Right to roam

To counteract this I commissioned some research which showed the right to roam had significant economic benefits such as increased profits for bed and breakfasts. I then worked closely with the National Farmers Union and the Country Landowners and Business Association to publicise the results. This proved to be a significant turning point in the debate and afterwards many farming organisations started to publicise the benefits of the right to roam.

To celebrate the new access rights I organised a mass right to roam featuring over 10,000 walkers and produced a celebrity supplement featuring Bill Oddie, Janet Street Porter and Mirella Frostrup. This and a high profile marketing campaign on the web helped the Ramblers to recruit 60,000 new members.

I updated the membership offer by working with an agency called Think Publishing to re-launch the members magazine, ‘The Rambler’. It looked very dated and attracted few high profile contributors and little advertising. I re-launched it as a ‘Walk’, a quality A5 compact which attracted names such as Will Self, Polly Toynbee and Chris Packham, raised over £100,000 in advertising and is now available in the shops.

To tackle the organisations ‘bobble hat and elderly walking group’ image and expand the membership I promoted young people’s walking groups and introduced a new brand called ‘Take a Hike’. I also produced the Ramblers first viral marketing campaign which was a humorous take on two lads walking in the countryside. It resulted in over 20,000 hits to the website and the recruitment of over 1000 new members.