How PR took UNLEASH to the next level

UNLEASH wanted to increase its brand identity and raise awareness about UNLEASH America 2023 with its target audience by building and executing on a public relations campaign that would get top-tier media outlets to attend and cover the event. But the company knew it needed a new PR strategy – and a new PR agency – to get the media coverage it deserved.

The company’s primary target audience is professionals who are working at enterprise-scale businesses and organizations around the world. Most of those individuals are in human resources (HR) leadership positions or on a fast track to such posts. UNLEASH’s target audience also includes leaders from finance, IT, or operations, depending on the scale and makeup of their businesses. What everyone in this target audience has in common is their current work or desire to drive digital transformation in the HR function of their operations and very time-restricted schedules. These people look to UNLEASH to help them discover the latest trends and emerging concepts to help them navigate workforce transformation in the 4^th industrial age.

UNLEASH’s secondary audience consists of suppliers to this primary target audience. This group is comprised of vendors whose tools and technologies companies use to drive change. These brands leverage UNLEASH events as a marketplace and a space to present themselves as thought leaders. UNLEASH’s key contacts at these vendors are focused on product sales and marketing. But UNLEASH also wants to engage the vendors’ business leaders so they understand that UNLEASH is their best route to market and a position of authority in the HR tech space.

From a media perspective, UNLEASH was looking to engage with a mix of business and technology reporters at major broadcast, digital and print media in the European Union, the U.K. and the U.S. For example, the company had identified such media outlets as Financial Times, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Inc., TechCrunch and 99U. UNLEASH research showed senior visitors to UNLEASH America look to such top-tier media for business-critical information.

So, UNLEASH set out to find a new PR agency to build a successful PR campaign to:

• Get more journalists to attend its events and earn high satisfaction ratings from those journalists
• attract international press coverage in tier-1 publications
• streamline communications
• prepare comments and insights from the CEO in advance
• identify and engage with influencers to help the UNLEASH community grow

The PR plan template also included these key performance indicators (KPIs): 15 media on-site, 15 pieces of coverage about UNLEASH America, two press releases and one executive byline.

A journalist recommended Bospar as a potential PR partner. Following the UNLEASH formal RFP process, Bospar won the business to promote UNLEASH America 2023. But timing was tight.

To ensure PR deliverables would be met within the month-and-a-half runway, Bospar created a PR strategy that detailed what needed to be done when. The four-person PR account team from Bospar connected weekly with UNLEASH to ensure that the PR efforts remained on track.

Bospar did advance outreach to invite top-tier business and tech journalists and industry professionals to attend UNLEASH America. To sweeten the deal, they offered to provide reporters from these media outlets with complimentary lodging if they RSVP’d by a set date.

The Bospar team also did pre-event calls with UNLEASH thought leaders and event speakers to gather poignant insights. Bospar then used those insights to secure advance and on-site media interviews, create quotes for newsjacking, and develop press releases and an executive byline.

And a Bospar representative coordinated on-site media for both days of UNLEASH America.