Swedengate shows how one year of preparation, clear areas of responsibility and quick crisis management managed to transform a national crisis into the final proof of Sweden’s openness, freedom of speech and progressiveness.

What to do when the world’s media puts you in the spotlight and questions everything? When a celebrated project worldwide turns into an epic fail?

When the media storm around Curators of Sweden was at its peak, we refused to give in to the witch-hunt and to pull the plug on the project. Instead, we used the scandal to show what Sweden really stands for. Thanks to the courage and the integrity of the clients at the Swedish institute and VisitSweden, the negative charge was quickly transformed into even more positive coverage of the project.

During the year prior to the launch of the project, we played through all possible scenarios, developed a crisis management plan and defined clear responsibilities internally. A tight team consisting of the agency and representatives from both government agencies was given the authority to make quick decisions and followed the project and its tweets in real-time-direction 24/7. All media requests were answered and during a live interview in Fox News, the marketing director explained the whole idea behind the project and why Sweden stands by its curators.

Coverage: The steering committee’s courage, clarity and integrity in their response to the criticism managed to turn a negative opinion into even more positive coverage of the project in general and the country’s progressiveness in particular. Instead of critizising the project, journalists and bloggers hailed the project for its progressiveness and the proof of the freedom of speech.

Action/Business Impact: within a week, the followership increased from 32.000 to 62.000 respectively 66.000 the week later and has stayed around this number over the last eight months.

@sweden’s Klout Score increased from 63 on the 11th of june to 79 two weeks later and the accounts True Reach from 19,354 to 206,934 people. FollowFriday ranking jumped from number 171,566 to 66 globally.

More than half of the project’s overall PR value of $40 million can be directly attributed to Swedengate.