Background
As one of our key clients, over the years, we have supported the Storage Equipment Manufacturers Association (SEMA) with their branding, advertising, copywriting, social media management, blog content, and media coverage. Our PR and communications work aims to strengthen their voice within the industry, raising awareness of their vital role in racking safety and warehouse storage systems across the UK.
In 2024, we boosted their LinkedIn follower growth by an impressive 50% and increased their monthly average engagement by 20%, showing the real impact of our strategy. We know the value of their mission inside out, and everything we do is about helping them deliver a strong, consistent message that pushes their influence and reach.
Target Audience
This campaign is targeted at warehouse owners, site managers, and duty holders responsible for workplace safety and compliance within the manufacturing, logistics, and construction sectors. These are the people making the day-to-day decisions in the warehouse, often under pressure and juggling a hundred different things at once. Racking safety isn’t always top of their list, and that’s exactly the problem.
They’re doing their best to keep operations running smoothly while keeping up with ever-changing regulations and demands. However, without the right reminders or guidance, it’s easy for them to overlook key responsibilities, especially when it comes to something as hidden-in-plain-sight as racking.
Client Challenge
Manufacturing, logistics, and construction regularly rank among the UK’s most dangerous industries to work in. Walk into any warehouse and it’s obvious why: constant vehicle and foot traffic, trip hazards, poor manual handling practices, and towering racking systems stacked with hundreds of tonnes of stock looming above workers’ heads. The potential for serious incidents such as falls from height, falling stock, or even collapsed racking is always present.
Yet too many warehouse owners are unaware of the legal responsibilities they hold in regard to storage equipment such as industrial shelving and racking. Poor practice can lead to serious injuries, or worse, fatalities, triggering full-scale HSE investigations and leaving both company finances and the Director’s liabilities exposed.
As a leading voice on storage equipment safety for over 50 years, SEMA knew they were in an ideal position to educate the logistics industry. As an association, SEMA already had a strong audience of racking suppliers, manufacturers, installers and inspectors but they weren’t directly talking to the warehouse owners and managers. SEMA asked Aura PR to develop a campaign which would highlight the risks associated with not taking the correct racking steps, capture end-user contacts within the logistics industry and develop a communication opportunity.
Agency Solution
After a deep dive with SEMA to fully understand what they wanted to achieve, we started out by researching other safety campaigns. This would help us to understand what had been done before, what worked and where we could do things differently to make a real impact.
Working closely with SEMA we developed a new campaign which would raise awareness among warehouse owners and managers about the serious risks associated with poor racking practices. Most importantly, it will equip warehouse owners and managers with the practical steps they need to keep employees safe and stay compliant.
Our next steps were to explore different titles, slogans, communication methods and required outcomes. We had to think hard about the kind of content that would cut through the noise and really land with our audience. What do we need to say? How do we say it? And just as importantly, what should it look like? There were a few drafts, chats, and more than a few strong coffees, but we eventually landed on a direction that felt right.
The result is the ‘Stay Racking Safe’ campaign, a bold, hard-hitting creative approach designed to speak directly to warehouse owners and site managers. The campaign has developed its own distinct brand which echoes the SEMA corporate style but also allows it to have its own unique position within the communications.
A significant shift was in the tone of voice we used for the campaign. Previous communications had mostly talked to those working within the racking and shelving industry and didn’t necessarily address the key concerns or ‘pain points’ felt by the owners of racking. We decided early on that the messaging for the campaign needed to be direct with no sugar-coating. It had to clearly show the real consequences of ignoring damaged or unsafe racking , injuries, legal trouble, or even fatalities.
The messaging will be delivered in three key phases over the year:
- Stay Racking Safe – this will use bold visuals with images of damaged racking supported by an explanation of the steps warehouse owners need to take.
- Don’t be like Dave – an animated video taking the viewer on the journey of Dave the warehouse owner who failed to get his racking repaired and is now in prison.
- Emotive – the final messaging will look at how incorrect and damaged racking can impact employees.
To support the campaign, we developed a free downloadable guide covering the 5 key steps to racking safety, hosted on a dedicated landing page with a simple form to access the resource.
