Everest with Sir Ranulph Fiennes

• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

In 2008 the brilliant public relations team at Marie Curie Cancer Care gave me an incredible challenge. Design and implement the media strategy for Sir Ranulph Fiennes Everest Challenge.

To date Sir Ranulph Fiennes has raised a staggering £15 million for charity. His goal was to not only reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain in the world, but also to raise £3 million for Marie Curie Cancer Care and highlight the essential end of life care the charity provides.

It was an ambitious and challenging project that involved strategic planning, project management, editorial production including video, pictures and copy, sourcing major sponsorship deals and producing and directing editorial coverage from basecamp.

I secured sponsorship from satellite provider Thuraya who gave me unlimited airtime and the equipment needed to file daily video reports, pictures and copy. I commissioned a microsite for the community to follow Sir Ranulph’s progress and also learn more about Marie Curie Cancer Care. A media partnership was also secured with The Daily Telegraph.

I set up a newsroom at Everest base camp and worked with cameramen David Carter and Rob Casserley, filing daily video reports, photographs and blogs direct from the mountain to the vlog www.everestchallenge.org.uk (NB: this site has been changed and updated since I worked on implementation) and to the media partner The Telegraph.

The blog charted Sir Ranulph’s daily progress and the community followed with baited breath. They left hundreds of comments, and most importantly donations.

On the day of his summit push,  just after midnight, Sir Ranulph turned back due to exhaustion. But even though he didn’t reach the summit the challenge was a huge success because he reached his £3million fundraising target, and the media and digital coverage brought the work of this fantastic charity to many more people.

Thanks to Marie Curie Cancer Care, all the sponsors, those who helped at basecamp (in particular the incredible sherpas) and everybody else involved in the project – it was a privilege to work with you all.

And to Sir Ranulph Fiennes – Sir, we salute you.

Photo: copyright Liz Scarff 2011