Client
The quintessential English magazine, Country Life is a brand with 110 years of unrivalled coverage of country houses, architecuture and rural life, renowned for the quality of its editorial and revered for its substantial country house property advertising section at the front of the magazine.

Objective
Following a competitive pitch, Four Communications was appointed in July 2007 with the brief to raise the profile of the magazine, its contents and its editor, Mark Hedges, across national and regional media as the voice of the countryside, reach a new generation of younger, affluent readers while retaining its traditional reader base, highlight and drive traffic to its redesigned website and identify key partnership opportunities to reach new audiences.

Solution
At the heart of the strategy is a high profile media relations programme with a weekly focus on gaining targeted national media coverage for the campaigns and content of Country Life to coincide with the weekly publication date of the magazine, to encourage people to go and buy a copy to see the full feature in the magazine. The Country Life Manifesto was launched in Spring 2008, with major input from Four Communications on campaigning areas to touch the hearts and minds of people – and politicans.

Four Communications recommended that a major piece of research be undertaken to define the public’s attitude to the countryside. Four worked with Country Life to define the areas of questioning to produce a comprehensive, in-depth survey covering housing, schools, government initiatives, emotional attitudes and lifestyle. The Voice of the Countryside was launched in the summer of this year.

Results
Four Communications consistently deliver outstanding national and regional coverage on a weekly basis with substantial features and news stories in publications such as The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Financial Times, Daily Mail and Property Week, interviews on programmes including BBC TV Breakfast, BBC Radio Four’s Today Programme, Radio Five Live and Channel Five, plus international coverage. Mark Hedges has taken part in a number of television interviews for major TV series focusing on the countryside. From July 2007 to June 2008, the total AVE value of national coverage was £3,835,250.