L AT V I J A S

S A B I E D R I S K O AT T I E C Ī B U

G A D A B A LV A 2 0 0 7

Konkursa darbu pieteikuma anketa

Iesniedzējs:Komunikāciju aģentūra/Edelman Affiliate

Kontaktpersona:IlonaZacmane

Adrese:Kr.Barona13/15,Rīga,LV-1011

Tālrunis:67201460

E-pasta adrese:ilona.zacmane@ka.lv

Kampaņas pasūtītājs:JānisLozeunSIA„AlertsPlus”

Kampaņas datumi & realizācijas laiks:2006.gadamaijs

Kampaņas nosaukums:Starptautisksarhitektuplenērs“Jūraslīča”teritorijai

Kampaņas kategorija:problēm-situācijasilgtermiņarisinājumi

Papildus iesniegtie drukātie un elektroniskie materiāli:projektaapraksts,fotogrāfijas,publikācijuizgriezumi

Darba iesniedzēja vārds, uzvārds un paraksts:IlonaZacmane

Kampaņas pasūtītāja pārstāvja amats, vārds, uzvārds un paraksts:sk.pasūtītājavēstuli

I N T E R N A T I O N A L A R C H I T E C T S ’ S Y M P O S I U M A T J Ū R A S L Ī C I S

C A M P A I G N D E S C R I P T I O N

Client: Owners of the Jūraslīcis site – three compa-nies belonging to Jānis Loze.

Programme name: long-term resolution of a prob-lem situation (or post-crisis recovery of reputation or brand)

Description of situation:In August 2005, lawyer and businessman Jānis Loze acquired, from Edgars Šīns, three companies which owned the site of the bankrupt sprat can-nery Jūraslīcis and leasing rights to 23 ha of land in the town of Lielupe, not far from where the Lielupe river flows into the sea. Unfortunately, the companies had a history of ownership transfer which had not been transpar-ent and which had been associated with a number of prominent political names. This was sufficient reason, in autumn 2005, for an avalanche of articles in the press and TV items, all of which hinted at pri-vatisation ‘schemes’, and the new owner’s links to the previous owners. Nevertheless, Jānis Loze did not hide his in-tention to privatise the land, as was his right as the legal tenant and stated that he wanted to create a stylish leisure, business and residential location of high architectural quality, of which Jūrmala could be proud. In this situation, there was a risk that similar unjustified and unpleasant reproaches could re-ap-pear at the same intensity. The land was privatised in spring 2006, in full compliance with the law, at a cost of millions of lats, however the media did not pick up on this publicly available information at the time.In turn, in the spring of 2006 the whole of Jūrmala found itself at the centre of a corruption scandal, and any development in Jūrmala automatically came under suspicion of corruption.

Objective:• To convince the public, including local residents, that the intention was to develop the site in a pro-fessional and quality manner, balancing public and private interests.• To convince the public that Jānis Loze’s intention is the long-term development of the site, not the popular Latvian pursuit of land speculation.

R E S E A R C H

KA/Edelman analysed the earlier flow of public information and media coverage relating to this subject and identified the critical aspects. Similarly, through an informal survey of media and commu-nity representatives, it was established that there was an overall negative attitude to this subject in both the media and the public.

S T R A T E G Y

Having acquired the site, the owner had decided to invite the best and most talented international and Latvian architects to become involved in the devel-opment of the project.

Utilising the positive image of the International Architects’ SymposiumKA/Edelman pointed out that the international high-level architects’ symposium presented an op-portunity to achieve the communication objectives, because a cultural event such as an architects’ sym-posium enables the creation of an image of a signif-icant occasion and the promotion of the architects’ visions alongside the business objectives.

Individual cooperation with target mediaIndividual approaches to target media were strate-gically important in achieving the objectives, using very subtle and finely nuanced communication, given the sensitive nature of the project. In this case it was also necessary to develop public communication with a high intensity of indi-vidual communications. The strategy provided for public transparency and for communication to commence with the Diena newspaper whose editorial staff value good architecture and is a leader of public opinion in this sphere. The second target medium was TV news, which has a significant effect on public opinion. The opinion of the Rīgas balss newspaper was also important because its readership included Jūrmala residents (the Jūrmala supplement)

ExecutionThe client organised the Symposium for which eight architectural practices were selected from 40 candidates. They included a number of the world’s leading architectural practices.

Symposium architects – the starsA soon as the best-known of the participants, Lon-don’s Zaha Hadid Architects confirmed their atten-dance (a week before the symposium), KA/Edelman informed the most important target media about the planned Symposium, sending an outline press release and previously collated information about all the architectural practices. When the press release was supplemented with the name of jury member Sigurds Grava (town planner, Columbia University, USA), it was sent to other media.

Symposium closing and prize-giving ceremony – invitation of media and ensuring of informationPrinted invitations to the Symposium closing and prize-giving ceremony, held in Jūrmala on the Sun-day evening, were sent to journalists in the name of Jānis Loze. Even though there was no expectation that many journalists would attend an event at a place and time so inappropriate for the press, the purpose of the invitations was to stress the impor-tance of the event, so creating a positive attitude.At the Symposium closing ceremony on the Sun-day, KA/Edelman familiarised themselves with all the designs, listened to the architects’ presenta-tions, and obtained the architects’ project visualisa-tions in electronic format, so that a summary of the results, with a competent and persuasive report, could be prepared for the media as soon as on the Monday.

Emphasis on target media During the Symposium, KA/Edelman communi-cated with the media, including Rīgas balss, Diena (helping their journalist to meet all the architectural practices) and Panorāma – all three media attended the Symposium closing ceremony. For example, the jury completed its deliberations and announced the winner only a few minutes before the deadline for the Panorāma film crew to return to the studio from Jūrmala. To enable Panorāma to prepare their story (in creating it, they attended the Symposium both during the day and on Sunday evening ) and film the winners, KA/Edelman hurried up the jury and provided the journalist with the information she needed to develop her story even before the official announcement of the results. Had that not been done, the story would not have gone to air.

Communication of the striking development of the site The Symposium was a success and very striking development visions had been created for the site. KA/Edelman prepared a press release describing the most colourful and innovative elements of the winning concept – by Danish architectural practice HLK. These materials, together with many pictures

of the designs, were sent to the media, architecture portals, which in turn secured KA/Edelman further individual contact opportunities with their read-ers – for example, Diena journalist Ieva Zībārte, who, while living in Australia, was writing an article for an international architecture journal and who needed high-quality illustrations.

Transparency In relation to the fact that the land had already been privatised, KA/Edelman mentioned this among the other information in press releases about the Sym-posium and unequivocally confirmed it to all who enquired.

R E S U L T S

• All media that covered the Symposium wrote and broadcast about it positively. The Latvian and Russian daily press and the three largest internet news portals had an average of one article before the Symposium , another afterwards – already with pictures and accounts of the concepts. As a result of the Symposium, the media created a convincing portrayal of the site development solutions for their readers.• All three targeted media published original ar-ticles. Diena – twice. Both articles were positive, reflected the views of Jānis Loze and made no refer-ence to earlier criticisms. The TV news items also showed the event and the owner in a very positive light. • Reading other publications, it was clear that some journalists had also referred to the information in Diena. This reinforced the successful choice of strategy.• All other articles were 95% based on the informa-tion and pictures supplied by KA/Edelman.• A week after the Symposium, the Delfi portal, as the result of information supplied by a third party, published an article about the site’s privatisation, repeating some of the information seen in the au-tumn. This year, however, the information gained minimal response (one follow-up). A very different story to autumn 2005.