Imagine, 350 journalists from all over the world and 40 celebrity music acts, such as Earth Wind &Fire and Youssou N'Dour, attending a festival that brands itself "Africa's Grandest Gathering". Taking on a project like this: Media Relations for the 12th Cape Town International Jazz Festival that took place on March 25-26 2011, seemed a daunting task. We were called on stage late in the process, and began our work in mid December, before our contract was even signed. Announcing 50% of the line-up for the Jazz Festival, a first press conference took place in Cape Town mid January, and a second press conference was held in Johannesburg mid February, announcing the other 50% of the artists to perform at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.

When espAfrika, founder and organiser of this lifestyle festival, first communicated the line-up of the 12th Cape Town International Jazz Festival, there was great awe amongst the journalists as Wayne Shorter was to perform. For the jazzlovers I wouldn't have to explain who he is, veteran saxophonist, legend in his genre of Jazz and if you believe Grammy Award winning Esperanza Spalding, "voice of music in any genre". However for anybody that's not a jazz lover nor music fundi and consumes popular music, it shall be a stretch for them to know who Wayne Shorter is. So there was a good deal of biography reading that this full service communications company, Chatroom, had to do to understand what it is about an artist biography that was going to be a relevant story angle. Evan Milton, who is a journalist that knows his music artists, interviewed Wayne Shorter and said that it was the best interview of his life. He writes in his articles that, "A music interview often begins by referencing musicians the subjects has played with and Wayne Shorter, however, is the kind of living legend that other artists reference." From this interview you get a good idea of the versatility and depth of how music artists interpret their work – often, there will be philosophical meaning or political messages that they portray, so there is a lot to learn and story angles to derive from any of these artists. Roshnie Moonsamy, Director of the Urban Voices International Arts Festival who participated in Gwen Ansell's arts journalism course, said to me at the Media Centre that it was so important for these musicians to name their band members who will be performing with them as it will give an experienced music journalist an idea of what angle the music will take.

Today it is Africa's grandest gathering with close to 350 media accreditations issued for press from all over the globe and a further 100 accreditations that were refused because of limited space. Previous accreditation processes, which did not include formal structures, had to be changed to an impartial system. During the process of implementation a team of 2-5 people from Chatroom and espAfrika were continuously assisting journalists as they had to write a motivation and provide an editor's commissioning letter for the work that they were going to complete before, during and after the festival. Furthermore, we were continuously feeding information to the IT providers in order to improve the system and make it even more user-friendly to the journalists. In the coming year, this system will be optimised to allow a smooth process for both sides. Accreditation of course, was restricted to working journalists. The list of 350 privileged journalists to receive accreditation for the festival would be permitted access to one-on-one interviews with the artists at the press conferences at the Pepper Club, as well as access to the media centre and the so-called media pits in front of the stages, open to photographers and videographers at the festival itself. There had to be some criteria in order to fill the 350 limited places. Therefore we developed a quota that would allow both international, African and South African media to have access to the festival. Furthermore, there had to be a quota for TV, radio, print and online in order to have a balance of media present. This led to many an online journalist or blogger having to be declined, not because they weren't as important, but because there were just so many that applied for accreditation proportionally.

Coveted, the one-on-one interviews with artists and approximately 20 press conferences, had to be scheduled to take place on the day before the festival and the two festival days. To a large extent, we were accommodating artist requests. Most artists do not like to have a press conference or interviews on the day of their performance and one-on-one interviews had to be scheduled after a press conference of an artist. Then there were travel schedules to be considered, that kept changing. Imagine having to attend a press conference when you are jet-lagged. A combination of artist requests and espAfrika strategic guidelines on media to receive pre-scheduled interviews had led to a detailed interview schedule being set up for all artists. Journalists sent wish lists of artists to interview and we allocated artist interviews to media requests as per artist and espAfrika brief. Approx. 700 interview wishes had to be allocated to 40 music acts and a max. of 160 interview spots with some well-known artists only allowing for a max. of 2 interviews. However when it came to the first day of press conferences and our first artist arriving almost 45 min. late for their press conference, it became clear that a lot of re-scheduling was going to take place on our feet. Artists weren't feeling well, were jet-lagged, decided to look after their well-being or do some sight-seeing, rather than attending their scheduled press conference, and who could deny them in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Cape Town. Of course artist PR agents, or artists themselves had been informed about their media interactions, however, let's consider this: they are artists and what they are all about is being focused on their respective shows, being creative and wooing audiences. All in all, over 3 days, 19 press conferences were held and 166 one-on-one interviews facilitated.

Have you ever been in a "pit"? This was quite an experience. 50 photographers and videographers descending on one show, as it turned out to be with the very well-known acts such as Earth Wind and Fire and Youssou N'Dour. Now, photographers are only allowed to take pictures during the first 15 minutes of a show and videographers are on strict rules of "2 minutes up, 3 minutes down", following a sequence of max. 3 rounds. This had to be monitored, because it is one of the crucial legal aspects for the event organiser to be adhering to all music rights agreed upon with artists. Somebody filming a whole song of any of the artists and putting it up on YouTube, would land the event organiser in court. There were 6 stages during the two festival days with non-stop performances to be monitored, so it was great to have many a volunteer media student on board that helped and held their own telling off one or the other journalist. However, mostly, the rules were adhered to by journalists.

The results? Many a media story, including the covers of Tonight by Therese Owen, The Next 48 Hours by Naushad Kahn and 021 Cape, TV footage shown on eTV, CNN and Reuters as well as several pages of editorial in BBQ, Wanted and Opulent Living, it was great fun seeing the results of all the hard work. Also, many international articles and footage were received, including the largest radio station in Kenya, Capital FM, eBotswana and several German radio stations. Some of the international media who gave more in-depth coverage of the festival included the CTV (Chinese TV), covering their local talent Hanjin and Voice of America who followed the 2011 Festival from the first artist's announcement until completion.

PR and Brand Design: Chatroom was tasked to develop the brand design for Winchester Mansions. Chatroom is coordinating Public Relations for the hotel, restaurant and special events such as the Sunday Jazz Brunches and the Grape Gourmet evenings.

Action Steps

• Brand Development incl. Brand Identity workshop, brand design and internal communication of the revamp
• Development of marketing material
• Ongoing PR activities for the hotel, restaurant and special events
• Provide architecture of participation for social media

Outcome

• Brand Identity with revamp of the brand throughout all applications
• Marketing material, including brochures for English and German speaking audiences
• Free editorial coverage including radio for the hotel, restaurant and special events
• Active social media presence
• Strong positioning of the brand
• Increased brand awareness throughout the service chain and emotional bond to the brand

Client Profile

Winchester Mansions is a leading seafront hotel in Cape Town.

visit website of Winchester Mansions