SBIA PARTNER PROFILE BUCK & HOUND
Buck & Hound’s Pro Bono PR with Dublin Simon Community Rather than let the slowdown in work during the first lockdown get to them, Claire Buckley and the team at Buck & Hound sprung into action on behalf of Dublin Simon Community
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s a lean consumer PR agency with a mix of clients, many from the hospitality industry, the team at Buck & Hound found their client portfolio impacted when the pandemic hit, as businesses pressed pause on their PR activity. “Many of them have returned with renewed vigour, which we’re extremely grateful for,” says owner and Managing Director Claire Buckley, “But at the time, we were staring into the abyss and didn’t know what lay ahead of us.” The team didn’t waste any time sitting around and quickly decided to offer their services pro bono to a charity. “We’re a very busy office and that’s how we like it,” Buckley states. “I knew that charities were going to be under huge pressure, and we wanted to use our skills to help a not-forprofit whose services would be in high demand, so we did a callout on social media. Caoimhe O’Connell from Dublin Simon Community promptly answered and the rest is history.” RAISING AWARENESS With demand for food banks alone jumping tenfold in the space of a fortnight, and one in six households in Dublin becoming homeless on a daily basis, the drain on charities was enormous. “We’ve been working with Dublin Simon Community on anything that they need support on as well as
BUCK & HOUND LEVERAGED OUR EXISTING RELATIONSHIPS WITH MEDIA AND KEY OPINION LEADERS TO SUPPORT SOME OF THE MOST VULNERABLE IN OUR SOCIETY. ideating upcoming campaigns ever since April 2020. One of the most important things was that they wanted to make people aware of what they did and their services, for people who suddenly found themselves without a roof over their head effectively overnight. Our first campaign was centred around driving mass awareness.” The mission was to rapidly raise broad awareness for the services provided by Dublin Simon Community and drive much-needed donations through a hard-working press office and influencer marketing campaign.
Dublin Simon Community had never engaged in proactive public relations that simultaneously used the reach and impact of influencers to drive messaging and a greater share of voice. “Buck & Hound leveraged our existing relationships with media and key opinion leaders to support some of the most vulnerable in our society who now found themselves caught in the crosshairs of two major crises,” Buckley states. “A lot of the media rowed in behind us, and gave us some really amazing editorial.’
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