The Law Society has launched a repeat of last year’s nationwide drive to promote solicitors in an advertising campaign that began this week.

Adverts will run in more than 450 railway stations and on more than 40 buses, as well as in the national press and at televised cricket matches.

The Society has doubled last year’s £211,000 spend to £422,000, but said it has created four times as many opportunities to view the advertisements.

The 2010 campaign will be a rerun of last year’s Beatles-themed posters, with the strapline, ‘Help, I need somebody’. The posters will identify situations in which people need help from qualified solicitors and direct them towards the Law Society’s website to find a relevant professional.

The Law Society has produced promotional materials which it will distribute free of charge to the profession, enabling solicitors to use the campaign to promote their own businesses. Last year, solicitors ordered more than 750,000 items.

Members of the Law Society’s PR team will be providing template press releases and offering advice to solicitors on how to maximise their press exposure and deal with media interviews during the campaign.

Law Society chief executive Des Hudson said: ‘Promotion of the brand of solicitor has been identified as a priority for the national Law Society by the profession… last year’s campaign was extremely successful. With a £211,000 budget we secured £428,000 of advertising space. In addition we secured PR worth £723,000 [and] more than 100 million opportunities to see… Each opportunity to see costs around one-third of a penny.’

A spokeswoman added that £821 of internet search advertising had led to the advert appearing in 384,000 searches on the first day of the campaign, with 1,400 click-throughs to the Law Society’s website and its ‘find a solicitor’ facility.