Coordinating over 40 events, 60 different organisations, three large mental health organisations, a giant film clapper board (sourced by the lovely Sam) and a well known celebrity seemed like a fairly challenging ‘See Me’ brief to say the least! Welcome to the launch of the first Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival.

The ‘See Me’ PR team was tasked with organising the launch of the Festival at the Grosvenor Cinema, Ashton Lane, Glasgow and pulling together press materials to communicate diverse key messages to the general public (via the national and regional media) to help promote positive attitudes towards mental ill health.The last minute confirmation of Scottish favourite Gail Porter to launch the Festival was a pleasant surprise and almost certainly guaranteed us national print and broadcast coverage for the launch. However, not wanting to rest on our laurels and to avoid the inevitable media ‘bun fight’ we organised a very strict schedule of pre-booked media interviews for Gail and sent our media launch expert Rebecca Charles along to fight off the media scrum.Getting the right picture was also key to making headlines in the national press so we selected well known photographer Tony Marsh to capture the essence of the Festival. Without a ‘Diva’ tendency in sight Gail Porter was an absolute star on the day and posed for numerous headline grabbing shots, which really sold the story to the press. The launch generated widespread national and regional broadcast and print media and is a great example of ‘the right celebrity, at the right launch, at the right time’. Also Rebecca is now bezzy mates with Gail and her lovely daughter honey . . . and who said PR was all about schmoozing with the celebs?