Megan Redzia - 01/29/2024
Summary
New York Water Week, co-hosted by the City of New York in partnership with the Kingdom of The Netherlands, was created to encourage dialogue to address
solutions to global water crises, such as water scarcity, water pollution, floods, droughts, food production, and biodiversity. The Week’s events sought to build coalitions connecting the international conference audience attending the United Nations 2023 Water Conference, the first in 50 years, with the city of New York to generate action and inspire solutions for a sustainable planet.
Objective
Harnessing the unique expertise around water management that New York City and The Netherlands jointly possess, 3E PR was hired to:
- Drive interest and attendance at Water Week lectures, workshops, art displays, film screenings, excursions, and professional and cultural exchanges.
- Communicate the important role water plays in climate-related, geopolitical, and day-to-day issues.
- Reinforce the leadership role that The Netherlands plays in water management, flood mitigation, and its collaborative ability to partner with others in finding solutions to the world’s water problems.
Strategy
Via a combined strategy that leveraged 3E PR’s expertise in public relations, social media, and content creation, we sought to secure placements across print, digital, and broadcast outlets, as well as create dynamic website and social content to resonate with key audiences. These targets included cross-sectoral stakeholders across business, academia, government, local communities, non-profit organizations, scientists, NGOs, and youth.
Communications tactics included:
- Pitching local and national media via the creation and dissemination of media alerts, press releases, and customized, targeted pitches.
- Promote New York Water Week’s daily events, lectures, and programs.
- Manage the New York Water Week website, populating it with ongoing content.
- Direct and manage all social media related to New York Water Week across U.S. platforms and its Dutch counterparts; draft copy; manage video and photography; select final assets.
- Write a daily New York Water Week newsletter.
Results
Media Relations – 3E PR’s media relations effort resulted in a series of high-profile placements in addition to relationship building via meetings with influential national media. Highlights of placements included:
- NPR Radio, The Brian Lehrer Show – the LIVE segment featured interviews that included mentions of New York Water Week along with an explanation
of “why the Dutch” leadership and partnership with New York City is so significant. - Politico – editorial spotlighting Water Week’s keynote event at New York’s Morgan Library attended by New York City’s Mayor and the King of The Netherlands.
- NY1 – segment included mention and visuals of New York Water Week.
Additional placements included New York Daily News, MarketWatch, Associated Press, and others. Subsequent press interviews and meetings included reporters from The Wall Street Journal, CNN and The New York Times.
Using a common, industry-standard formula, the media placements generated a minimum of 821,281 impressions and had an estimated value of more than $300,000.
Web Traffic – 3E PR created content for the website leading up to New York Water Week, as well as for specific events throughout the week. Event content served as the source for a daily newsletter distributed to attendees and other target audience members to drive traffic to the website. It led to a 75% increase in website traffic and also resulted in a dwell time nearly one minute higher than the industry standard.
Social Media – An organic and paid social media campaign was implemented to promote New York Water Week. In one month, followers increased by more than 15% on all three platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and Instagram), and organic engagement increased on all platforms by more than 100%. Paid performance reached more than 270,000 people in the target audience and drove more than 600 visits to the New York Water Week website.
