Kickstarting PR for Vine FX

The client 

Vine FX is a visual effects studio based in Cambridge, UK. Experts in long form TV, the team has worked on shows including The Witcher, War of the Worlds, and No Escape. Not exactly small names. They’ve scooped awards for their work, too, and provide a broad range of services from 3D modelling to simulation and compositing. And after celebrating their 15th anniversary in 2022, it was time to look at kickstarting PR efforts for the business.

The brief 

When founder, Michael Illingworth, and the Vine FX team spoke to Grammatik in late 2022 they were keen to engage a PR agency that understood their industry, the work they do, and — crucially — how they like to present themselves. They’d never worked with an agency before and wanted to invest in a long term partnership to lay the foundation of a solid marketing and PR strategy that would deliver meaningful results. So with our background in visual effects and technology communications, we were a natural fit.

Vine FX has no in-house marketing function, so Grammatik would need to work closely with stakeholders across different departments in order to establish a program of activity. The initial goal would be to create a base level of press activity from which to build a more long term strategy. Placement in industry magazines such as Televisual, Broadcast, and Motionographer would be key to measuring success.

The strategy

Our approach to building a kickstarting PR for Vine FX focussed on three pillars: showcasing talent, promoting projects, and securing speaking opportunities. As with many strands in business, what makes a company unique is, more often than not, its people and their approach to work. Vine FX is a forward-thinking studio (they take pride in being the first to adopt a remote workflow under the Covid-19 lockdowns) and founder Michael was keen for us to not make him the centre of attention. Our efforts would be about the people.

That being said, Michael’s pedigree in visual effects would be important to press outreach and we decided to lean into that for the first six weeks. Placing a comment byline in Broadcast Tech, Why we moved out of Soho, was the first step on the road. Our strategy was to start seeding people and projects into the wilds of industry media and use those results along with our relationships with events to secure speaking engagements.

The results

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