Kingsway Veterinary Group

Kingsway vets have been providing high quality independent veterinary care in the Skipton area for over 70 years.  They are the only RCVS accredited Veterinary Hospital in Craven and also operate a farm division at Skipton Auction Mart along with branches in Silsden and Cross Hills.

Our brief was to refresh the brand to build their profile and market share, particularly championing the new accredited veterinary hospital status.

We met with the management team and conducted a comprehensive marketing audit to enable us to focus on the key areas of marketing support.  It was clear that the practice is highly professional and progressive in providing exceptional high quality care to the animal community, with a genuinely personable team of dedicated staff.  This became a key element to our marketing strategy as they became a retained client.

From the audit session we commissioned a designer to refresh and modernise the brand appearance while retaining the existing logo and colours in line with the client’s wishes.

We briefed a commercial photographer who spent time with Kingsway capturing some fantastic images of the staff and the animals they care for. Establishing a strong brand identity, these images have been featured in a range of media including press advertising, literature, exterior signage, social media and the new website under construction.

The audit also revealed that whilst their existing website was only a few years’ old, contemporary standards for user friendliness, the importance of compatibility with new devices and search visibility meant it needed to be redesigned, refreshed and updated. We are working with the client to manage the process of upgrading the site; liaising with both the brand designer and the web developer while drafting relevant creative content for the new site.

PR has been used to gain editorial coverage in the local media and raise the profile of practice in the community. Helping them to identify key ‘hooks’ for the media, we got the ball rolling with front and centre-spread page coverage of the Dales Life section of their local newspaper, the Craven Herald, featuring a retiring vet.

This was followed soon after with news of the Veterinary Hospital accreditation and then a ‘free microchipping’ release.

We operate a media schedule featuring a series of campaigns to highlight various aspect of pet care, each with an advertorial piece followed by punchy press adverts.   Using the photography stock we commissioned and others from image banks, the style of each advert features an animal picture with a humorous speech or think bubble caption to introduce the particular topic promotion.

Regularly changing the adverts in this way helps us to keep the client noticed.

We have adopted a particular shot as a generic image for promoting the ethos of the practice in annual titles, glossies, parish magazines and their exterior signage.  A child hugs a puppy with the strapline ‘Nursing care 24/7, because pets are family.’ The attractive image draws the eye while pushing home a key USP of the Veterinary Hospital, which is manned full time.

Taking the campaigns to the air, we draft a script and work with an independent production studio and local radio station to present the campaigns using cat and dog ‘voices’.

In-house promotions for dental clinics and rabbit clinics required us to draft content, commission design and source the best prices for posters and fliers from our many contacts for print work. Transparent in our own ‘pay for only for our time’ policy, we do not mark-up this form of work so the client genuinely gets the best deal.

Liaising with local property developers and estate agents, we developed a factsheet for home-movers on the best way to care for pets during the stressful process of moving house. This also featured a discount coupon for pet products and a free consultation.

We have also encouraged the practice to engage more with social media and they have increased their presence on Facebook and Twitter with further training planned to keep them up to date with the changing features and latest trends of this fast-changing medium.

The range of work required by the practice enables us to implement a fully integrated marketing strategy which is both rewarding for us and effective for Kingsway. By working together with us the whole team have begun to be more proactive about raising their profile and we look forward to continuing to work with them to champion the best in veterinary care.