The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) is a global cross-industry coalition which brings together more than 120 companies from the automotive, technology, and telecommunications industries (ICT). The association aims to bridge the automotive and telecommunications industries to define the next generation of connected mobility solutions. MCI and logos manage 5GAA.

To support its mission, the global coalition and its member companies participate in leading industry events and exhibitions focusing on connectivity and digital transportation, such as the GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) and Ertico’s ITS World Congress. Moreover, the association has successfully hosted several live demonstrations of the Cellular-Vehicle-to Everything (C-V2X) technology, thus showcasing its extensive capabilities applied to concrete use cases.

Challenges

5GAA tasked logos with increasing its media coverage and promoting the latest technology deployments and innovations developed by its member companies, thus showcasing the concrete applications of its work to develop end-to-end solutions that will shape the future of connected mobility.

In addition, the association aimed to build more substantial and long-term relationships with relevant journalists to have greater chances of gaining earned media coverage from top tier outlets and increase their familiarity with 5GAA and have them focus on content.

Major exhibitions such as MWC and ITS are crucial to leveraging the association’s profile and visibility and spreading its core messages to attract prominent industry analysts and journalists from specialised media outlets. However, the challenge is to emerge among all stakeholders and exhibitors and obtain the experts’ attention by providing concrete facts and insightful “stories” to tell.

Solutions

To meet these requests, logos designed and organised tailored press tours to showcase the latest state-of-play and capabilities of Cellular-Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) and the latest demonstrations of the technology on the occasion of key industry exhibitions (MWC and ITS World Congres) and live demonstrations hosted by 5GAA.

It’s true that a lot of PR activities are done digitally nowadays. However, face-to-face and live experiences are still essential for building long-term relationships and gaining media interest. Journalists and reporters are more likely to turn to familiar and credible sources to get comments for news stories. They like to bring their facts, ask questions and have stories based on real examples. Even in the age of digital communications and events, media tours are still a valued facet of PR activities.

The press tours consisted of an hour walking tour around the exhibitions’ booths and C-V2X technology demonstrations of some selected member companies moderated by an expert who pulled together a compelling narrative targeted toward specific media.

The success of the tours lies in the event’s detailed organisation managed by the logos team, from internal coordination to the development of a straightforward narrative linked to the outreach to journalists.

In particular, logos:

• Reached out to and coordinated the members’ companies to verify their willingness to participate in the tour by welcoming journalists and analysts to their exhibitions booth and showcasing their latest technology innovations. After the selection, logos briefed each company’s representative on the structure and key objectives of the tour. In addition, it provided them with a detailed press dossier, including information about the journalists and industry analysts and their interests;
• Identified and briefed the tour moderator – an industry expert familiar with the topics covered and the associations’ core messages. The moderator guided the participants throughout the different tour stops linking them by following a narrative and facilitating the interactions between the participants and the companies’ representatives;
• Developed a detailed tour map and timeline of the tour to be distributed to all the persons involved;
• Engaged with journalists and media analysts by sending an impactful press invite to targeted journalists, followed by personalised emails and follow-ups;
• Organised one-to-one interviews on-site with 5GAA’s high-level representatives (e.g. CTO, Director-General, board members);
• Managed the logistics on the day of the event (dry run before the tour, journalists’ registration) and promoted the event through social media and media;
• Provided the participating journalists and analysts with a detailed document including all the press materials and assets related to the technology innovation and use-cases demonstrations featured in the tour;
• Produced a detailed report with insights, learnings and images after the press tour.

Results

The tours successfully engaged a significant number of journalists on site. In addition, many of those who couldn’t physically attend expressed their interest in 5GAA’s and its members’ activities. They requested interviews with representatives and relevant material regarding the demonstrations and technology deployments. Journalists appreciated the simple format of going from booth to booth and often raised questions during the tours. Finally, the tour contributed to increasing the association’s reputation and boosting awareness significantly.

Some key results achieved at the Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2022:

• 11 journalists and industry analysts physically attended the tour
• 20 expressed their interest in the association’s activities
• The tour resulted in more the 200 media mentions in leading outlets and follow-up with interviews and insights focused on the content.

Solutions

media relations, communication, industry events, reporting, outreach programme