Global Support for Historic Journey Across Eurasia

Posted by Hailey Roos on Tue, Apr 27, 2021 @ 03:58 PM
  • Klareco’s blended approach to complex communication provides consistently positive media appearances 
  • Nearly 70 years after the first historic global trek, the Last Overland was successfully completed with guidance from Klareco Communications
  • Klareco’s strategies helped the Last Overland reach over 350 million people worldwide via various media outlets in 26 countries and 14 languages

About Klareco Communications

Klareco is a public relations and corporate communications agency. Their team of strategic advisors uses an integrated communications approach, blending the skillsets of a range of specialists. Their areas of expertise include corporate and financial communications, investor relations, capital market transactions, crisis, and emergency advisory and activation, regulatory and stakeholder engagement, and government communications. These specialists combine their skills to help bring clarity to complex situations. 

The Last Overland

The Last Overland is a 16,000-km journey from Singapore to London in “Oxford” the Land Rover, a re-creation of the historic First Overland expedition of 1955. One of the original team member’s grandsons, Nat George, would be flying the flag for his grandfather Tim Slessor on the journey, driving in his grandfather’s tire tracks. Klareco Communications helped to build a compelling story around the re-creation of the journey, leveraging the family’s personal experience and extraordinary determination, as well as the magnetic appeal of such a historic car. This allowed them to capture both mainstream and motoring audiences through special interest, mainstream, and social media, as well as regional, national, and global media publications. 

Members of the Klareco team provided on-the-round PR support while using the back of “Oxford”, the Land Rover, as their official office on the road through Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Myanmar. Not only was this a brilliant opportunity to be fully immersed in the experience, but it also gave the team firsthand insight into what was actually happening and how to communicate it with the right tone, messaging, and proof points. Along the way, the agency provided strategic communications advice, media relations and event support, coordination and liaison with sponsors and partners, and acted as a point of contact for Southeast Asia and international media. The support continued remotely once the Southeast Asia leg was complete and the agency team headed home. 

By the time Oxford arrived in London in mid-December 2019, the campaign had achieved unprecedented results: at least 250 pieces of coverage across more than 197 media platforms, including local news dailies, motoring publications, radio, Land Rover interest magazines, blogs, and interest group pages. Coverage included 14 languages across 26 countries and regions including Singapore, Southeast Asia, China, UK, U.S., European countries, Eastern Europe, and India, in both print and digital media. The expedition organizers estimate that the reach of this news coverage totals at least 365 million people around the world.

It is not every day that an agency has the opportunity to turn a concept into a pan-Southeast Asia campaign that captures imagination across the world. But this is exactly what Klareco did with the Last Overland. The organizers estimate a social media reach of three million and an audience of more than 350 million globally: not bad for a campaign fueled not by money, but by shared values, enthusiasm, and a spirit of adventure.

Klareco Communications won the Silver Stevie for Innovation in Public Affairs Communications in the 2020 Asia-Pacific Awards®. 

Interested in entering the 2021 Asia-Pacific Awards? 

Request the entry kit

Topics: public relations award, Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards

Vigilante Efforts for Community Building from Family League of Baltimore

Posted by Maggie Gallagher on Thu, Oct 12, 2017 @ 10:40 AM

Nonprofit organizations can face challenges when it comes to planning and executing successful communications and community engagement work. But Family League of Baltimore (FLB), an intermediary nonprofit, has uniquely positioned itself to invest in initiatives that provide access to resources and opportunities not readily available to children and families in many city neighborhoods. Their deep collaboration and capacity for building with local leaders, community-based organizations, funders, and other stakeholders have all contributed to their Gold Stevie Award in the Communications Department of The Year category in The 2017 American Business Awards.

Positive Changes that Align with Community Priorities
Each year, FLB makes collaborative efforts, and targeted investments to help open doors to education, health care, and economic opportunity for tens of thousands of children, youths, and families living in Baltimore, MD USA. Amy Bernstein, Director of External Relations at Family League of Baltimore says winning a Gold Stevie has made an immediate impact on their organizations.

Family league.jpg“It prompted a meaningful conversation with our CEO and COO about the true strategic role and potential reach of communications as an organizational asset; validated our professionalism; and gave us an opportunity, through Facebook, to link the recognition with our dedication to sharing stories and progress about people and programs in the communities where we invest public resources.”

FLB occupies a unique niche in Baltimore's nonprofit landscape. In large part, as a hub organization that's able to braid together federal, state, city, and private dollars to ensure these funds are invested in programs and services that align with community priorities; direct resources towards the needs of the “whole” child, from prenatal and family health care up through college and career; strengthen the capacity of existing service providers across the City; and advocate for meaningful policy changes to improve lives and build equity.

Vigilante Efforts

Since FLB relies on government funds, a great effort in working closely with elected officials at the state and local levels is necessary for continued success. Bernstein keeps a close eye on their, “value proposition and ability to achieve results that matter to children, families, and their communities.” This requires constant and vigilant efforts to educate and inform leaders on an almost daily basis.

Trends in personal and institutional usage of technology -- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Periscope, etc. -- also helps them deploy the right mix of tech to suit. Bernstein believes access to internet services plays a huge role as well.

“Our message and our target demographics depends more and more on online communications, it's increasingly challenging to reach people who do not use the Internet regularly.”

Constantly Learning From Each Other

Bernstein is a big fan of their three-person team aimed at reflecting diversity in terms of age (GenX, Millennial, and Baby Boomer), work experience, and core skill sets. In many workplaces, navigating inter-generational relationships is a source of tension and conflict.

“For us, it is a source of strength; we constantly learn from one another. We approach every communications campaign with clear goals in mind; we listen closely to our internal "customers" as to what is needed”

Staying as creative and integrated as possible is the name of the game. Whether in their graphic design, social media or print and video campaigns, “striving for authenticity in our work--using real images, voices, and testimonials of real people from our local communities, as much as possible is a significant predictor of success.”

Bernstein acknowledges how important experiences in collaborative efforts are when the time comes to sway partnerships to their path. Inexperienced professionals may or may not be ready.

“Our team has over 50 years of combined experience in almost every communications niche--ranging from corporate PR to journalism to executive speechwriting. There is hardly a challenge that comes our way that we have not dealt with before, in some way, which helps us find the best solutions. Together, in less than a year, we have built a versatile, proactive communications shop virtually from scratch.”

Topics: communications awards, PR awards, American business awards, public relations award, non-profit awards

2 Reasons Why Weber Shandwick Is 2010 PR Agency of the Year

Posted by Michael Gallagher on Thu, Nov 04, 2010 @ 02:44 PM
Rose de la Paqua and Tanya BeckettNow that we're coming to the end of 2010 and we look back over the Stevie Award winners for the year, it's apparent that Weber Shandwick truly is the agency of the year for its haul of pr awards.

The agency won the Stevie for Public Relations Agency of the Year in The 8th annual American Business Awards back in June in New York.  You can read the full-text of their Stevie-winning nomination on the ABA web site.

Weber Shandwick Europe then won the International Stevie for Public Relations Agency of the Year in Europe in The 7th annual International Business Awards, which were presented in Istanbul, Turkey on September 27.  That award was accepted by Rose de la Pascua, Chair of Weber Shandwick Spain and Executive Vice President for Continental Europe.  Read the full-text of Weber Shandwick Europe's Stevie-winning entry on the IBA web site.

Members of the Weber Shandwick network around the world also won honors in Stevie Awards's public relations awards categories in 2010, including among others AC Sanafor in Finland, McCann PR in Romania, Corporate Weber Shandwick in India, and Weber Shandwick in Dallas, Texas among others.

In addition, the agency won a raft of other awards in 2010.

So who'll be the Stevies' agency of the year in 2011?

Topics: communications awards, PR awards, agency of the year, public relations awards, pr award, public relations award, awards pr, award pr, weber shandwick, communications award

PR Awards Categories in The 2011 American Business Awards

Posted by Michael Gallagher on Thu, Oct 28, 2010 @ 03:54 PM

In 2010 we introduced a lot of new public relations and communications awards categories in The American Business Awards, and we haven't added any new ones for 2011.  But I thought I'd take a moment here to outline the categories that I think are the best fit for public relations, corporate communications, public affairs, and investor relations professionals, because not all of them are plainly labelled.

First off, there are those categories that are plainly labelled, and they include the many Communications or PR Campaign/Program of the Year categories we introduced in 2010.  Here are the main communications categories (the letter/nomination combinations are our internal category codes):

Read the rest of this article here...

Topics: communications awards, PR awards, public relations awards, pr award, public relations award, investor relations awards, communications award, ir awards, ir award, investor relations award