Crowned the winner of the 2014 ICCA Best PR Award, Wonderful Copenhagen CVB gets to take home the title and the honor in front of German Convention Bureau, Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company and Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau. The winner of the ICCA Best PR Award was announced at the 53rd ICCA Congress in Antalya, Turkey this afternoon.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Copenhagen is a popular meetings destination, featured for decades in the top-20 on International Congress and Convention Association’s (ICCA) list of World’s Most Popular Convention Cities.
The city has reached its current position thanks to targeted efforts within both marketing, sales and PR that highlight its excellences.
Today, Wonderful Copenhagen CVB has been selected the winner of the honorable ICCA Best PR Award among ICCA’s 1,051 members.
The judging panel was comprised of editorial representatives from The International Meetings Review’s publishers and ICCA’s PR staff. The judges evaluated the PR activities and coverage of ICCA members over the course of the year and ultimately chose Wonderful Copenhagen CVB as the winner among the selected four finalists for 2014 ICCA Best PR Award.
Wonderful Copenhagen CVB fulfilled the judges’ criteria – 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:
“To us, PR is an essential and cost-effective way of supporting and boosting sales and marketing activities, and I hope that we can inspire others in the industry to work more strategically with PR. It can really do magic to support you marketing and sales activities. I am very happy to receive the award and especially grateful to the ICCA fora. With this award, ICCA puts the spotlight on the importance of the PR discipline.”
She continues:
“Copenhagen has an excellent meetings infrastructure. The city is easy to access, simple to navigate, and the selection of hotels, venues, entertainment and opportunities outside the meetings room are extensive. But this infrastructure can also be found in other meetings destinations around the world. To stand out, we have built our PR activities around three core narratives: innovation, sustainability and high quality of life, embracing the stories we want to communicate about Copenhagen. We have done so with great success: Close to 100% of the media coverage we generate echoes these core narratives. The significant impact of this validates our promotional strategy.”
Copenhagen’s core narratives
Apart from the city’s meetings infrastructure, Copenhagen’s superiorities as a meetings destination all tie in to the fields of innovation, sustainability/CSR and high quality of life.
The narratives of Copenhagen as a sustainable and innovative city with high quality of life are used throughout Wonderful Copenhagen CVB’s PR efforts.
The three narratives can be told separately, but are closely intertwined:
Innovation: Copenhagen is ranked one of the world’s most innovative cities and is a knowledge hub with an abundance of universities, students and scientists. Clean tech, IT and life science are just some of the key competences. The meetings design concept Meetovation, founded by VisitDenmark and unfolded with Wonderful Copenhagen CVB and the city’s meetings industry, aims to create a better learning outcome and ROI by using innovative elements and techniques.
Sustainability/CSR: Copenhagen has a strong, green and environmentally friendly profile. With a long track record of sustainable meetings management, the Danish capital has earned the nickname Capital of Sustainable Meetings. Copenhagen is also a frontrunner within CSR in general.
High Quality of Life: The Danes are known as the happiest people in the world – In part due to a favorable work life balance, sustainable green growth, high levels of tolerance and a peaceful democracy all underlined by international rankings. The Copenhageners hold a world record in consumption of organic food, and the city is home to the New Nordic cuisine and 15 Michelin-starred restaurants.
#BeeSustain
An example of a PR activity where all three key narratives are present is the #BeeSustain-initiative launched by Wonderful Copenhagen with support from VisitDenmark and the Danish meetings industry for IMEX Frankfurt 2014.
In the #BeeSustain initiative, Copenhagen, the Capital of Sustainable Meetings, share the legacy of the city’s and meetings industry’s sustainable actions and invite meeting professionals around the globe to do likewise in order to make the world a better place.
Last week, Wonderful Copenhagen CVB hosted a #BeeSustain press trip with 3 international MICE reporters, who tweeted their way through sustainable and organic food and venues, including a visit to the biodynamic farm Thorshoejgaard just north of Copenhagen.
The #BeeSustain initiative was also one of three finalists for ICCA Best Marketing Award.
