Never underestimate the power of people in PR

At BIG Partnership, we “own the impact” for any story, no matter how much leg work is involved, and our Loganair Account Manager, Hayley Crockett is the living embodiment of that.

We were approached by Loganair Limited customer, Stephen McCann in mid-July, who reached out for support on his incredibly romantic intentions to propose to his girlfriend Bridget on a Glasgow-Barra flight in August.

We knew we had the start of something good but when it transpired his aim was to write “Bridget, will you marry me” on the world’s only tidal runway – the challenge became a little more tricky, shall we say.

• Who would write the message?
• Would the tide be out?
• Would there be cloud cover?
• Could the pilots afford the time to circle round?
• Are we over-committing here?
• What happens if it all goes wrong?

All valid questions but not a single one of them deterred Hayley or Loganair. She immediately replied to our would-be-proposer, Stephen, offering support then set the ball rolling with the airline and Barra Airport , operated by Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL).

After securing permission and a helping hand from HIAL– alongside five weeks of event planning, chats with Stephen, checks on the weather, arranging photography and drafting that all important press release – the stage was set.

This team effort paid off in remarkable fashion this week as anyone listening to BBC Radio Scotland, checking Sky News , STV Group plc , The Scotsman (the list goes on) etc, will see.

“Love is in the air”, “Woman says 'yes' after spotting proposal on Barra beach”, “Marriage proposal etched into Barra sand for plane landing”, and “Beyond anything we could have hoped for': Couple get engaged on famous Barra beach runway”, are just some of the fantastic headlines secured for our client.

And at the heart of this story are people – not just Stephen and is new fiancé Bridget, whose phones are now on fire with calls from news outlets following the story – but the team at Loganair, HIAL and BIG.

Anyone at any point could have said no, particularly the pilots, whose job is to focus on landing their aircraft safely on one of the world’s most unique landing strips.?

Thankfully, everyone said ‘yes’, including Bridget.

They say that no two days are the same in our industry, and in this context it’s very easy for a story to get lost in the mix.

However, if you have the right people working in the right way, you can own the impact for everyone involved, just like Hayley did for Stephen, Bridget, Loganair and HIAL.