The ‘Conference cloud’ campaign was designed to encourage conference venues to offer free Wi-Fi. ABPCO achieved its goal by using content marketing, brand and PR activity
Campaign background
The ‘Conference cloud’ campaign was developed based on feedback from ABPCO’s PCO members, concerned about the costs incurred by delegates when using Wi-Fi to interact at conferences. ABPCO believed that UK conference venues could no longer look to charge delegates for accessing Wi-Fi networks if they wanted to stay competitive and deliver a quality delegate experience. It was time to get venues and PCOs talking to work on how to deliver free Wi-Fi for conference delegates.
What was the aim of the campaign?
1. To raise awareness of the importance of offering free delegate Wi-Fi among:
- UK conference venues.
- PCOs and event organisers.
2. To gain the support of individuals via an online petition.
3. To create a list of venues offering free Wi-Fi to conference delegates across the UK to assist event planners.
4. To encourage large conference venues, such as convention centres, to support the campaign by offering free Wi-Fi.
Why did you decide to use Mexia?
We currently work with Mexia on a retained basis for all PR activities, and we had no hesitations on sticking with them for the ‘Conference cloud’ project as they have consistently achieved above and beyond expectations.
Mexia are equipped with an in depth knowledge of the business and associated trade press and have a large number of existing relationships with key contacts. It was also very important to us that Mexia has an in depth knowledge and relationships with many of the ABPCO members.
What activities did Mexia undertake?
Mexia didn’t just execute the ‘Cloud campaign’, they championed it. They were only able to do this by spending time understanding our industry and the complexities of the debate. The campaign has had a huge impact on the industry as a whole and certainly achieved what we hoped in terms of a dialogue with venues and free Wi-Fi. ‘Conference cloud’ has engaged the entire meetings industry in a productive debate and is deserving of recognition for this. So much work was put in to make this a success, from brand development to website content, video and an engaging industry debate in addition to a steady stream of press releases and media coverage. Mexia developed a pro-active social media presence, engaging the whole industry in our campaign and even produced a Wi-Fi check list for PCOs following our discussions with venues at the Twickenham debate.
What were the key achievements?
In the initial six month period Mexia had achieved over fifty articles in print and online media. The calculated advertising equivalent value of the PR coverage achieved by the campaign was almost £500,000 worth of exposure, which represents a huge ROI for ABPCO.
In terms of the campaign itself, to date we have almost 200 venue sites committed to offering free Wi-Fi to conference delegates, including two major convention centres.
What were the key challenges and how were they dealt with?
Budgetary constraints were a big consideration and so ABPCO secured some sponsorship in kind through additional services. We had made the decision along with Mexia for the campaign to have a viral approach and hence did not opt for sponsorship or put on any barrier to joining by charging a fee to venues. Mexia and ABPCO recruited assistance from a number of partners, including Mexia’s video and photography partner Allan Staley also provided services to create images and a video clip at the debate which was used in social media activity and at ABPCO’s annual conference to update members on the campaign.
We were aware that venues may perceive the campaign as a negative attempt to limit their revenue opportunities. Round table discussions and debates were carried out, the results of which were covered by trade press thanks to Mexia’s focus and attention to detail. It was decided that PCOs were increasingly under pressure from clients to include Wi-Fi as part of a conference proposal and so there was a genuine need to develop dialogue with a view to addressing key issues. Mexia also developed the campaign name of ‘Conference cloud’ with the view of creating a positive message rather than campaigning as ‘anti-venue’.
Kursha Woodgate, Mexia MD, added: “When ABPCO members raised concerns over the issue of free Wi-Fi, we got excited about the possibility of a passionate campaign that could really change perceptions. We are delighted to have had the opportunity to work with ABPCO in engendering real change across the industry and can even see the effects of our efforts on an international scale.”
Mexia Communications was recently awarded Gold in the prestigious MIMA Awards (Meetings Industry Marketing Award) for its work on the ABPCO ‘Conference cloud’ campaign.
