ICE EDGE

Background

The Edge Foundation is an independent educational charity dedicated to raising the status of vocational and practical learning in the UK.

Following the success of the schools project ‘Edge into Space’ the charity wanted to create another innovative project to target students aged 13-17 – a project which could be used to raise the profile of the organisation through national and local media exposure.

Our role

Working with marketing team from Edge and ISSET, independent schools advisors, we developed Ice Edge, a competition for students. It was designed to get young people thinking about the environment and to help them develop a whole range of practical skills that would be useful in later life.

We handled the logistics for running the regional competitions and national final, and for executing the prize, a 10 day trip to the Arctic on board a Russian ice breaker.

We took 36 students to the Arctic together with a team of leading international scientists undertaking important environmental research. We selected five education journalists to accompany the students plus a team from BBC Breakfast. (Click for video)

What else did we do?

There was extensive national and local media coverage plus valuable high profile TV and on line coverage over an extended period from January to August 2007 (over 4 million hits on the BBC website alone)

BBC Breakfast broadcast three five minute live features during the trip, as well as covering the national finals in London . The Guardian, The Metro, The Times, New Statesman and Times Educational Supplement all ran significant features. The local press in each of the ten winning teams’ regions covered the story from the finals to the trip itself, with the majority printing a post event follow up story with photos.

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