The Challenge

Prosper Africa is the White House Initiative to increase two-way trade and investment between the United States and Africa. It offers US Government services and resources to help companies and investors do business in U.S. and African markets, bringing prosperity – and billions of dollars in investment – to both sides of the Atlantic. 

Edelman was tasked with supporting Prosper Africa in hosting the USALS - this included event support, media relations, content creation, and social media engagement. We needed to bring forward the rarely seen narrative that Africa presents tremendous, two-way investment opportunities, and that increased economic engagement between Africa and America will create jobs, economic growth, and shared prosperity. 

Western narratives about Africa focus on stories of death, disease, and despair – over-emphasising risk for U.S. investors. The USALS was a way to change those narratives. At the heart of our strategy was to use the summit as a platform to introduce new stories, a new narrative, a new way of talking about Africa.

The Strategy

Not only did we need to reposition and rebrand Prosper Africa, we also needed to ensure their mission would be highlighted among a sea of announcements, events, celebrity appearances, government and business partnerships, and more. 

To stand out, we enhanced their visual identity for the summit – using bold colours and patterns that captured the African and American collaboration aesthetic. This identity was used throughout the event in all collateral. 

We then created a pipeline of content to ensure in-person attendees, as well as those at home, could engage with the events of the week. At the main event – the U.S. - Africa Business Forum – we supported the creation of a media studio to capture live interviews of business leaders who were committing to investing in African business.

The Execution

With only six weeks before the event’s kick off, we structured an integrated team of media specialists, content creators, and public sector event experts in our Johannesburg and Washington D.C. offices. 

This team was split into workstreams: event protocol, content creation, media relations, and social media, to establish ownership and accountability for all elements. 

We then created a communications strategy to ensure a steady pipeline of content leading up to, during, and following the event. At the same time, we overhauled Prosper Africa's approach to social media management to ensure they were geared toward growing their platforms.

The Outcome

Pre-event innovators reception: Press release = 29 pieces of coverage 

Deal room press release: 325 pieces of coverage in Africa / over 300 pieces of coverage globally, with 20+ media in deal room. 

African coverage from Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco:
30.2K engagements on #USAfricaLeadersSummit.

Prosper Africa yielded 6.6K engagements.