copied by other agencies. From an editor’s point of view, the press kit was informative, non-clichéd and made all the relevant points, and the launch was excellent. I hope to be able to make more of what I learnt at the launch in addition to what I have already published.”