CORPORATE AFFAIRS

SITUATION:

The Economist Event’s Future Cities 2012 and Nigeria Summit 2013 are part of a global series of conferences which bring governments and industry leaders together to discuss how enlightened policies and new technologies and strategies can combine to drive development. At the Future Cities conference, held in Eko Hotel & Suites, the people managing, designing, building and financing the world’s most innovative cities gathered to exchange ideas on their novel approaches towards urban planning, infrastructure development and investment. At the Nigerian Summit, then President Goodluck Jonathan led a host of other world leaders, investors and financial experts to discuss opportunities for development.

 

TASK:

C&F Porter Novelli was engaged by Economist Events to develop an integral media strategy that would generate exposure for the summits, and its sponsors, and get the broadest possible media coverage in international and local media.

 

APPROACH:

Prior to the summits, a press conference was held to enlighten the relevant members of both local and international media and to create awareness for the summits. Pre-summit press releases were distributed to a total of 20 journalists and commentators. Other activities included distribution of media invitations to key media highlighting the availability of sponsor’s and Economist Events’ representatives for one-on-one interviews.

The cooperation of social media commentators, with large followership was enlisted. Using the official hash tags such as #AfricaCities and #NigeriaSummit, they created online conversations around the summits before, during and after the event.

On-site management of the press during the summits involved press registration, handling of enquiries, and managing entry into open sessions to facilitate coverage of the summit. Media interviews with the Economist Group representatives and speakers were also secured and moderated to provide more insight on the concept behind the summit. Post event press releases including photographs were also pitched to these media.

 

RESULT:

The conferences enjoyed adequate media support with nearly 60 journalists covering the summits.
A high volume of reportage was recorded across all media – print, online, TV and radio.
Over 100 news, features and photo mentions were recorded in local and international media for the summits.
At the Future Cities summit, a total of 1,383 tweets were recorded from 320 contributors; reaching 178,437 accounts and generating 2,773,600 impressions.