Investment trusts had been perceived as old-fashioned and out-dated. Under the initiative of a new director general, the trade body for investment trusts, the Association of Investment Trust Companies (AITC), decided to rebrand the product as a mainstream vehicle for private clients' long-term investment.

To demystify and to relaunch investment trusts as the 'its' investment trusts brand, emphasising them as a cost-effective and diversified way to invest in the stock market.

To support AITC's proposal to raise a marketing budget at a conference for directors of investment trust and to boost confidence within the industry.

In March 1999 the AITC held its first conference for all of its directors, attracting 320 board members. They were asked to provide funding for a comprehensive, long-term marketing drive, and £17.5 million was generated.

The intention behind the PR campaign was to build a foundation on which the long-term marketing campaign could be built, generating informative and positive discussion in the media.

Throughout August and September, City and personal finance editors were notified about the forthcoming campaign. Then, in October the brand was officially launched in the nationals and members of the press were invited to a film preview of East is East, with the 'its' TV advertisement being screened before and after the film.

The AITC commissioned evaluation, research and planning agency Metrica in autumn 1999 to undertake the analysis of its editorial coverage. Metrica initially produced a benchmark report covering press coverage for the whole of 1999. This was then followed by ongoing quarterly evaluation reports.

The main objectives the AITC wanted to achieve from the media analysis were:

• To demonstrate the effectiveness of the PR contribution
• To plan for the future and improve results for the second phase in year 2 of the campaign

The analysis showed that since measurement started in January 1999, the AITC's campaign has produced a steadily growing level of coverage, and importantly, an increasing number of strongly favourable articles.

Interest in national, trade and consumer press strengthened particularly in the second half of 2000, raising investment trusts' media profile among a wider audience.

Throughout 1999, AITC coverage reached 80% of the target audience - ABC1s aged 25-65+ - increasing to 87% in 2000. This ensured that a high proportion of people were exposed to the campaign messages and objectives.

Moreover, Metrica's reach and frequency system helped the AITC identify areas of wasted media targeting and areas of good targeting. As such, AITC coverage consistently reached more people within its target group than within the whole UK population.

The role of the AITC was also positively reflected by strong delivery of the message ‘useful, effective, proactive voice of the industry’ during the latter half of 1999 and throughout 2000.

The message ‘uses of investment trusts’ experienced improved delivery in the latter half of 2000, reaching 78% of the target audience between October and December.

Most importantly the campaign was one of the reasons contributing to retail sales of investment trust ISAs and saving schemes more than doubling during 2000.