Wonderful Copenhagen Convention Bureau is one of five finalists nominated for the Best PR Award given by ICCA at the 52nd ICCA Congress in Shanghai this week. The Danish capital will be competing for the prize with competitors from Amsterdam, Glasgow, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul. The jury is made up of leading media representatives and professionals from the international meetings industry.
Despite its relatively small size, Copenhagen is one of the world’s most popular cities for international congresses. It is currently ranked No.8 in the latest list of the world’s most popular congress cities, published by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).
The newly established ICCA Best PR Award, which will be given out at the 52nd ICCA Congress on Sunday 3rd November, recognises exceptional PR performance by ICCA members. The five finalists have been selected from a list of 16 candidate cities by the editorial representatives of The International Meetings Review’s publishers, and ICCA’s PR staff who have carefully evaluated the PR coverage of various ICCA members over the course of the year.
The judges have been looking for strong story-telling; high-visibility coverage; brand consistency; PR reaction to a crisis; and PR that showcases success, covering both traditional print and web/social media channels.
Ulrika Mårtensson, Head of Communications – meetings & conventions at Wonderful Copenhagen Convention bureau, comments:
“Wonderful Copenhagen have worked strategically with our PR in the meetings and congress fields for more than ten years in close cooperation with the city’s meetings industry, public partners and VisitDenmark‘s Business Tourism Team. Copenhagen is a relatively small destination with a limited budget, but that has only served to make us more creative and focused. PR is an essential and cost-effective way to support and promote both sales and marketing activities, and so, of course, we are delighted that there are others who have recognised that our PR work has relevance and quality.”
Copenhagen’s core narratives
In recent years, Copenhagen has not only focused its efforts on reinforcing the basic elements of city’s appeal as a congress city – such as excellent infrastructure, low crime rate, selection of hotels and venues, together with an internationally renowned research and scientific environment within the medico, IT and cleantech industries – but also on building core narratives based on selected key competences, such as innovation, sustainability/CSR and high quality of life.
The narrative ‘innovation’, has primarily been built upon the Danish meeting design concept: Meetovation andMINDblowing Meetings.
The narravite ‘sustainability/CSR’ has under the headline of Copenhagen – Capital of Sustainable Meetings, shared the story on Copenhagen as a sustainable meetings destination. Primarily these stories have been based on a number of eco-certifications for both products and on a case basis, such as the UN Climate Change Conference with 30,000 participants, the Danish EU presidency, with more than 100 meetings, and the creation of ICCA’s Scandinavian Destination Sustainability Index.
Meanwhile, in terms of the ‘High quality of life’ the narrative has been supported by numerous international awards, such as a recent No.1 ranking on Monocle magazine’s Most Liveable City index, and by the Danes being regularly named the world’s happiest people latest by the United Nations. Ulrika Mårtensson says:
”Our PR activities, which are built upon our core narratives of innovation, sustainability and quality of life, have had an enormous international impact. Our calculations show that close to 100% of the media coverage we generate echoes these core narratives. The significant impact of this validates our promotional strategy of the city. Good PR should be true to ones’ product, otherwise your PR strategy will only have a limited lifespan.”
And continues:
“As a destination, you do not own the product which is why it is crucial that you select the right players to generate and disseminate the core narratives. This is where our well-established network, Meetingplace Wonderful Copenhagen – which includes the city’s 100 leading companies and organisations within the meetings industry – is both our foundation and our product, as well as the starting point for many of our great stories. Our cooperation with VisitDenmark’s Business Tourism Team, has also been a key element in communicating our stories so professionally and broadly on the international scene.”
The 2013 ICCA Best PR Award finalists are:
• Amsterdam RAI
• Glasgow City Marketing Bureau
• Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre
• Seoul Tourism Organisation
• Wonderful Copenhagen Convention Bureau
As well as the nomination for the PR Award, the Danish meeting design concept, MINDblowing Meetings, is also nominated for an ICCA award, The Best Marketing Award 2013, at the ICCA Congress in Shanghai.
In Copenhagen MINDblowing Meetings is used under the auspices of VisitDenmark, Wonderful Copenhagen and Meetingplace Wonderful Copenhagen, and is one of the core stories included in the innovative meetings city used in the city’s PR strategy.
