Driving in certain towns inevitably involves a lot of roundabouts.

EYE has been taking more interest in roundabouts since we carried the happy story of how Beadnell Copley estate agents in Harrogate found that they had sponsored a roundabout chosen by the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society to adorn the July page of next year’s calendar.

In Bracknell, Berkshire, the other day we were interested to see that the roundabouts all seem to be sponsored by Romans. And since there’s a roundabout every few seconds, that’s probably very good exposure for them.

But how can agents maximise their relationships with roundabouts – if, indeed, that is the route they choose to go?

We asked PR man Jerry Lyons, who was actually given the task of publicising an estate agent’s sponsorship of a roundabout earlier this year.

He said: “An agent whacking their logo on signs in the middle of a roundabout doesn’t fall into the Stop Press category.

“However, with a little bit of playful thought and by not taking the subject or ourselves too seriously we managed to get some local media coverage.

“Rather than send out a news release along the lines of … Such and Such is delighted to announce its sponsorship, we went for a different angle as shown below.”

Local ‘Landmark’ for Sale

Would you love a central Watford location with clear 360 degree views?

How about being a 10 minute walk from a Premier League football ground?

What about the convenience of being a short stroll from the town centre with the Town Hall a stone’s throw away? (Or a brick depending on your view of politicians.)

Well the bad news is it’s already been bought. The good news is we bought it.

Last week saw our investment in Watford increase even more. We bought the sponsorship rights to the town’s busiest roundabout. Look out for the Claytons signs.

Why did we do it? Well, there’s a very important community aspect to this. Part of the money we invested goes back to providing local services for local people.

From a business perspective it made great sense to raise our profile even higher. Our vendors already benefit from instructing a well known agent, meaning their properties get even more attention from potential buyers.

Lyons added: “I’m trying to cajole the agent into sponsoring a local playground as then we can do something along the lines of ‘swings and roundabouts’.

“In all seriousness, though, sponsoring roundabouts is usually a pretty good profile-raising exercise, as long as the numbers add up for you.

“The golden rule when trying to publicise something your agency has done is to think why would the reader want to know about this? What’s in it for them?

“If you can answer those questions in a creative, interesting and informative way, you are heading in the right direction.”