Press Releases - Swashbuckling summer holiday ideas

Well, I've sent out the following press release to 7 newspapers in the Worcestershire area - wonder if any of them will print :)


Are you looking for a new way to keep the children entertained this summer? And on a budget? Herefordshire based Treasure Trails has the perfect solution. They have created nearly 30 treasure hunt adventures in local towns and villages which will give you a fun and exciting day out, without the theme park price tag.
As every parent knows, finding six weeks of activities to keep everybody in the family entertained can be a challenge and getting them to do something in the outdoors that is healthy and educational at the same time sounds too good to be true! For just £5 a Treasure Trail will engage the whole family in solving an intriguing mystery and will show you a multitude of fascinating, historical and unusual things about your town that you probably wouldn’t have otherwise seen.
The Trails are completed in your own time and are Treasure Hunt, Murder Mystery and Spy Mission themed walks. An easy to follow route will take you to the most beautiful and interesting places in that area and answers to the clues are located on existing monuments and buildings. Gary Lineker is just one of the growing host of fans, having had lots of fun with his then fiancée Danielle on a Treasure Trail around Armagh last year.
Dawn Thomas and her family recently completed a Treasure Trail and said ‘What a great idea! We saw so much more of the city than if we had just wandered around aimlessly. It was a great (and cheap!) way to get the family to visit somewhere new and have fun whilst learning a bit of history. Thanks, I’ll be buying more for our holiday in August.’
David and Amanda Ingham started Treasure Trails Herefordshire & Worcestershire in 2008 with the aim of getting local people and visitors to see and learn more about the area. David said ‘We all know that British summertime weather can be a bit unpredictable but walking, exploring and solving clues is just as much fun in the sunshine as in the rain! Treasure Trails are a great activity for the whole family to complete together as children, parents and grandparents can all get involved in finding and solving our exciting, innovative and fun mysteries.’
So if you are stuck for something to do this summer, whether at home or on holiday, for just £5 for your group a Treasure Trail will help the whole family explore and learn on an exciting adventure.
Go to www.treasuretrails.co.uk to find out more and to download a free activity sheet for your children.

Its gone to :
Worcester News
Kidderminster Shuttle
Bromsgrove Advertiser
Stourport Town website
Ludlow and Tenbury Wells Advertiser
Malvern Gazette
Redditch Advertiser

TREASURE TRAILS SET TO ENJOY SOME MUSIC

Treasure Trails Herefordshire and Worcestershire will be in Droitwich Spa High Street from 10 to 5 on Saturday, 10th July enjoying the programme of music and selling Trails! The live music ranges from a folk /country trio called Bric a Brac, through a classical violinist, Shulah Oliver, Matt Sinton a singer, Catch 23 a covers band and JT an acoustic covers singer. It finishes at 4.00 with Stomping on Spiders - so there is something for everyone!

We just hope they don't all drown out our sales patter!

Anyway, the Droitwich Spa Treasure Trail is a wonderful way to see the town in all its Music Festival glory and we are looking forward to introducing more people to Treasure Trails through the Festival.

The Sunday Times

This is what the Sunday Times said this week as part of their 50 best summer days out article

20. Treasure trails, Norfolk
The brief is this: a flask of extremely powerful sleeping gas has been unearthed during construction work in Bircham. Unless the deactivation code is found, the toxin will be released, plunging the whole of Norfolk into a deep sleep. (Will anyone notice?) Your mission is to use your bike to find the clues and save the county. It’s terrific fun, and just one of hundreds of similarly offbeat adventures — on foot, by bike, in the car and even by boat — offered around the country by Treasure Trails (01872 263692, treasuretrails.co.uk). You pick your county, pick an adventure, pay a fiver and download the mission brief. Then, when you’ve completed the trail, you email the code word back to the company for the chance of winning up to a grand.

New Trails

We've now written two new Trails which we are really pleased with. One is a 3 mile walking or cycling Trail which runs along the river at Symonds Yat. The Facts: In around AD 900 the Viking Army of Eric, The Blood Axe, landed near Chepstow, crossed the Forest of Dean and set up base at Symonds Yat. The Fiction? An ancient map was discovered recently which may shed light on where Viking treasure is buried. Can you solve the clues to find the location of the Viking booty?

The Trail did really well at the Three Counties Show at the weekend and we sold lots of booklets. Wonder how many sales we missed out on by not writing it earlier!

On the other hand, we also launched a new Trail called Old Hereford at the show and we sold NONE of them.... and I thought Old Hereford would be a catchy name which would attract people to it! It is however, a lovely Trail through the old bits of Hereford and the back story is that many years ago, when rumours abounded that the Vikings were coming, the Herefordian monks collected up their most precious manuscripts and chalices and hid them in a place that has never been identified. Can you be the ones to unearth it?

Both Trails are in the Treasure Map format and to celebrate their launch, we will send one of each through email to the first 3 people to contact us by email to amanda@treasuretrails.co.uk and then await your feedback to see which one you like best.... bearing in mind that David wrote one of them and Amanda wrote the other and regular readers of this blog will know how competitive we are!

New Website, New Trails, New Licensees

There is so much that has been happening that its difficult to know where to start!

New Website
We have a brand new website which is fresh and exciting and hopefully more logical for the customers than the old one. The website has the same address as before www.treasuretrails.co.uk but is far better optimised and has more functionality. We are delighted with it. However, its an ongoing item on the to do list because we've learnt that its no good leaving it to lie fallow now, but we need to constantly add and refresh the pages to ensure it stays high up in Google's ratings and rankings!

Marketing the business

There is so much to be done in marketing the business and so many ideas to choose from its hard to know where to start!

I went on a course run by Business Link called How To Get Results from your Marketing, Easily! It was run by Rob Lowell of Sales and Marketing Ideas Ltd & it was great - there are as I said, lots of ideas! Translating them into actions is harder and actions that are cost effective or have the ability to be measured and so work out the return on investment is difficult to! Finding the time is proving tough to even do the simplest of things! Take this blog for instance. Its been weeks since I did an entry and I've also been asked to provide a guest blog for a local BnB which is fab news, but what do I say and when do I get around to doing it and how will I know that its been a good use of my time!

I haven't even followed up the leads of great people I met on the course.....so FOCUS is the key I think and therefore this afternoon I am going to:

1. Write a press release about our two new Trails due to be launched at the Three Counties.
2. Follow up on the leads I picked up at the Marketing Course.
3. Write that guest blog
4. Empty my email inbox!

But first..... LUNCH! Or perhaps a quick peek in Twitter.... I have now have 671 followers and the latest tweet I wrote said "Best Hereford things on a sunny day? 1. Walk around a pretty market town. 2. Enjoy a cider in the sunshine. 3. Do a Treasure Trail"

Twitter Press Release

I can't believe it really - I sent in a press release to the Hereford Times, way back at the beginning of March and it was printed at the end of April - just shows that they do keep things tucked away for when there is a space! Anyway, here it is!