Case Studies – בן חורין אלכסנדרוביץ'

Jerusalem marathon – Case Studies

allbonsite — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 08:43:53 +0000

Background

Jerusalem municipality and its mayor, Mr. Nir Barkat, have set a goal to place Jerusalem as one of the major worldwide marathon cities such as Berlin, New York, London, Paris, etc.
The running trend has spread in Israel, in the last few years – Tiberius marathon, Tel-Aviv marathon, Nike run and many more. This trend leads to a growing interest from the media but also sets a media coverage competition between the different runs. One other aspect was the novelty of the Jerusalem marathon – on the one hand causing a lot of interest from the media and on the other hand was full of difficult organizational and media challenges. Yet another aspect was that the older and more known Tel Aviv marathon was two weeks later, which made the challenge ever bigger.

The goals

1. Positioning Jerusalem marathon as the most significant marathon in Israel
2. Using the marathon to leverage Jerusalem as a leading sports and culture city
3. Exposing the marathon to the public to get thousands of runners to participate
4. Positioning the marathon as an international marathon.
5. Branding mayor Barkat as a modern and liberal mayor who promotes sports and gives personal example.
Target audience
1. Professional runners – The first time there is an opportunity to run in Jerusalem
2. Amateur runners – mostly for the shorter runs
3. General audience – leveraging the city’s reputation as a leading sport and culture city
4. Decision makers in sports (government and sponsors) that will increase the support and will make the marathon a tradition

Media strategies

1. Built in Research – We added an option in the registration system for the registrants to tell us about themselves in a few words – this simple solution helped us find unique and touching stories

2. Internationality – To segregate ourselves from the Tel Aviv marathon we put a lot of effort in worldwide press regarding the marathon

3. “Jerusalem Vs. Tel Aviv” – Because of the proximity of the events, we emphasized the competition between the two marathons to increase media coverage

4. Broad media effort – not to only focus on Jerusalem sport journalists but to concentrate in many different journalists – economical, tourism, sport, Jerusalem, health, magazines and even technology

5. Extraordinary launch – In order to be original, we had a “flying” press conference in which the journalists could see the route from the air

6. Personal stories – To emphasize the diversity of the runners – ages, personal background, etc.

7. Spotlight on mayor Barkat – Jerusalem’s mayor, who initiated the race and planed to participate in it could get a lot of exposure and will be made the presenter of the run

Implementation of the plan

We made a “flying” press conference that created a very strong launch for the marathon. The many reporters that came were raised in a crane to 50 meters above the track

We included original ideas, Such as any person who has a Jerusalem themed family name such as “Yerushalmi”, “Zion” – could participate for free

We emphasized the worldwide runners – a few articles were published in magazines

We emphasized Nir Barkat running in the marathon. We had him running with his army paratroops friends and had Channel 2 news covering his trainings

“360 degrees” – We covered the event from every possible angle – medical articles, gadget articles, running fashion, tourism, economical articles, marathon nutrition and more

We implemented a novel idea of “Jerusalem Beloved runners” – Authentic Jerusalem figures who helped creating the media exposure

We broke through with the “Fight against Tel Aviv” – initiating comparison articles with our marathon as the beloved underdog

We successfully dealt with a terrorist attack in Jerusalem in the week of the marathon

Real time coverage – working with television crews, broadcasting from the event and live coverage of the run

Summary and results

10,000 runners, 1,500 of them international runners, were the best proof of our success, together with the Jerusalem municipality’s speaker. The Jerusalem marathon, even though it is not the biggest one, got the most media coverage. The implementation of the strategy was almost perfect, when over a few weeks, the marathon was almost completely prominent in the media and was a part of the public agenda. Over 200 items, including cover pages and prime time news items brought satisfaction to our clients (who also hired us in 2012-2014) show the media success. But more than that, we are proud of the fact that we broke boundaries and implemented many original and non-expectant ideas in sport events. The Jerusalem marathon became an established fact and helped the city to position itself as a leading sports and cultural city. The minor goals were also accomplished, which contributed directly to the city and its mayor’s image as leaders in sports and culture.

The post Jerusalem marathon – Case Studies appeared first on בן חורין אלכסנדרוביץ'.

Michael Bitton for the Leadership of the Yerucham Local Council – Case Studies

allbonsite — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 08:38:43 +0000

Background and planning

The election followed a five years period of having an appointed committee headed by Amram Mizna to manage Yeruham. About 10,000 citizens were forced to say goodbye to the popular mayor and choose a new one.

The main candidates were – Moti Avisrur – a popular former mayor – From the “Likud” party, Ilan Almakayes, a military veteran that ran for the well financed “Israel Beyteynu” party and Michael Biton, our candidate, Former head of the community center of Yeruham. The campaign we were asked to plan was relatively short – 5 months – from August to November of 2011.

We faced a few challenges when planning the campaign:

1. Small budget – The campaign budget was very poor and did now allow us to create meaningful advertisement beyond a few ads and street signs.

2. A dominant candidate – Mr. Avisrur was a very dominant candidate in Yeruham and we feared the election agenda would focus on him

3. A candidate with a high budget. Almakayes was backed with a budget much higher than ours and he managed to have high visibility in the city center

4. Lack of experience – We were working with inexperienced activists, which was a big challenge for the operation team promoting the campaign

5. Attacks on our candidate – Claiming he failed in managing the municipal community center, claiming he represents elitism, claiming he was not experienced enough, etc.

6. Distant managing of the campain – It is hard to run a campaign with a distance between the op-eration center and the field activists

Due to these circumstances our goal was to reach the second round and then create political alliances to ensure our victory.

The defined goal

Reaching the second round using a smart campaign that will present Biton as a main candidate for mayor

Strategy

In order to deal with the challenges presented above we decided on the following strategic principles:

1. A structured campaign that deals with Biton’s image vs. the other candidates. The campaign will have 3 stages: “Leader of our own” stage, “A different future for Yeruham” stage, “Past vs. future” stage. (Details will follow)

2. To lead the national media – To be the group that initiates the national interest at the Yeruham elections in order to insure that our candidate will always be a part of the story

3. Synchronized work with the organization’s headquarters in order to create an effective campaign.

Campaign messages:

1. After we had an outsider for a leader (Mizna) it is time for a leader of our own.

2. We can build a different future for Yeruham – by choosing the future generation leaders of the community.

3. The choice is between Yeruham’s past (Avisrur) and its future (Biton) thus squeezing Almakayes out of the race as an irrelevant candidate

Building the campaign

1. Building the strategy – As described above and based on surveys and focus groups

2. We prepared the advertising grid built with all the different stages

3. We have created a timetable for elections which will help us dictate the pace and not our opponents

4. We did an extensive media round in the national media to inform them about the campain we are leading so they see Biton as a leading candidate.

Operating the campaign

1. After forming the strategy, we went on the road with the first election public meeting – using the message “leader of our own” which meant to communicate that we are talking about a leading candidate that is confidant. We built the conference to represent all segments of the population in the community

2. We approached the media to create national magazine articles about the elections and reached a meaningful exposure in all major newspapers, TV news and main internet sites

3. We connected with the “Kadima” party so that Biton will not be the only candidate without a party backing him. We created the support in Biton via members of the Knesset, and the chairman of the party

4. After we felt we established Biton as a leading candidate we moved to the second stage – “Different future for Yeruham” where we emphasized that the election is about the future of Yeruham and not its past. So, we established Biton as a candidate representing the possible future of the community. Alongside the message we launched the “Yeruham 2014 plan” – a work plan which touched all the significant issues of concern to the citizens

5. We worked in a synchronized way with the organization’s staff, while managing the guidance and high motivation of the staff as preparation for the day of the election

6. We visited Yeruham weekly in order to feel the atmosphere and meet local residents in order to understand what changes we need to make in the campaign, if any.

7. We prepared and launched the “last days campaign” – In every meeting we emphasized the point of past vs. future – Also making Almakayes irrelevant as the candidates with no chance to succeed

8. In order to deal with all the competitors spins, we conducted and distributed a survey. The survey showed Avisror was leading, but Biton was not far behind

9. At the last days before the Election Day we made the activists enthusiastic about getting people to vote for their future. We made special shirts for the activists using the message “I also choose a future” thus creating a direct correlation between Biton and Yeruham’s future

10. On Election Day, we already knew we were the winners and only waited for the results of the polls. It was obvious we set the agenda for the election – and those who do so, usually wins

Difficulties along the way

Of course, as in any campaign there were countless difficulties and bumps. The low budget, long trips, lack of experience of the people we worked with constantly challenge us, and we had to spend a long and expensive time in the campaign and especially constant thinking about how to continue to be dominant in the campaign.

Collaboration advertising

As stated, there was no real advertising budget. We formulated all posters, flyers and gimmicks on this poor budget – So there was no involvement of other factors

Summery

The campaign was defined as success in all accounts:

1. Landslide victory in the first round – 47% of the votes

2. Determining the agenda of the election and its terminology

3. Media domination – There was no national article that did not mention Biton as a leading candidate, and we also managed to convince the public through the reporters that the elections are about Biton and Avisrur

The feeling of winning an election is one of the happiest that a professional in our field can have. But this victory is first and foremost Biton’s and his team’s success, spending days and nights to walking from door to door to insure more voters. We are happy we could be there by his side and help getting the most appropriate man to sit as the mayor of Yeruhamdasdas

The post Michael Bitton for the Leadership of the Yerucham Local Council – Case Studies appeared first on בן חורין אלכסנדרוביץ'.

(Israel Resilience Party – Blue and White (The first campaign

נעם ויטמן — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 13:32:29 +0000

2019

The post (Israel Resilience Party – Blue and White (The first campaign appeared first on בן חורין אלכסנדרוביץ'.

Giro d’Italia – Case Studies

נעם ויטמן — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 13:26:02 +0000

In 2018, we took on a significant challenge – the arrival of one of the most prestigious bicycle races in the world, which has approximately 1 billion annual spectators from around the world and brings significant exposure and tens of thousands of tourists to the host country. All that in a country which has a minimal sports culture, particularly in cycling.

Throughout the campaign (which started with news articles published a year ahead of the event) we dealt with a complete lack of public and media interest and understanding regarding the race and its prestige, along with the need to incorporate and coordinate between various entities and varying interests. The goal was to expose the event to as much of the Israeli public as possible and – in the moment of truth – to bring them out into the streets. It was also important to magnify the importance of such an event occurring in Israel and present the numerous benefits to the country as a whole.

2018

The post Giro d’Italia – Case Studies appeared first on בן חורין אלכסנדרוביץ'.