Case Study: Denver Gold Forum

PR Associates developed a list of top-tier national and international business and industry media.

The Situation

When the Denver Gold Group (DGG) needed a PR firm to ensure its annual convention received the profile and media attention worthy of the world’s most prestigious metal equities investment forum – the Denver Gold Forum – they came to PR Associates. This invitation-only event is attended by the world’s leading specialist precious metal investors as well as generalist institutional investors, and buy- and sell-side analysts from around the world. PR Associates was engaged to raise the profile of the DGG and the Forum to maintain its reputation within the investment community. Part of this engagement included onsite support to media attending the Forum, to ensure DGG was respected as the “go-to” resource for journalists covering the precious metals equities and commodities sectors (during the convention and afterward).

Our Solution

We developed a list of top-tier national and international business and industry media and began pitching media months in advance, with a personal invitation to the DGF. Follow-up calls were made a few weeks later and in the weeks leading up to the event.

We worked with media in advance of the event to support interview requests and story development and worked with communication and public relations representatives for participating companies. PR Associates was onsite during the event, managing the media room, facilitating media interview requests, and providing media kits and other information to support stories.

The Results

PR Associates drew upon existing relationships and built new ones to garner more than 200 broadcast, print, and online stories published in business, financial, commodity, and industry outlets around the world including Canada, the United States, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, and other Asian countries. A total of 22 media representatives registered to attend, representing 16 outlets. All but one of the journalists attended.

Broadcast, Print & Online Stories Published

Media Representatives Registered to Attend

A total of 135 print, broadcast, and online business and industry media were contacted. These included ABC News, Associated Press, BBC, Bloomberg TV, Business News Network, Canadian Press, The Daily Telegraph, Denver Business Journal, Denver Post, The Economist, Financial Post, Financial Times, Fox News, McLean’s, Market Watch, New York Times, NBC News and thestreet.com, as well as several other journalists, bloggers and stringers from investment sites. CNBC, Bloomberg News, and Dow Jones were the most high-profile media outlets, with the former securing exclusive network broadcast coverage at the event.

Other story focus areas included the price of gold and challenges facing the industry and its outlook, including the potential for mergers and acquisitions. Dow Jones Newswire (Wall Street Journal) did pre-and post-event stories. Mineweb also did an event recap story that praised the caliber of the conference. There were a few news sites that promoted the event. Most of the stories were re-published on other sites, and some were translated into other languages (German, Korean and/or Chinese, and Spanish).

CNBC set up a TV camera onsite and did five interviews which aired throughout the day on such shows as Mad Money, Power Lunch, and Closing Bell. Kitco News did 13 on-camera interviews with analysts and CEOs. Business News Network (BNN) used an off-site studio to conduct several broadcast interviews with CEOs. Channel 9 News (Denver) did a live on-air interview with Tim Wood, Executive Director of the Denver Gold Group.

Having key outlets such as Dow Jones Newswire (which garnered re-coverage on their sister outlets including Barron’s, DailyMe, Market Watch, Wall Street Journal, and TradingCharts.com); Bloomberg News, Globe and Mail, Kitco News, Mineweb, and The Gold Report proved very beneficial, as stories written by the journalists were re-posted on several other sites, such as Forbes, Mining.com, MiningReview.com, Republic of Mining, Seeking Alpha, Stockhouse, Stock Rants, and TradingCharts.com.

Many stories included links to the webcasts. Stories also appeared on such news sites as Business News Americas, NASDAQ, Economic Times, and the Middle East North Africa Financial Network.

Social media was used quite actively. There were more than 120 tweets, which included companies promoting their own speaker messages, and several media outlets.