ChallengeThe French Will Never Forget works to strengthen the age-old Franco-American friendship. For the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we helped spread awareness of the nonprofit's event in Paris honouring victims.

Objectives• Increase awareness for TFWNF and its event;• Strengthen the friendship between France and the United States;• Offer French condolences that Americans would see.

StrategyTFWNF erected a 75-foot replica of the Twin Towers opposite the Eiffel Tower that listed each victim's name. French press hits would be easy. But we needed eyes and ears in the U.S. and U.K., too. Our detective work showed that TFWNF's effort would stand out, so we accurately claimed it as the world's largest non-U.S. tribute. Plus, we leveraged the daylong activities to speak of across-the-pond compassion.ExecutionAmong our aggressive outreach, we:• Developed releases revealing event details and quotes from U.S. and French ambassadors;• Distributed photos of the replica towers in multiple stages; • Distributed satellite coordinates to media stations to capture live event footage.OutcomeOur agency ignited conversations in social and traditional media - including 231m impressions in the first 3 days after the event. Paris was the second-most-covered city worldwide.

Our aggressive media outreach worldwide included:•Starting conversations with media in July to uncover their plans for anniversary coverage and to seed TFWNF's Paris event •Increasing TFWNF's social presence significantly by creating a U.S. version of its Facebook page, securing Twitter handle/hashtag, and encouraging fans to share messages of sympathy (July-August)•Developing two releases revealing event details and quotes of support from the U.S. and French ambassadors (July and August)•Identifying key TFWNF supporters for interviews•Securing multiple one-on-ones for former NYC Fire Commissioner Tom Von Essen (August-September)•Leveraging pro bono vendors to capture photo/video footage to share with media (August-September)•Distributing photos of the replica towers in multiple stages to build advance buzz •Coordinating a brunch for Parisian media to interview TFWNF's co-founders (September)•Distributing satellite coordinates to media stations to capture live footage (we had planned to live-stream the event over social media, but resources were limited)

Our pro bono efforts gave TFWNF $9m worth of earned media - all original articles (no funds for a wire release). Paris was the second-most-covered city for this anniversary, and coverage of our event totalled 231mn impressions in the first 3 days alone:• 68 print/online placements, including The New York Times, USA Today, Forbes, The Atlantic Wire, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Gazette (Montreal), Yahoo News, About.com, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and Bonjour Paris; • 45 broadcast segments, including ABC, CNN, CBS, Fox, MSN, NBC, Europe 1, France 3, and Radio France International.

Facebook was flooded with messages from both countries, reflecting a grassroots initiative that appealed to the emotional bond shared by France and the U.S..Resonating with U.S. media especially -through patriotic words, photos and video flowing out of France's capital city - allowed us to get TFWNF's powerful message to the American public.