Prairie Lights: Social & Public Relations Management

November 3, 2021 | By beraadmin | Filed in: blog.

The partnership between BrandEra and the City of Grand Prairie has a long history! We’ve worked with multiple departments.

Specifically, the Parks, Art & Recreation department found itself promoting the 2020 Prairie Lights season in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Grand Prairie Parks, Art & Recreation staff reached out to BrandEra to handle media relations and create a buzz about the COVID-safe holiday event.

Results
One of the department’s top priorities was growing its reach among social media influencers. BrandEra’s team lined up coverage by over 40 diverse influencers on Instagram and a variety of other digital platforms. BrandEra provided influencers with a kit of videos and images which were easily repurposed in stories, reels and feed content. On Instagram alone, the total collective following of Instagram influencers was more than 415,000.

BrandEra also contacted more than 300 individual media outlets and garnered more than 40 news and blog placements in Texas and surrounding states. Key placements included CBS DFW, Fort Worth Weekly, Paper City, DFW Child, NBC DFW, WFAA (the Dallas-Fort Worth ABC affiliate) and more.

In fact, because the media coverage for the event was so successful and the pandemic-friendly nature of the event so appealing, Prairie Lights had many sell-outs and, on some evenings, longer-than-usual wait times. In response, we worked with the client to minimize negative news coverage and develop key messages about logistical fixes. Media outlets picked up on these real-time talking points and content was pushed out that helped the City achieve smoother event operations.

The client was exceptionally pleased with BrandEra’s efforts as we materially helped ensure the continuation of Prairie Lights, a North Texas holiday tradition and a key source of revenue for the department.

See a sampling of the earned media placements below.