In 2012, we were challenged with promoting the 40th anniversary Templeton Prize, an award largely unknown outside scientific and religious circles that had received limited media or social media attention to date.

Our objective, set in February, was to boost public awareness of the prize and to deliver a spectacular award ceremony in May at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, befitting the recipient, the Dalai Lama.

With inevitable media interest in the recipient, our key messages needed to be delivered despite the political questions.

We developed a '360-degree exclusivity' media strategy to give as many exclusives as possible to maximise control of the final output.

We also needed the right participants at the event to reflect the global significance of the prize and to create future ambassadors.

The result was comprehensive international coverage in broadcast, print and online including: a full page in the UK Sunday Telegraph; the front page of The Times in London; interviews with the BBC Radio 4 Today Program and Sky News; a piece by Arianna Huffington on her site. As part of our social media campaign, we negotiated a tweet from the Dalai Lama’s personal Twitter account posting a link to our release, and created a buzz that saw the Dalai Lama trending.

This, alongside a hugely successful event, resulted in vastly improved global understanding of the Templeton Prize, with an advocate in the Dalai Lama who still speaks well of the prize in public. It has since been described as akin to the Nobel.

The build-up

March 2012 - pre-announcement social media campaign hinting at winner’s identity; building communities of interested parties; identified potential guests

29 March - announced winner on Twitter, distributed and sold-in traditional press release

April - began negotiations for pre-ceremony exclusive interview with Dalai Lama in US but switched at short notice for different journalist to fly to Dharamsala, India

April/May – co-ordinated all aspects of event management for 2,300 guests, VIP lunch and reception

The day

07:00 – Interview with BBC Radio 4

09:00 – Press conference rehearsal with host Jonathan Dimbleby; live tweeting

10:00 – Press conference with over 40 media, syndicated live

11:00 – Sky News interview

11:20 – Huffington Post interview

12:45 – Doors open for ceremony

13:00 – Photographers and reporters arrive

13:45 – Ceremony begins

15:00 – Post-ceremony reception for VIPs and invited guests

Following week

• Post ceremony social media engagement

• Follow-up story of blessed girl in The Sun, UK

• Endorsement from celebrity attendees

Global media exposure:

Print - 1,000+ written pieces about the Prize - including The Times London front page

Online – Arianna Huffington exclusive and 8,000+ online mentions

Broadcast – Television and radio footage in 20+ countries, including BBC Radio 4

AVE of top 28 outlets reached $11 million ($1.1m in 2011).

Social conversation:

• #TempPrize hashtag tweeted to Dalai Lama’s 4.8 million followers

• 6,000 clicks in 100+ countries following @DalaiLama tweet with link to news release

• 50-fold increase in online mentions

• Seven-fold rise in YouTube views

• One week - key words tweeted 1,300+ times

• Radio 4 interview trended on Twitter

Ambassadors

Secured audience of 2,134 including 594 VIPs

Sentiment and key messages

• Print - 100% positive sentiment

• Some key messages in 100% of coverage

• Every key message in 79% of UK coverage

Dominance

• Unavoidable event - agenda-leading stories before and after

• Worldwide exposure – Templeton Prize catapulted from the unknown to global significance.