FleishmanHillard worked with the Forum on the Africa meeting in both 2013 and 2015, focusing on reputation development and awareness through media results.
In 2015, World Economic Forum celebrated its 25th forum on Africa and saw a record number of participants for an Africa meeting– in total over 1,250 people from more than 75 countries and 600 organisations. Media relations, televised sessions, registration, press conferences, reporting, opinion pieces and the media centre were core responsibilities of the FleishmanHillard team and the challenge was to grow media coverage from the Cape Town hosted event in 2013.
Understanding the local and broader African media landscape meant the team was positioned to consult to WEF as to which media houses,
as well as specific journalists and editors, should be invited to attend the event.
Given the limited number of media badges available, and the interest from media, being able to identify high priority media and securing registration to drive quality media coverage was vital. The FleishmanHillard team researched and provided consultation on the 350 media personal registered across local and international broadcast, online and print media.
In addition in the months prior to the event, the FleishmanHillard team provided a weekly report issues report within the South Africa market related to general news and politics, as well as business and economics. The report assisted the Forum’s executive team in understanding local issues, and provided insight as to what press conferences and information would be relevant to the media during the Forum, based on what was currently newsworthy.
The FleishmanHillard team consulted on venue, timing and government attendees for the pre-Forum press conference for which over 50 media registered. On the day the FleishmanHillard team facilitated the conference set-up, media attendance and interview requests.
During the three day event, the on-the-ground FleishmanHillard team assisted with media registration, onsite registration requests and background check information. The team facilitated all press conferences, driving media to attend and securing post conference interviews.
