Hidden City
Challenge
Four years after its successful debut event, Hidden City Philadelphia was ready to unveil its second festival – a six-week, weekends-only event featuring nine little-known historical sites around the city housing 10 art projects. Hidden City turned to Slice Communications for a public relations effort to attract interest in the far-flung sites and offbeat art.
Insight
Given the festival’s range of historic sites and newsworthy opportunities, Slice developed a public relations plan to engage all potential audiences.
To kickoff the festival, Slice selected the most physically impressive festival site for the initial press conference. The Athenaeum, a private library founded in 1845 and located adjacent to Washington Square, fit the bill and drew several reporters, including two television cameras.
To prepare for the event, Slice developed several assets to assist in media outreach. We started with a media kit that highlighted the festival sites and art projects, including numerous photographs to increase interest. In addition to a general media list, we developed several additional lists of interested parties, including neighborhood weeklies, historical outlets, musical outlets, art outlets, and more.
Once the festival began, we wrote, distributed, and pitched weekly press releases highlighting each festival site and their unique events.
Success
The end results were stunning – 83 media placements. Every major media outlet in the Philadelphia area covered it, along with numerous blogs.
The moral of the story? A well-executed public relations campaign relying on the basics still works today. If you have a story worth telling, someone is willing to listen.
