Case Study: IDEA World Fitness Convention
IDEA World Fitness Convention took place August 14-17, 2014 and brought over 12,000 fitness professionals and enthusiasts from all over the world to the Anaheim Convention Center for four days of fitness and fun, it featured the highest-quality education, the most well respected experts in the field, and all the latest programs, workouts, products and equipment to keep fitness professionals up-to-date on new developments in the industry.
In addition to offering over 350 health and fitness sessions and high-energy rock concert style group workouts with leading fitness celebrities like Jillian Michaels “the world’s toughest trainer”, and pro-football trainer and fitness entrepreneur, Todd Durkin, IDEA World also featured an inspirational keynote by well-known competitive swimmer, Diana Nyad, as she received the prestigious Jack LaLanne award. The Jack LaLanne award is given to an individual who has made a significant and lasting contribution in the areas of fitness, nutrition and wellness by promoting the benefits of exercise and healthy eating, and who has inspired the world to fitness through his or her work in the media or public eye. Augie Nieto also gave an inspirational and informative speech at the convention’s opening ceremony about his battle with ALS.
Challenge: McKendall Communications was challenged with creating media buzz for this huge event. Our goals were to increase the number of media members attending the convention using press passes, secure pre-event stories, increase the number of Expo passes that were distributed, secure post-event stories and make sure that all coverage included a link to the Ideafit website.
Action: We achieved these goals through a multi-pronged media relations campaign. We utilized key fitness experts such as Tony Horton, Tara Stiles and Cassey Ho for interviews with targeted media. We also sent targeted pitch letters to specific outlets and distributed on-going press releases. Some of our targets included baby boomer media, technology media and fitness media. We engaged key fitness bloggers to attend the event and write about it on their blogs. We worked with exhibitors to highlight new product introductions.
Results: The media presence at the convention was on par with our objectives. In addition to on site media, we also had pre-event stories in outlets such as examiner.com which included an interview with Tony Horton, Housewife Glamour, including an interview with Tara Stiles and Buzz Bus Tour. Some post-event coverage included Huffington Post, The Fitnessista and a segment on KABC-TV.
