Written by Charlotte Benninghoven and Theresa Becker
The Global Citizen Festival Hamburg took place on Thursday, July 6, ahead of the 12th semi-annual G20 summit. More than 12,000 global citizens, world & business leaders, non-profit organizations, and socially conscious artists (such as Coldplay, Ellie Goulding, and Pharell Williams) came together to rally historic support for the world’s poorest at this year’s G20 summit in Hamburg. The Festival is not a typical concert or music festival that one can buy tickets for. You can only attend by engaging politically (e.g. signing a local petition or sending an email to a representative).
Edelman.ergo supported Global Citizen Festival with local media outreach. We had the pleasure of attending the festival and assisting media on-site. In addition, Edelman.ergo Digital covered all performances and speeches live on Edelman.ergo’s Instagram account.
Here are five learnings from our night at the Global Citizen Festival.
- Make Your Story Diverse!
Instagram Stories lifts its functionality from Snapchat’s story feature. Photos and videos remain in your “story” for 24 hours, which made it a perfect tool to share this year’s Global Citizen Festival. By using a mix of posed and candid photos, and boomerang or linear video clips, we shared exclusive impressions of the live speeches, performances, and behind-the-scenes happenings for all of those who follow our Instagram account. This way we could not only capture the performances, but also catch the dynamic and exciting atmosphere. Diversity of content makes your stories much more engaging to follow!
- Express Yourself!
In order to share vivid impressions, we used the wide range of Instagram’s native capabilities. Not only different content formats, but also filters, stickers, and drawings made the content more appealing (e.g. highlighting relevant quotes from speakers). When creating Instagram Stories, make sure to tag performers, speakers, and other relevant participants and use official event hashtags and locations. This will increase the reach and engagement levels of your Stories and allow you to interact with others at an event. If you want to provide further information, use the “swipe up” function and link to sites such as event pages.
- Use All Your Manpower!
Covering an event is a full-time, multi-person job. It’s best to work in a team of at least two people; one who is responsible for filming, snapping, and editing pictures, the other who prepares statements, searches for relevant hashtags and correct user handles. Also, be sure that the Story follows a storytelling framework: smoothly sets the scene, builds anticipation and excitement, and ends with a climax or resolution! This is especially true when mixing behind-the-scenes and on-stage moments. Crafting an interesting storyline is how you can create the best experience for viewers.
- Be Aware of Restrictions!
While handling the press, we had to monitor the duration of filming during performances; media outlets were only allowed to film the first 30 seconds of each song. Keep in mind that there might be restrictions for social media usage as well. For instance, filming of rehearsals was forbidden, as was publishing any of those clips on social media. Make sure that you are aware of – and enforce all- of the restrictions the event organizers and the artists have for media use; social and otherwise!
- Show Your Brand!
In all, Instagram Stories is a great way of strengthening employee/employer branding, both inside and outside the agency. By capturing clips throughout the day, this form of communication is as personal and authentic as employee communication can be. Colleagues from other locations as well as interested new talents get to know team members and see their activities during such a special event.
A version of this article first appeared on Edelman.com