Challenge:

• findmypast.com and The National Archives briefed Lansons to launch the 1911 Census website to the public, without marketing and advertising support.
• The service made 36m records available to the public for the first time since the census was conducted.
  

Solution:

• Harnessing the public’s fascination with family history TV shows, the team traced current celebrities’ family trees back to 1911 to support the launch with human interest stories.

Implementation:

• The team targeted each media outlet with a bespoke story angle to ensure the story dominated the news agenda, offering tabloid celebrity angles, historical commentary for broadsheet media and video footage and images of the original census books.

Outcome:

• After a year in the planning the story dominated the news agenda at launch, driving 1.2 million visits to the website which generated unprecedented first day sales for the brand.
• The launch has generated 800 articles to date, including 30 x national print articles and 157 x broadcast mentions.