It wasn’t asking them to run an event but promote a charitable marketing campaign across their marketing channels that were already in place.

For instance, I had some success with was the ‘Pub Olympics’…essentially charity nights held at pubs. Landlords would put on various competitions (pool, table football, darts, cards) and there would be prizes at the end…I wasn’t going to hit all the pubs in the UK asking them to hold events, so I went to the top of the industry.

I approached the Pub Chains, of which there are many of different sizes, to sponsor the campaign in a way that promoted it across their internal marketing channels (and I knew they would also

I backed this up with getting sponsors and endorsement from sporting associations such as the Professional Footballers Association, British Darts Organisation, Winmau Darts, Pros, etc, and this gave the pub chains a great deal of incentive to sign-up.

So, campaign ideas > endorsements . sponsorship > proposal to pub chains

You’re right, much of it did rely on cold-calling at first, but once the ball was rolling it built-up momentum and PR itself.

Cheers for the feedback on the Comments Link – I’ll move it up my priorities…it’s on a long list of items at the mo!

p.s. Methinks the comments link is best fitted at the bottom of a post, where the current standard puts it and where people – who have just finished reading and have something to say – can find it