Falkirk Council & Leisure
Kelpies 10 PR Campaign

The Campaign Brief

Kelpies 10 was a one-off, spectacular cultural celebration held on 27 April 2024 to mark the 10th anniversary of Scotland’s iconic equine sculptures at Helix Park, Falkirk. A co-production by Falkirk Council and Scottish Canals, the event marked a decade since the international launch of The Kelpies in April 2014, following the park’s opening in September 2013. The Kelpies 10 event celebrated The Kelpies’ status as a globally recognised symbol of Scottish identity, agricultural heritage, and contemporary art.

This landmark event was intended to position The Kelpies not just as a static landmark but as a living cultural archive, brought to life through music, performance, and community participation.

Cunningly Good Group’s Approach

Partnership working was key to the success of Kelpies 10, collaborating with VisitScotland, EventScotland, Scottish Canals and Falkirk Council to make the event a success and to use it to leverage key messages:

Strategic Messaging:
- A celebration of Falkirk’s agricultural and industrial heritage with the involvement of Clydesdale horses across the country – the inspiration behind sculptor Andy Scott’s creation.
- Since the Kelpies were launched in 2014, Helix Park has welcomed over seven million visitors worldwide.
- The Kelpies play a huge role in contributing a £85 million tourism spend in the Falkirk region annually.
Practical Event Messaging:
- Kelpies 10 daytime – free activities and events planned during the day for all the family to enjoy
- Kelpies 10 evening – ticketed event featuring award winning Scottish artists The Red Hot Chilli Pipers; fast-rising star, Callum Beattie, and Rebecca Vasmant, an internationally acclaimed musical artist from Glasgow.

The Cunningly Good Results

We collaborated with VisitScotland, EventScotland to achieve national and international reach, resulting in 380 pieces of media coverage, 10.6 million views, and over 176,000 social media engagements. The event drew over 14,000 visitors in a single day, offering a rich tapestry of experiences reflective of Scotland’s past, present, and future.

The Kelpies 10 event media coverage was overwhelmingly positive, with all media seeing it as a positive celebration of the heritage of Falkirk via the involvement of the Clydesdale horses on the day. A photocall with the Press Association involving two of the Clydesdale horses received significant online coverage. One Press Association picture in particular of one of the Kelpies heads with the lone piper in the foreground was an iconic shot and was used in Scottish papers including The Herald and Press and Journal.

The photocall, held with Andy Scott at the end of March enabled some key interviews to take place exploring the history of the Kelpies, how they came to be and the impact they have had on the region of Falkirk and more widely in Scotland, resulting in some significant feature pieces. They have become known as a significant icon of Scotland, which was one of the messages reinforced by all the media coverage achieved.

Coverage was achieved in UK wide national press such as i newspaper, The Independent, The Times, The Metro. Through the Press Association, news about the event with images (from the photocall taken on the morning of Kelpies 10) was distributed to newsrooms across the British Isles and across the world. This lead to a significant amount of online coverage in regional titles across the UK such as the Barking and Dagenham News, North Wales Pioneer, Worcester News, Enfield and North London News, Jersey Evening Post and the Evening Standard, to name just a few!

Coverage was also achieved in publications with a high readership in the USA such as Scotland Magazine (100K readers in USA alone), The Scottish Banner (news publication for global Scots serving international communities). In addition, the Kelpies were also featured on BBC Radio Scotland at least five times and also available on the app BBC Sounds for overseas listeners. An article on the Kelpies also featured in the heritage section of The Scotsman website which has a large readership in America. The news also appeared on online service providers Yahoo and AOL, based in USA. We also had 12 travel influencers attend kelpies 10 sharing content from the day on their social media, who have a high following globally. 10% of Ian Black’s 1.4million followers on Instagram are in the USA.

Kelpies 10 demonstrated how Scotland’s perfect stage, its people, heritage, and environment, can be brought to life through a deeply local, yet globally resonant event. It has set a new benchmark for cultural celebration at one of the country’s most iconic landmarks.