The Vandiver Group’s Best PR Moments of 2017: Part Two
By TVG Staff
In Part One of this blog series (click here to catch up if you missed it) we highlighted three “Best PR Moments of 2017” for some iconic global brands. For the final two “Best PR Moments,” we wanted to share some of TVG’s PR accomplishments from 2017!
2) Football for Friendship
Last summer, The Vandiver Group publicized the inaugural season of the Football For Friendship program in the United States.
Football For Friendship is aimed at developing youth soccer and fostering tolerance and respect toward different cultures and ethnicities among children around the world through sports.
Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals and first stop of TVG’s media tour.
TVG embarked on a media tour to showcase the American Football for Friendship youth ambassadors, who were selected to go to St. Petersburg, Russia to participate in the program. TVG took the ambassadors, two local St. Louis girls, to media events at a Cardinals baseball game, on site at the USS Battleship Missouri in Hawaii, and to various television and radio stations, both locally and on the other side of the world.
Senior Vice President Andy Likes being interviewed in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The program culminated in St. Petersburg, Russia, where TVG accompanied the youth ambassadors and provided daily coverage of their activities on traditional and social media. TVG was able to get media coverage in major broadcast, print and radio media outlets like Fox Sports Midwest, KMOV, KMOX, Major League Baseball’s website, West NewsMagazine, soccer clubs/organizations and bloggers including St. Louis FC, Scott Gallagher and St. Louis Ambush.
Our thoughts: On social media, TVG’s campaign promoting Football for Friendship was a resounding success. Our videos reached thousands of people and garnered hundreds of likes and comments, leading to one of the most successful social media programs we’ve ever launched.
1) Livestreaming the Great American Eclipse
On August 21, 2017, much of the continental United States experienced a total solar eclipse. Missouri was one of the states lucky enough to be in the path of totality, giving us a clear view of the full eclipse. But we wanted to share that experience with our friends, family and clients who aren’t in Missouri—so what could we do? Broadcast it live, of course!
Our sweet setup.
For those that don’t know, Facebook Live is a great way to instantly live stream to your friends and connections. We connected our camera to Facebook Live and pointed it at the sun. We also wrote a blog a few days in advance, detailing all of the necessary precautions one should take to view a total eclipse.
The TVG team enjoying the view.
Who would have thought that a total eclipse would be a total hit? Our live stream reached more than 17 thousand Facebook users. More than 5,000 users tuned in to view the eclipse live.
Our thoughts: This Facebook post one of the most successful social media posts in TVG history. Its success can be attributed to three factors: 1) the event itself was interesting and unique, 2) going live on Facebook is naturally attracts a lot of interested viewers, and 3) using relevant and topical hashtags, we increased the searchability of the post, and therefore the reach. But the best part was sharing the experience with our friends and fans!
By the way, if you’re interested, you can still watch the entire total eclipse from beginning to end by clicking here. Skip to the 1-hour 20-minute mark to get right to the action.
What did you think of The Vandiver Group’s Top-Five PR Moments of 2017? Email us or hit us up Facebook to let us know your thoughts.