Cause UK 2023 in review

We want to wish all our clients a Happy Christmas. It’s a time for us to reflect on the year, before we look ahead.

We pride ourselves as ‘agents of change’ helping our clients put heart and intelligence into the news agenda.

As a creative PR agency, we continue to attract 5* reviews on Google.

Cause UK was Prolific North’s Best PR Agency of the Year in 2021, and Best Independent Business at the Harrogate Advertiser Excellence in Business Awards in 2022.

This year, we’re incredibly proud to announce Cause UK has acquired B Corp certification!

On a Mission

This year, we’ve represented a number of ethical organisations working to address major societal issues.

Highlights include:

• Rewriting the website for the UK/Europe arm of Alcoholics Anonymous, making it more accessible; the site is due to be relaunched soon.
• Supporting the Care Foundation in Pakistan in their mission to enrol one million children living in poverty in school by 2025, and launched a new report from Free Tibet, highlighting continued human rights’ abuses.
• Promoted and helped event manage QED Foundation’s annual Asian Young Achiever Awards.

• Launched a major campaign for Inclusive Equal Rights UK to make the city of York the first Anti-Racism city in the north; this success led to organising an Anti-Racism summit in January at Bishopthorpe Palace.
• Launched the new Great Ouse Rivers Trust; the week-long campaign showed an audience reach of 74.7M. The client said: “We’re definitely on the map now!”

We were also moved once again by our oldest standing client, the social investor, Key Fund, writing their annual Social Impact report. Key Fund is an awe-inspiring social enterprise that has an empowering impact in our most disadvantaged local communities.

Arts with Heart

Cause UK is an established infrastructure support agency for the Arts.

This year, highlights include:

• Ilkley Literature Festival

Supporting Ilkley Literature Festival in its 50th anniversary year, securing over 140 pieces of online coverage (excluding print and broadcast) across three months. Highlights include a feature in the I newspaper, placing authors on Times Radio, with extensive support from the Yorkshire Post and BBC Radio Leeds.

Erica Morris, festival director, later emailed: “Thank you so much for doing phenomenal job on the PR once again. The regional press – broadcast and print – definitely helped to keep ticket sales strong across the whole of the sales period. It’s probably been the most consistently strong ticket sales we’ve experienced since I’ve been here. You are creative, tenacious and brilliant and it’s a joy to work with you.”

• Wesley Centre, Malton

We’re delighted too, to continue our work with the Wesley Centre in Malton, supporting their incredible mission to transform the iconic building into a music and community hub. In recent years, we’ve helped schedule high profile events at the centre, with Lesley Garrett, Julian Lloyd Webber, and Miriam Margolyes, as well as support its community engagement and fundraising campaigns in the media.

We’re thrilled that under the tenacious leadership of Paul Emberley, the Wesley Centre has secured over ￡2m in funds for the restoration. We look forward in supporting their arts programming in 2024.

• Sky Arts film

Cause UK pitched and produced a new short film for Sky Arts, celebrating a young working-class classical pianist in Leeds, 23-year-old Ellis Arey, and commissioning a new piece from composer, Ben Crick. Working Classical Heroes will premiere at a screening at Leeds Everyman cinema on 14 December.

Our thanks go to client Besbrode Pianos – a key artistic advisor on the film – and the hard-working, incredibly talented film director and editor, Katie Greenhalf.

You can read the story around this special project in a feature we wrote for the Yorkshire Post, which you can read here.

• Orchestral Manoeuvres

Ben Crick also conducts the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra – which we relaunched in 2022. As advisors to the orchestra, we were proud this year to help secure major new gigs at Halifax Piece Hall, including a sell-out Yorkshire Proms.

As a spin off of this work, Cause UK has also become an advisor of the Paradox Orchestra, (Leeds Conservatoire graduates), helping schedule and promote sell-out concerts in Leeds and Manchester, with lots of exciting plans for 2024.

In 2023, we also did a little murderous PR with the friendly and passionate team at CrimeFest in Bristol and the Crime Writers’ Association, and continued to profile the prestigious Northern Aldborough Festival– all of whom we’re delighted to be working with again in 2024.

Bear Necessities

We have also gone on a Bear Hunt for Leeds Hospitals Charity with client, ThinkOTB – an innovation and marketing agency doing transformative work with a global impact with clients around the world.

It’s been inspiring too working with the incredible female-led research agency, Harlow Consulting, that puts values and ethics at the heart of their work.

We’ve even done a bit of ethical shopping promoting Real Markets, who support local producers, and the Country Living Christmas Fair, which champions artisans.

We’d like to wish all our clients a Happy Christmas, and we know you’ll join us in hoping for peace in all corners of our troubled globe.

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