Lower Wexley Water · Crisis communications · 2024
Saying nothing, beautifully
When a reservoir turned slightly orange, Marty wrote a 400-word statement that contained no information at all. The story ran for one day fewer than expected.
- Client
- Lower Wexley Water
- Sector
- Utilities
- Duration
- 72 hours
- Team
- Marty, with Malcom on the phone
The challenge
One of Lower Wexley Water's reservoirs turned slightly orange on a bank holiday weekend. Local journalists were calling and the client's own press office had already said “we are looking into it”, which Marty considers a confession.
The idea
Marty's view is that you never comment, you contextualise. The aim was not to explain the orange. The aim was to produce something so long and so calm that no journalist could find a sentence in it worth quoting.
What we did
Marty wrote a 400-word statement over a long lunch. It used the words “journey”, “learnings” and “orange-adjacent”, and contained no facts. It was issued at 4.55pm on the Friday. Malcom was consulted by phone and said it was right, then that he had always said it was right.
Results
2
days the story ran, against an expected 3
33%
improvement, as Marty puts it
0
journalists who understood the statement
Highly Commended, Crisis Communications. Bighead Awards 2024.
The client
“Marty took a very simple situation and made it impossible to report on. We've never been more grateful.”
More work
The lid
How Bighead spent fourteen months and £1.2m rebranding a 140-year-old mustard, and changed the lid to a slightly lighter yellow.
The launch nobody saw
Bighead launched a new pink gin to the right people. The right people were on Perry's yacht. Attendance was four. Social reach was zero.
Purpose, found
Malcom spent six months finding a purpose for a building society founded to help people save. He found one. It was helping people save.
The client, the people and the results in this case study are fictional. Bighead is a parody agency.