Mettle PR: High Speed Story Telling

Behind the Scenes of BLOODHOUND’S 200mph Debut

Project BLOODHOUND is a land speed record endeavour where going fast isn’t the main aim. Its job, first and foremost, is to inspire young people by showing maths, science, engineering and technology in the most exciting context possible.

Mettle is a content and communications company and our team of animators, writers, TV producers, photographers, film-makers and PR professionals help the Project share its story with a global audience.  Of all the media events we have staged for them, none were as important as the one we did on 26th October: the Car’s 200mph public debut.

After years of delays and false starts, here was a chance for BLOODHOUND to demonstrate its capability and restore some credibility, thank supporters and show sponsors – current and future – that it could put on the right kind of show. 

In the end, over 230 media journeyed to a cold and misty Cornwall. We achieved near saturation coverage in the UK with stories cascading around the world. BLOODHOUND was No1 one story on BBC Online most of the day and trended No1 on Twitter and Facebook. You can see some of the early results here.

If you want to know how we did it, with a small team and tiny budget, read on.

Months before the event, we presented a simple vision to the team: the media were not adversaries, or an inconvenience, but partners, helping us to do Job No.1 of inspiring young people. Our task then, was to enable the journalists do their job as well as possible. Whether that meant providing pooled aerial footage for free, or a hot soup for a chilled, foot-sore correspondent, if it meant the media would a better BLOODHOUND story, we did it.

Being proactive and doing the groundwork early helped us make the most of the limited resources we had at our disposal.

Months ahead, we ramped up the creation and release of tweets, films and slideshows, according to a carefully worked out schedule, all teasing the main event. This also allowed us to cut together excellent B-roll, which we refreshed regularly and made freely available. When Sky turned up to do some pre-filming they decided they didn’t need to get their cameras out after all – we’d covered the bases for them.

That’s key to Mettle’s approach: we work as news producers, thinking through headlines, opening shots, sound bites, even the lighting. So, from

early summer onwards, we worked collaboratively with outlets, discussing creative ideas and approaches. 

One notable outcome was Channel 4 News science editor, Tom Clarke, surfing with BLOODHOUND aerodynamicist Dr Ben Evans, to better understand fluid dynamics. Mettle even supplied backup cameras when ITN drowned theirs… The reward was a novel, engaging and informative five-minute report on national TV. 

With the BBC we not only mapped out a two day-long campaign across all their channels, matching shots and spokespeople to media, we also joined forces on an experimental 360 degree movie, produced by specialists Defacto Films. This meant persuading reluctant engineers to mount untested technology on their precious prototype racing car, but the result was worth it: a fascinating and immersive experience enjoyed by one million people within a few days of release.

As film-makers ourselves, we considered the major moments such as The First Reveal, when the car would be towed out of its hanger in the dark of early morning. As the huge doors slid open, the Car was backlit by a dozen white spotlights, bringing a little bit of Close Encounters to a misty corner of Cornwall. For the daytime and evening reports, BLOODHOUND was parked under a brightly-coloured, sculptural structure that allowed us to light the Car without impeding filming. Watching the BBC and ITV do simultaneous live reports for their national evening news programmes more than justified the effort.

With the test runs taking place on an operational airfield, there were severe restrictions on movement and where we could place media. Thanks to long-term Project partner, Cisco, Mettle was given use of a five camera outside broadcast team for the event, which enabled us to provide a pool feed for media as well as a three-hour live-stream watched by 500k people. The decision to have a professional drone pilot and camera operator on standby paid off when heavy fog grounded the news helicopter that had been promised.  

Important – and time consuming – as these aspects are, we did not loose sight of the most important elements: the story and the people.

The BLOODHOUND team is well versed in doing interviews but we took nothing for granted. The main messages were agreed months in advance and kept concise. Twelve different releases were written weeks before, covering everything from the main story, to a specialist angle about electrification, to different degrees of crisis. One of these would prove useful when a minor sensor failure prevented the car from getting re-heat on its jet engine during the last round of test runs

Easy to use Q&A documents were prepared, key spokespeople given a media-engagement refresher workshop and 300+ volunteers briefed on what our stories were and how to discuss them with confidence. Above all we stressed the need to speak human. It is all too easy for specialists to revert to the codified language of their discipline, especially when tired or under pressure. So often that kills the momentum of an interview or sucks the life out of a story. Using clear and accessible language does not mean dumbing down – we may even have waved a copy of The Economist around to reinforce the point. 

Ultimately, results came about because a small team of highly motivated people communicated well and sweated the small stuff: charging points in the media tent. A final round of calls to night editors. A coffee cart on hand at 6am for breakfast media crews.

A senior ITV producer was motivated afterwards to send Mettle this note:

“I just wanted to drop you a note of thanks on behalf of ITV. I have worked on lots of major events and never have I been so impressed with the media organisation. It makes such a difference to know the tech aspects of pool material has been thought about, guests booked and even lighting considered ahead of a major OB.

Designers say ‘God is in the details’. This took on particular meaning for us when Bloodhound Project became the subject of ‘Thought for the Day’, just before the event. 

It was a reminder, too, that there’s always another angle to pitch…

If you’d like to get in touch, please drop us a line: [email protected]