The Big 870
Wales Coast
Path
In 2022, the Wales Coast Path celebrated its 10th anniversary. Free and accessible all-year-round, it’s a visitor destination like no other — spanning 870 miles of uninterrupted coastline.
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To mark the milestone, Equinox was tasked with devising a low-budget PR/digital campaign to engage as many people as possible with the Path between June and September 2022.
We set out to deliver a highly-engaging campaign to drive visitors during 2022 and beyond, promote the Path’s accessibility/inclusivity and inspire communities from Wales, the UK and beyond to engage with Welsh culture.
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Introducing: The Big 870 — a nation-wide, summer-long walking challenge, uniting leisurely strollers, hikers, dog-walkers, cyclists, wheelchair-users, horse-riders, community-groups, families, residents and visitors alike to collectively walk 870 miles anywhere along the Wales Coast Path.
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Equinox used the PESO model across three campaign phases (challenge announcement, driving participation and final total reveal) to deliver the concept.
​Tactics:
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Mix of paid, earned, shared and owned channels.
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Highly-targeted Meta advertising campaign — paired with bilingual The Big 870 | Her 870 branding (designed by Equinox) — driving target audiences to pledge their miles. All ads were A/B tested, monitored daily, and tweaked to ensure optimum results vs. KPIs.
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Influencer engagement: Siân Lloyd and Shân Cothi were chosen for their collective following of 77.7k and existing passion for the Path (ensuring authenticity and brand-alignment).
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PR activity to raise awareness of the challenge; plus, end-of-challenge PR to celebrate total distance pledged — positioning WCP as a desirable destination. The second story featured heart-warming/quirky case studies from individuals who took part, for maximum PR-mileage.
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Engagement with partners/stakeholders (e.g. LAs, tourism information officers, Visit Wales, Ramblers, Young Farmers’ Clubs etc) via a stakeholder toolkit, generating word-of-mouth amongst wider audiences.
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Social media competition to drive user-generated-content.
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Organic social media content promoting key campaign milestones, incl. use of Instagram Reels and Facebook Stories.
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Development of creative/shareable digital-content for distribution through Facebook/Twitter/Instagram.
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Inclusion of full challenge details on WCP’s website, including a form to pledge mileage (data stored securely in line with GDPR).
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Release of a bespoke ‘completers’ merchandise range, designed for gifting and commemorating walking-achievements.
Our strategy and savvy implementation produced a highly cost-effective campaign, achieving more than double — almost triple — the KPIs, to mark a decade of the Wales Coast Path:
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