‘Our Valleys, Our Future’ was created to reignite the spirit of the Valleys communities and inspire them to come together and stand proud of their heritage, their home and look to a positive future.
Despite the challenges faced by the Valleys region, the local people are proud to call it their home. This sense of pride and community spirit is at the core of the campaign creative. Our aim was to spark this sense of pride, giving it a form of expression in a song to raise the profile and the confidence of the region, for a sustainable, successful future.
A song to inspire and engage the public – Sing Loud, Sing Proud
We worked with Community Music Wales, Welsh singer-songwriter Kizzy Crawford and children from across the region to create an uplifting song to inspire and engage the public.
The official launch event took place yesterday at Gwyn Hall in Neath, a beautiful modern theatre in the heart of the Valleys. Open to the public, all participating schools and parents of the children were also invited. The Valleys Taskforce Chair – Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services, Alun Davies – provided an update on the Taskforce delivery plan before the school children performed the song live for the first time! We also welcomed in all the media support from the BBC and S4C who came along to cover the event.
In order to reach our audience, we used an integrated approach to marketing and communications, combining advertising channels (such as radio and digital) with engagement events in the local community.
Community Music Wales tutors and Kizzy visited schools across the region, running musical workshops to gain inspiration and involve the children to create the lyrics for the song, which was then performed and recorded with Kizzy and over 140 children from 13 schools across the Valleys in Neath.
We teamed up with Orchard Media to document the journey of the song, with a ‘making of’ footage and a music video. The launch marks the start of what we hope to be a momentous journey for the South Wales Valleys! But hold up – this is just the beginning, with another musical project about to be unveiled in towns and villages across the region this summer that you can be part of…
Follow all our exciting Valleys events via our social media channels, @SBW_Advertising and @TalkValleys #sbwagencylife
