4 million take part in Big Lunch 2014

The Big Lunch, now in its sixth year, had around 4 million people taking part in street parties around the UK. Sponsors Halifax and Asda continue their amazing work in supporting the event and helping to spread the message to all corners of the country. The Big Lunch was set up in 2009 by visitor attraction and education charity The Eden Project as a simple but effective method of bringing communities together all round the UK with participation having grown from 700,000 in its first year to around 4 million in 2014.

PHAR has been working with The Big Lunch since 2011 and has helped deliver significant commercial revenues for the event through sponsorships with the likes of MasterCard, EDF Energy, Kingsmill, Carling, Asda and Halifax. The 2014 sponsors Halifax and Asda have both activated their partnership through in-store activity, staff engagement and social media.

Halifax’s mission was to make a real difference in high streets and neighbourhoods by giving extra back to those who give extra to their communities and used The Big Lunch as a platform to do so and to build trust and reputation as well as creating a sense of employee pride. Halifax had commissioned YouGov research to identify key issues regarding neighbourhoods and had used this insight (and a media partnership with Trinity Mirror Group and Bauer Media) to announce the partnership and to spread the important message of The Big Lunch. All of this great work led to Halifax and The Big Lunch winning the ‘Best Community Sponsorship’ at the Hollis Awards.

Asda promoted their association through their in-store Community Life Champions across the UK and linked the sponsorship of the event in with Tickled Pink, their breast cancer charities, to create Big Pink Lunches and helping people to take part. Asda also encouraged staff to take part by running competitions to win tickets to Eden Sessions concerts at Eden Project this summer.

PHAR continues to look for additional partners for the event for 2015 and beyond!