The Win
Sometimes first-runner-ups get a chance to take center stage, which is what happened when The MWW Group was selected in September to handle media relations for the 1999 National Conference on Women and HIV/AIDS.
Initially, the Los Angeles City AIDS coordinator's office chose a New Jersey agency to handle the conference management and media relations assignments for the show. The agency was in over its head and hadn't done any PR for the conference by the time the city coordinator contacted MWW. With less than a month to plan and execute a national media relations effort, MWW salvaged a potentially disastrous situation with eleventh-hour PR strategies that focused on telling compelling stories about women with AIDS.
The conference landed high-profile media coverage from international, national and minority news organizations and drew more than 2,000 attendees.
The media relations budget was $100,000.
Main Competition
MWW's main competition was the New Jersey agency that handled the conference management assignment.
Pitch Team
Fred MacFarlane, director of PR; Robb Rice, VP and director of public affairs; Carlos Valdez, account coordinator; Larry Barrios, account executive; Harvey Englander, general manager; Carla Brock (Chicago office) and Charlotte Ostor (New Jersey office).
Assignment
Last year, the city issued a request for proposals for the conference assignment.
Agency requirements included conference management expertise and strong media relations skills, particularly in the AIDS arena. The agency also needed experience with promoting women's health issues. The conference was expected to attract the largest gathering of women with AIDS in the country.
The PR support also needed to address the diverse audiences the conference targeted, including consumers, providers, pharmaceutical companies and researchers.
Homework
MWW raced against the clock to develop media materials and pitching strategies. When they got the assignment, they had to create a media plan from scratch - the other agency hadn't developed a media kit or speaker profiles.
To make matters worse, there were two other major AIDS conferences that took place around the same time as the women's conference. To get the media's attention, MWW played up news hooks that emphasized the plight of women with AIDS.
Presentation
To put the conference on the media's radar screen, MWW pitched human-interest story angles that highlighted the disturbing trends of women with AIDS who are often married, monogamous and minorities.
Though these provided compelling personal vignettes, the media wanted hard statistics on women with AIDS. This was a barrier that could not be easily overcome, because the conference was not providing any new information about cutting-edge research and treatments.
In spite of this lack of hard news, MWW targeted 480 news organizations and landed major international and national press coverage. The agency has not yet measured the total media impressions the campaign generated.
Pitch Tips
Although MWW was initially passed over, the agency earned a solid PR reputation for being able to quickly jump in and get the job done among key Los Angeles government decision-makers.
The last-minute PR strategies that rescued the conference from media obscurity included:
- Developing compelling speaker profiles and using some of them as news hooks.
- Positioning the conference as one of the largest gatherings of women with AIDS - some of whom had never publicly admitted they had the disease.
- Targeting alternative lifestyle and minority publications. (AIDS disproportionately affects minority women.)
- Developing PR materials that supported multiple audiences, including consumers, providers and pharmaceutical organizations.
(The MWW Group, Los Angeles office, 213/486-6560; Los Angeles City Coordinator's office, Mary Lucey, 213/485-2957)
The MWW Group
Founded: 1986
Headquarters: East Rutherford, N.J. with offices in New York, Trenton, N.J. and Los Angeles
Revenues: $24 million
Healthcare Clients: Henry Medical Center, Genzyme Corp., American Medical Response
Web site: http://www.mwwpr.com