Engagement Global
- PR and marketing concept for the ‘Kommune bewegt Welt’ competition
- Active approach to the target media
- Audience award
- Agreeing media co-operations
- Telephone canvassing
- Information materials
- Ad management
Consulting and concept development
Recruiting campaign and improvement of local presence
Task:
Creation of a strategic PR and marketing concept to raise awareness of the competition among the target group in the short and long term. Engagement Global honours municipalities and their civil society partners that are committed to development policy with ‘Kommune bewegt Welt’. The unique selling point of the competition is challenging in terms of communication: it is not individual projects that are honoured, but structural measures.
Realisation:
Based on an analysis of the initial situation and the target group and their media behaviour, DIE PR-BERATER developed a comprehensive PR and marketing concept. To this end, we evaluated the existing measures in terms of success, efficiency and previous implementation and made corresponding suggestions for improvement. In particular, these related to classic press relations, the basic design and media placements. In addition, we developed further measures such as the introduction of an audience award in the form of an online vote.
The end result was a concept that modernised the entire communication of the competition and included a catalogue of measures for short-term awareness and long-term loyalty to the competition.
Press and media relations
Actively addressing the target media
Task:
Regular placement of ‘Kommune bewegt Welt’ in the specialised media along the key points of the competition.
Realisation:
First of all, DIE PR-BERATER identified the specialist and consumer media that were important for the target group and the appropriate editors there. We prepared press releases for all important events in the competition - such as the start and end of the application phase, the start of online voting for the audience award or the award ceremony. We not only sent these out via the mailing list, but also actively approached the selected editorial offices. This approach enabled us to increase the number of publications from three reports in the previous edition of the competition to around 25.
In addition to our own press work, we provided the participating municipalities with templates for press releases on various occasions during the competition and for the award ceremony. The number of publications in the local media about Kommune bewegt Welt increased more than tenfold from six to 84. We thus significantly improved awareness of the competition in the target press and created a basis for future editions of the competition.
Website development
Audience Award
Task:
Create occasions for reporting on Kommune bewegt Welt between the application period and the award ceremony.
Realisation:
DIE PR-BERATER designed an audience award, the winner of which was determined by the public via an online vote. For the vote, we built a separate landing page with the Lamapoll survey tool, on which we depicted all participating municipalities with a picture and short text.
Due to the public nature of the audience award, this became a topic for the local press and social media. We provided the participants with templates for the press and social media at the beginning and end of the Audience Award so that they could promote themselves in their communities. Generating attention for their own development policy is the most important reason for municipalities to take part in the competition.
A very good total of 4,242 people took part in the vote. At least 52 articles about the Audience Award were published in the local media. Particularly important: unlike in previous editions of the competition, we placed articles about the Audience Award and the Kommune bewegt Welt templates in the local media of all participating municipalities, not just in those of the winning municipalities.
[With the publicly effective Audience Award, we created a very successful and efficient measure to increase awareness of the competition and fill the gap between the application period and the award ceremony.
Media cooperation
Agreeing media co-operations
Task:
Selection, negotiation and coordination of suitable media co-operations for the competition Kommune bewegt Welt.
Realisation:
The competition honours both municipalities and their civil society partners in development policy. In line with these two target groups, DIE PR-BERATER selected two specialised media for local government as well as two consumer media in the field of development cooperation for the media cooperation.
The co-operation with the titles produced the desired results. The co-operation media reported on the competition more frequently than other media, allowed high discounts on media bookings and, as partners, enhanced the public perception of the competition.
Marketing
Telephone acquisition
Task:
Researching and approaching local authorities that are active in the field of development policy in order to reduce the basic effort and the individual counselling effort for the customer.
Realisation:
DIE PR-BERATER used various research methods to identify local authorities and the appropriate contact persons in the administration.
- [Manual research for signatories of thematically relevant resolutions, memberships in associations and organisations, alliances, cooperations, initiatives, etc.
- Talkwalker and Google alerts (monitoring for online media and Twitter using suitable trigger terms)
- Genios media database (database with past and current articles in print and online media)
- LinkedIn and Xing (search for contact persons with matching job titles, interests, groups)
- Contacting the 120 largest municipalities
The database created by the research was contacted by e-mail and telephone. A comprehensive interview guide served as orientation. We established a strategic and efficient acquisition process by using a ranking system to determine how likely the person making the enquiry was to participate and by setting fixed intervals for follow-up. The status quo of the database was maintained in real time and made transparent to the client via a cloud solution.
The client's targets were met in terms of quality and quantity. We were able to significantly increase the number of applications compared to the previous year and reduce the consulting costs for our client by a factor of six.
Marketing
Information material
Task:
Revision of existing information and marketing materials and mailings.
Realisation:
The linguistic analysis of the information and marketing materials and mailings revealed two aspects in need of improvement:
1) The approach had to be much more activating. In line with this, we designed the materials and mailings with a strong appealing character that motivated participation.
2) The information had to be prioritised and arranged according to the needs of the target group, not the competition organiser. For all texts in the application phase of the competition, we prioritised the benefits of participation for the municipalities. This meant that the key questions for employees in the municipalities were clearly answered right at the beginning:
- What characterises the competition?
- Who can apply?
- Why is it worth applying?
- How can I apply and by when?
Additional information, such as how long the competition has existed and what the organiser's aim is (to raise awareness of municipal development policy), was provided afterwards, as it only plays a secondary role for the target group.
Marketing
Advertisement management
Task:
Revision of the advertising strategy and selection of media, channels and advertising spaces.
Realisation:
In the first step, DIE PR-BERATER analysed the results of ad bookings from previous years and the media behaviour of the target groups in order to define which media forms are relevant for them. On this basis, we decided on a media mix of adverts in print, online, newsletters and on LinkedIn and Xing. Engagement Global had previously relied exclusively on print adverts.
In previous years, no data was collected on whether the adverts had an impact on the target groups. We therefore focussed on a broader mix of media and forms of advertising in order to gain insights for future campaigns. This paid off: The adverts in the newsletter and on social media in particular achieved very good click figures.
Picture credit winner team: Astrid Piethan