Metropolitan Walkers and the South Bank Group
Many Ramblers Groups put on themed walks as part of their regular programme. Themed walks are a fantastic way to promote walking to the public; they’re interesting, people-friendly and they get lots of media coverage. The London Metropolitan Walkers and the South Bank Group joined forces to create the “Films on Foot” festival, a festival of film-themed walks put on in association with the Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival during October.
Films on Foot offered the public the chance to go on seven walks around London, each featuring a number of instantly recognisable locations from films such as Bridget Jones’ Diary, The Golden Compass, Bourne Ultimatum and many more.
The festival was dreamt up six months previously by Eleanor Harris, Publicity Officer for Metropolitan Walkers, London’s 20s and 30s Hike Group. Eleanor comments “The Met Walkers participated in the Press Team’s bluebell walks earlier in the year and found that themed walks are a great way to get publicity for our group. The idea for the film walks was to capture a more contemporary side to London culture and to give us the opportunity to reach a new audience of potential new members who may enjoy the arts and walking but who do not know about the Ramblers and to get some press coverage for our group”.
Eleanor and the Ramblers Association Press Officer, Ruth Somerville met with the BFI London Film Festival marketing team who loved the idea of a film-themed walking festival coinciding with their festival. They felt it gave the film festival an extra something and the partnership approach meant there were reciprocal marketing and publicity opportunities. The film festival would be promoted to Ramblers members and the walks promoted to film festival goers on the London Film festival web site.
Walk Leaders in both Met Walkers and the South Bank Group (the area the film festival takes place in) were equally enthused and volunteered to lead the walks. Walk leaders needed to be confident at dealing with large group sizes due to the large amount of publicity secured for the programme. They also needed to be comfortable with public speaking, as these walks were rather different from the Group’s usual walks in that they involved the walk leader giving a commentary about the film locations visited during the walk.
According to Eleanor, “the most difficult part of organising the festival was planning and researching the walks. This involved a huge amount of web research and watching hours and hours of films set in London!”. Once the film locations were identified, they were joined up into a coherent route. Where possible, green parts of London were included with the walks featuring Hampstead Heath, Regent’s Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Greenwich Park and the Thames Path.
The walks were promoted on the Ramblers web site and at the Inner London Ramblers area stand at the Thames Festival, London’s largest free event with 750,000 members of the public attending. The Press Team sent press releases to all London media, including the Evening Standard, London Lite and Time Out. The BFI promoted the walks on the festival website and provided maps for the walks.
The hard work was worth it as the festival was a resounding success. All the walks were well attended and clearly enjoyed by the participants. The vast majority of the walkers were members of the public, many of whom were amazed to discover that the Ramblers’ Association put on events like this.
www.metropolitan-walkers.org.uk
www.southbankramblers.org.uk
If you would like help promoting an initiative, please contact the Press Team on press@ramblers.org.uk ; 020 7399 8532
