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2019 One Show - Public Relations

#CoverTheProgress

Agency Ketchum / New York + Discover Puerto Rico / San Juan

Client Discover Puerto Rico
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Annual ID

OS_PR19033M

About the Work

When Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico in September 2017, millions watched the disaster unfold on media – initially wiping out the island’s crucial tourism economy. One year later, the recovering island and resilient people braced for a crisis of a man-made kind: 90% of media covering natural disasters on first anniversaries tend to replay the devastation, not cover the recovery. So, PR directly challenged the media to #CoverTheProgress instead. To put a human face on the recovery, we returned to a storm-ravaged neighborhood where residents had painted an S.O.S. sign to attract planes and shot a new aerial photo at the same intersection, boasting a colorful “Bienvenidos! (Welcome) sign. The PR strategy launched an anniversary media campaign generating one billion media impressions. 70% of coverage promoted the progress, and led to the New York Times declaring Puerto Rico as “The #1 Place to Go in 2019.”