It's not everyday that you get asked to be involved in a project like Walking With The Wounded, let alone be sat in the London boardroom of MySpace talking about an expedition to the North Pole.
We had come in to see Simon Daglish, who told us he wanted to raise £2 million for charity. Co-founder of the project, Ed Parker, joined us via conference. Both thought it could go the distance on raising funds but were uncertain of just how 'big' it might be.
With over a year to go, Prince Harry's involvement was by no means guaranteed. Sponsorship was required to get the project firmly off the ground.
Fast forward three months, Captive was launching 'Walking With The Wounded' at The Rifles Club with the launch team and Prince Harry. The media had been well prepped by Captive and the story went live on to lunchtime BBC, ITV and Sky News simultaneously. It was well covered in print. The announcement cemented relationships two early sponsors and attracted many more.
The project had an early website in place but had none of the features required to keep people coming back for more. We brought the brand up to speed and the site was tooled up with group blogs, moderated comments, Facebook and Twitter. The PR fuelled the web traffic but keeping the public coming back for more was going to be key.
With the momentum generated, Captive put tiered levels of sponsorship in place where brands and corporate sponsors could contribute to the project at a level they felt most comfortable with. Every sponsor had bespoke elements of activation they required. Captive pitched ideas to promote each sponsor's participation.
TV Rights Management The press launch also fuelled interest from television production companies - all eager to snap up the project and have it funded by a major broadcaster. Captive developed a shortlist of 25 different production companies and held a two stage selection process. Ten production companies were visited in person. TwoFour was finally selected. Captive secured very advantageous terms which ensured a high percentage of royalties from programme sales, potentially delivering in excess of £1/2m in funds for the charity.
Publishing Rights Management With TV rolling forward, we turned our attention to the publishing rights. The author Mark McCrum was brought onboard through his agent and after several bids, we confirmed the publishers as Little Brown. The book was set to raise a significant amount of money for the charity.
Through our conversations, other opportunities came about. GQ came to the Captive Minds office to discuss covering the story with an exclusive feature. The discussion turned rapidly in to the idea of a cover shoot with Prince Harry and the team.
The shoot promised to be something truly momentous. The last time a British member of the royal family had appeared on a front cover was Princess Diana for Vogue in 1997. Captive broached the idea with Clarence House. After some discussion, we were given the 'go ahead'. Captive Minds negotiated and confirmed the terms of shoot with GQ.
The expedition kit was provided by Helly Hansen. With their help and several meetings in Oslo and London, Captive Minds ensured the kit was compliant for filming and worked with the lead sponsors and TwoFour to ensure all parties were happy.
"Captive Minds managed over 40 different partners involved in the project and fielded 800+ media enquiries from all over the world."
The launch on Leicester Square marked the start of the main expedition campaign. We secured permits, built the branded stage and unveiled the final team to a enthusiastic pack of photographers and broadcast crews. The media responded well and team members were able to relate their own personal stories about how they had been injured. The launch was very powerful and brought the public closer to each team member and the issues they were looking to highlight.
With the website primed, Captive looked to steadily build a support base online. Regular updates from the team were added, videos were uploaded and public comments moderated. The team got involved with blog updates of their own and Facebook contributions. With all the media activity, it was apparent some of certain member of the team even received a fair few female friend requests!
The project had enough supporters and sponsors onboard to warrant a fundraising event. With the help of GQ and Timebased, a fabulous party was held at Battersea Power Station.
Captive worked with founders Ed and Simon to discuss concepts, analyse budgets and drive the event forward. GMG radio pitched in and helped us to secure Duran Duran and Olly Murs as the headline acts for the night. Captive produced all on-screen content, event brochures and artwork, and ran the red carpet and crews inside.
With the team's departure looming, Captive Minds worked with Clarence House to manage Prince Harry's schedule and logistics. We managed media interest on behalf of the project and Clarence House and liaised with key national and international news partners to secure their participation. BBC, PA, ABC and CNN attended the departure press call in Longyearbyen, Svalbard.
Captive Minds became the centre for all communications on the ice. We distributed a detailed communications protocol document to all sponsors and media partners - running dedicated newswires of each type of partner. From incoming sponsor and media requests to family and friends updates, we provided a 24/7 service to respond to all enquiries.
With every sponsor having specific objectives, Captive Minds worked to complete bespoke requests, feeding back packages of content that could be used in brand and corporate communications.
For Horlicks, we helped to put on a family fun day for Steve Young's village in Tonypandy where 200 local residents walked a mile each to match the distance the team were walking on the ice. Called 'Walk With The Wounded', the event raised a significant amount of money for the cause.
Captive Minds has directly helped to deliver over 35% of the funds required towards the £2m target. We anticipate that the final fundraised amount for the North Pole expedition will be near the £2m mark originally conceived.
Walking With The Wounded was originally intended to be a one-off event. The incredible level of goodwill from the public, from sponsors and the media has encouraged the founders to take a longer term view.
The charity has secured an influential board of trustees and is well positioned well to really impact the issues around the wounded it was founded to address.
Soon after the team came back from the North Pole, Captive Minds announced that Walking With The Wounded would be going to Everest. We look forward to the next one.