The Challenge

Ensuring the attendance of 6,300 delegates (and a further 10,000+ online) at one of the world’s largest multi-sectoral conferences required a deft, nuanced communications plan. 

Edelman Africa was tasked with advancing, supporting and executing this strategy for the Women Deliver 2023 Conference (WD2023), one of the most important convenings to advance gender equality across the world, taking place for the first time on the African continent – in Kigali, Rwanda. 

We were asked to create moments, before, during and after WD2023 to enable a consistent drumbeat of content, building awareness and engagement around the objectives of the conference. To do so, we needed to tell a holistic story that naturally incorporated the WD2023 conference objectives as an important part of Women Deliver’s broader efforts.

The Strategy

Using Women Deliver’s visual identity, Edelman created a striking, unique conference identity which was applied to all communication and branding leading up to and at the conference. The use of organic shapes and patterns gave the conference an African feel. 

In addition to the brand book, a sponsors co-branding book was developed to give direction to funders and partners on how to correctly apply the Women Deliver 2023 branding. 

Women Deliver initiated a scholarship programme providing opportunities for up-and-coming journalists and content creators who often struggle to access mainstream platforms. 

Edelman worked with Women Deliver to manage the call to action and vetting process up until a month before the conference, allowing the chosen media scholars and content creators ample time to prepare and align their coverage with the event’s themes. 

Edelman further invited, meticulously vetted, and accredited hundreds of mainstream journalists from across the globe, seeking credible professionals with a responsible reporting history on gender-related issues.

The Execution

Edelman produced video content that highlighted the WD2023 Conference objectives and themes as an important part of WDs broader efforts to advance gender equality, as well as demonstrate the impact the previous conference had and how these conferences catalyse action. 

In the countdown to the WD2023 Conference, Women Deliver focused on creating awareness of the importance for action on gender equality. We asked ten Women Deliver advocates to create a 60’ video which shone the spotlight on the diversity of voices on their platforms, highlight the work being done to drive gender equality, and inspire others to join the Feminist Movement by showing how they could get involved. 

Edelman also began a “matchmaking” process with the initial list of 15-20 confirmed speakers, connecting the dots between languages, regions, and themes/topics. As the speaker list grew to over 80, we prioritised inbound media requests and those matchmaking opportunities we had already coordinated. 

All in all, we facilitated approximately 50 connections between journalists and speakers or their communications team.

The Outcome

On the ground, we developed an opening and closing press release, as well as five partner media releases. 

We facilitated six fireside chats in the conference media lounge and 20 interviews with WD2023 spokespeople. 

Further, we developed five opinion pieces focusing on Women Deliver Conference themes. 

Combining Women Deliver’s visual identity and an organic use of African styles, we formed the art direction and created a visually striking aesthetic that carried through all event branding. 

240+ media and content creators attended the conference, and we achieved over 1,300 pieces of earned coverage and mentions valued at $15.3.