Go local! Multimedia campaign to promote EU regional policy funding opportunities and results

1. Go local! Multimedia campaign to promote EU regional policy funding opportunities and results INFORM meeting, BRUSSELS 16/06/2010

2. Multimedia campaign – presentation of results • State of play in 2010 • period of the wide-scope presentation of the results of the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund • not only a commitment but an important task: • presentation of these projects has a project-generating effect • presentation of these projects strengthens the reputation and the acceptance of the Structural Funds and the European Union as a whole • Go Local! • It is a key element of the European Commission’s D-plan to communicate EU affairs as local as possible • best way to present the success of EU-projects: using the local media • strong regionalism in media consumption in Hungary • the biggest national papers are sold in the regions only some thousands per day, while the daily circulation of the local daily papers is 40–60 thousands • comprehensive locally-based media campaign in September 2009

3. Communication campaign „Go local!” • Our Aims • Go local! Introduce projects to local people, who are the final beneficiaries of developments, from their own neighborhood (city, region) • Messages • We are in the right place! (we arrived somewhere, our environment has been developing, successful projects are around us) • Creative concept • Visual appearance: simple, clear out, cities and local projects on signposts „under construction” • Concentrate on facts and figures • Timing: beginning of September 2009 – May 2010

4. Multimedia Campaign – Communication tools • The campaign had three parallel parts: • billboards made with regional mutations • spots on the local radio stations and TV channels about the projects • infotainment/programme magazine„Helyben vagyunk!” in 7 mutations every month Development of the public transportation in Szeged The same project on the billboard and on cover of the magazine

5. Main characteristics of the magazine • Layout • Size: B5, 32 pages • 4x4 colors, youthful, dynamic and spectacular layout • regional mutation – 7 different local content per month • 470.000 issues per month (for 7 months), the last 2 volumes each were 1.2 million • Free of charge, undirected DM, distributed to the post boxes of the households • Content • Popular, easy-to-understand language • 52 different volumes altogether (7 times 7 regional issue, 1 issue for Budapest and 2 issues with national content) • 2/3 of the content were articles about the projects co-financed by the Structural Funds • 1/3 of the content were feature news, interesting short articles, interviews, regional event calendar, local recipes, horoscope, quiz, Sudoku etc.

6. Communication tools – printed magazine There were some interesting news related to the town of the project – e.g. town rehabilitation of Miskolc and the forthcoming concert of Nightwish’s Tarja Turunen at the Miskolc Opera Show Every volumes begun with an editorial article covering the main issue of the month – e.g. the environment Layout was youthful, dynamic and spectacular

8. Thematic covers of the magazine

9. The staff – HR capacity of the campaign • We worked together with 10-15 journalists living and working in the regions, most of them working for the local daily paper – by the end of this project they became committed to the EU funds affairs • We asked for photos from the beneficiaries • We had 2, later 1 editor who edited the articles and put the content together • We had 1 project manager • For the layout issues and the graphical tasks we had the staff of Pesti Est (national programme magazine of Hungary)

10. Interactivity: drawing competition • We published a drawing competition in the magazine in September 2009 • „What would you change, what would you develop in your city if the EU gave money for it?” • Almost 400 children and primary school pupils sent us their drawings • All of the drawing children got a prize and local press releases covered the results of the competition • The best drawings were published in the December volumes of the magazine (on the covers and inside as well) • All of the drawings were published in a color book printed in some thousand issues and sent to the applicant children, to the MPs, to mayors, to stakeholders, to the press etc.

12. Communication campaign „Go local!” Special focus on Budapest • Timing: Special edition in January 2010 • Only promoting projects in Budapest • Tools: Billboards, city lights, magazine • Results in numbers • 350-400 projects presented • 20 journalists working on the articles locally • 52 mutations of the magazine • 470.000 issues, 1,5 million readers per month

13. Feedback - evaluation • GfK Hungária Market Research Ltd. – one of the leading Hungarian market research companies – made a poll about the reception and the reputation of the magazine in April, 2010 • They asked the opinion of 4.800 people • Results of the poll: • 33% of the inhabitants knew about the magazine • The most active readers were pensioners and people with higher degrees • 2/3 of the readers had kept it and had not scrapped it after reading. • only 1-2 percentages of the respondents disliked it • the great majority of the respondents thought the magazine to be good or to be of the highest standard • The two strength of the magazine were the nice layout and intelligibility (both got 88 points of 100) • People who knew the magazine thought it to be useful (85 points of 100) • The respondents gave 81 points of 100 to the standard of the articles of the magazine

14. Feedback – main findings • According to the respondents the most remarkable articles were about town rehabilitation projects, and a huge proportion of the respondents remembered articles about projects dealing with transportation and road constructions and projects dealing with tourism. • In the towns there the magazine was distributed, ¾ of the inhabitants knew at least one development project supported by the Structural Funds.

15. Feedback – main findings • To the question • „Would you like to receive a magazine like this regularly in the future?” • 70% of questioned people answered: • YES.

16. Website • All of the content of the magazines is available at the website: www.helyben-vagyunk.hu