Chichester950

An award winning anniversary marketing and PR campaign for Chichester Cathedral

The Challenge

Chichester Cathedral’s 950th anniversary was a once-in-a-generation moment that needed to honour nearly a thousand years of faith and heritage while remaining relevant, welcoming and vibrant in the present day. The ambition was not simply to commemorate history, but to:

BrightWord was appointed as strategic PR and marketing partner to help deliver an ambitious, year-long integrated campaign that would resonate locally, regionally and nationally.

The Idea

Chichester950 was conceived as a shared celebration of past, present and future.

Rather than a single moment or event, BrightWord helped shape a coherent narrative that unfolded over nine months, inviting people to reflect on 950 years of history, celebrate the Cathedral’s role today, and actively contribute to its future legacy.

The campaign framed the Cathedral not as a static monument, but as a place of worship, creativity, learning and belonging – a place deeply rooted in Sussex life.

The Solution

BrightWord delivered a fully integrated, 360° marketing and PR campaign running from February to November 2025, coordinating activity across:

A bespoke Chichester950 visual identity, developed by StudioMoo, ensured the campaign felt contemporary, distinctive and instantly recognisable.

Flagship moments included:

Religion, Rebellion & Reformation – the Cathedral’s first self-curated exhibition, uncovering stories of Christian faith in Sussex from 1075 to today. Its success led to an extension until February 2026.

Together in Unity – a sold-out concert celebrating the Cathedral’s choral heritage and the 60th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, securing BBC Radio 3 coverage and supporting the Cathedral’s music endowment fund.

TrinityFest on the Green – a new free family festival that combined worship, live music, food and creative workshops, delivered with city partners and headline sponsors.

Luxmuralis Chichester950 Light Experience – a spectacular finale transforming the Cathedral with immersive light and sound, exceeding income targets by over 60%.

Alongside these moments, BrightWord supported a rich programme of community-led creative projects – including Draw950, Write950, Fish950 and Sing950 – engaging more than 950 children and ensuring the anniversary belonged to the next generation as much as to long-standing supporters.

Content Creation and Digital Storytelling

A core element of the campaign was creating engaging content to bring history to life for multiple audiences:

Social media: We produced high-engagement video reels, short-form stories and posts, including the St Richard of Wych visits Chichester campaign, which saw the Cathedral’s patron saint visit the modern-day city centre, generating a high level of engagement and shares across Instagram and TikTok.

Editorial content: Monthly articles explored the stories behind exhibitions and artefacts, helping secure PR placements in regional and national media while feeding digital channels with rich storytelling.

Family and school engagement: Campaigns promoted Draw950, Write950, Fish950 and Sing950, ensuring young audiences and families could be involved and feel part of the Cathedral’s story.

This multi-platform content strategy amplified reach, drove footfall to events and exhibitions, and strengthened the Cathedral’s digital presence with over 1.8 million views across channels during the year.

Partnership-led Approach

Partnerships were central to the campaign’s success.

BrightWord helped activate collaborations across culture, education, tourism, faith and the visitor economy – from city dressing with Chichester BID, a sculpture trail created by Chichester College and an outdoor cinema experience on the Cathedral Green with Chichester Cinema, to exhibitions with Pallant House Gallery and Oxmarket Contemporary, a media partnership with Sussex World , and dedicated destination marketing with Experience Sussex and The Great Sussex Way.

This approach transformed Chichester950 into a truly district-wide celebration, extending reach, visibility and shared ownership well beyond the Cathedral itself.

The Results

Chichester950 delivered exceptional cultural and commercial impact:

The campaign also delivered a measurable boost to Chichester’s visitor economy, increasing footfall and dwell time across the city.

The Legacy

Beyond numbers, Chichester950 strengthened pride, participation and long-term sustainability.

It deepened relationships across Sussex, reinforced the Cathedral’s commitment to access and inclusion, and created a platform for future cultural programming – including major exhibitions in 2026 and beyond.

Most importantly, it repositioned Chichester Cathedral as a place of welcome, creativity and relevance for the next generation.

Recognition

Chichester950 was announced as the 2026 Winner of the Marketing Campaign of the Year at the Cultural Enterprises Awards, recognising the campaign’s creativity, scale and impact.

An incredible accolade for a year that brought 950 years of history vividly to life.

W&W Jewellery: Pickett London Collaboration

We strongly believe in the power of partnerships and have seen how bringing the right brands together can have phenomenal results. Specialising in creating possibilities and connections, we identify synergies and affinities with other brands to generate opportunities to reach wider audiences.

An example of a recent collaboration was with our client W&W Jewellery and Picket London – two brands recognised for their British craftsmanship, design and quality.

Well-known for their exquisite bespoke jewellery services, W&W launched their first ever ready-to-wear Jewellery Box Collection in 2018, comprising a carefully curated collection of their own handmade jewellery as well as a number of unique and interesting pieces that they have sourced.

To launch the new collection and reach a wider audience, we identified an opportunity to partner with a brand known for producing beautiful bespoke jewellery boxes. With their passion for distinctive style, exceptional design and impeccable craftsmanship, Pickett was top of the list. Celebrating 30 years in business, Pickett provides luxury leather goods that are handmade in England including a selection of jewellery boxes. Like W&W the firm also offer a bespoke service for those looking for a luxury artisanal experience with an outcome that is completely unique and personal.

The collaboration included the coordination of a photo shoot to capture W&W’s exquisite pieces sitting alongside Pickett’s luxury leather jewellery boxes. The iconic images were used in social media and digital campaigns, allowing both brands to tap into a wider audience with similar synergies. We also secured coverage in Exclusively British, a high-end luxury lifestyle magazine, on the partnership story.

Not only did the campaign successfully launch W&W’s Jewellery Box Collection, it also celebrated the best of British craftsmanship and design.

Southend Barns: Bridal Shoot

In celebration of the recent launch of their beautiful new outdoor ceremony area known as The Secret Garden, we coordinated a styled shoot for our client Southend Barns to showcase the new space.

We approached various talented local suppliers about collaborating to create a beautiful and inspirational scene that highlighted everyone’s expertise; the end result being a series of professional photos that could be used for marketing and PR campaigns.

Embracing the natural aesthetics of the wedding barns, the photo shoot combined romantic and ethereal elements with delicate details to wonderful effect and as well as creating a buzz on social media, the shoot will also feature in various bridal blogs and magazines, starting with Coco Wedding Venues in January.

Thank you to all the suppliers who took part in the styled shoot, this is always such a fun sector to work in with so many creative individuals who are genuinely passionate about what they do.

Venue – Southend Barns
Photographer – Helen Cawte
Florist – Lucy from The Floral Artisan
Succulents – The Little Botanical 
Cake – Milk Street Kitchen
Makeup – Polka Dot Hair and Make Up
Bridal gowns – Ruth Milliam Couture
Jewellery – W&W Jewellery
Balloons – Bubblegum Balloons 
Stationery – Kirsten Burke
Model – Amy Louise Kibler

Southend Barns: 5th Anniversary PR

One of our longest-standing clients, Southend Barns Wedding Venue celebrates its fifth anniversary this year. We are proud as punch to say that we’ve been working with this popular venue since its inception, so we couldn’t have been more excited to help them plan their fifth anniversary celebrations.

We marked the milestone with a glorious garden party on the lawn, inviting back past couples who have celebrated their nuptials at Southend Barns. Guests were welcomed with a glass of fizz and BBQ by Field & Fork, the fabulous resident caterers at Southend Barns. This was followed by speeches and delicious cake supplied by Nic’s Slice of Heaven and Foxwood Weddings.

It was then time for a special anniversary photo which saw all the guests organised into a shape of a five ready for an aerial photo which took in the beautiful barns and couples. This was something we had been planning for months and involved lots of scaled drawings, discussions about configurations and test runs with the drone, which was managed by Devoted Films. Thankfully the weather was on our side and the final shot looks fantastic! It has already received a brilliant response across social media and in our PR outreach so far. We do love it when a plan comes together!

Happy fifth anniversary Southend Barns!

Southend Barns: Ethical Wedding Shoot

We’ve been working with the fabulous team at Southend Barns since they first opened back in 2012 and during this time have had the chance to work on some fantastic events and campaigns.

Set on a working farm in the stunning West Sussex countryside, the converted farm buildings and beautiful landscaped gardens at Southend Barns are built and run using the latest environmentally sustainable technology. To off set the high carbon footprint of a wedding, features including a biomass boiler and sustainable materials such as hemp.

We’ve been looking for ways to showcase the venue’s commitment to the environment so last Autumn we teamed up with To Have and To Hire wedding stylists and other local suppliers for a wedding photo shoot dedicated to showing that ethical can be stylish too.

As much as possible was ethically produced or handmade by local suppliers such as the flowers by The Wild Fox which were all foraged for locally in the New Forest. The styling was inspired by celebrating the season and bringing it inside to reflect the beautiful textures, forms and colours that autumn has to offer.

Autumnal foliage and boughs were gathered and suspended from the overhead beams in the Dairy Barn alongside lanterns which created a twinkling enchanted forest effect. The Wild Fox also created a seasonal indoor meadow using flora foraged from the local countryside, the display was situated at the end of the aisle which was scattered with dried leaves and lined with lanterns. The bride’s bouquet was made using flowers collected from the gardens at Southend Barns which were tied with hand painted silk ribbons by Kate Cullen.

Inside the Threshing Barn the top table was decorated with leaves sprayed in a rose gold paint with a grey hessian runner and lots of rose gold candle holders surrounded by swathes of leaves in warm coppery colours. The chairs were tied with white voile for a simple but effective touch. Behind the table hanging on the exposed rustic beams were large boughs of foliage. The cake, created by Tartufi, was a three-tiered semi-naked sponge with buttercream made using Fairtrade and local ingredients where possible. This was decorated with a scattering of autumnal leaves and flowers from the gardens.

The natural materials used throughout the décor at Southend Barns’ complemented the British foliage and flowers used in the shoot perfectly, giving a sense of nature’s organised chaos and creating an ideal backdrop for the shoot.

The bride wore a range of unstructured and flowing lace dresses from Minna’s ethical collection. Environmental issues are important to Minna so each piece is hand embellished and made from sustainable, organic, recycled and locally produced textiles. Her label has in a short time re-defined what ethical fashion should be. Environmentally friendly production techniques including local manufacturing and zero waste pattern cutting are also used for every garment.

The dresses were teamed with Fairtrade rose gold jewellery from pioneering ethical jewellery firm Cred. Handmade rose gold head pieces by Cherished Vintage were used in the bride’s hair which was styled by ID Makeup, Hair and Beauty. ID chose to work with Davines hair products which are all eco friendly and have no carbon footprint, helping the planet as well as achieving beautiful hair results. The makeup look was inspired by an autumn sunrise. ID used vegan and cruelty free products from Charlotte Tilbury, Becca, NARS and Hourglass to create glowing skin and soft bronzy brown metallic smoky eyes.

The beautiful scene was captured by award-winning wedding photographer Kelly Hearn. Kelly worked with mainly natural light to achieve the clean, soft, ethereal images from the shoot. She combined this with subtle use of a Video Light which enhanced the warm autumnal tones, showing off the beautiful touches perfectly. As both the Threshing and Dairy Barn are naturally light and airy spaces, Kelly achieved the desired result with minimal artificial light.

The shoot has so far been featured on The Natural Wedding Company and is due to be published in Your Sussex Wedding Magazine this Spring.

Suppliers

Venue – Southend Barns 

Styling – To Have and To Hire 

Photographer – Kelly Hearn Photography

Florist – The Wild Fox

Jewellery – Cred Jewellery

Hair & Makeup – ID Makeup, Hair and Beauty

Hair Pieces – Cherished

Dresses – Minna

Silk Ribbon – Kate Cullen

Cake – Tartufi

Niki Perry: Transform Now Yoga Launch

We got to work with our favourite yummy yogi Niki Perry on a very exciting PR project.

After years of planning, Sweaty Betty ambassador Niki finally realised her dream to launch her own yoga DVD ‘Transform Now’. The DVD and online downloads feature a series of videos to inspire people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to discover the transformational benefits of yoga. Encouraged by her yoga student and long-time friend Kate Winslet, Niki hosted a super glam PR launch at Grace Belgravia in London supported by a media campaign managed by BrightWord.

With Niki’s infectious enthusiasm and passion we knew her DVD was going to be a huge hit with media and have already seen coverage in Grazia, Good Housekeeping and Hello! Based here in Chichester, West Sussex we have also secured local PR for Niki in titles including Sussex Life, Etc Magazine and Inside Sussex to name just a few!