Opportunity
As Orlando-area leaders looked to climb the ranks of America’s best cities for startups, partners from the University of Central Florida (UCF), Florida Legislature, City of Orlando, AdventHealth and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council collaborated on a capital project to establish the new UCF Life Sciences Incubator. This innovative space would become one of only two wet-lab incubators in Florida.
As construction of the facility neared completion, we were enlisted to raise awareness of the UCF Life Sciences Incubator among potential tenants and publicize its impact on greater Orlando’s economic development.
Approach
We knew highlighting the incubator’s unique value proposition and securing the support of influential community leaders would be critical to building public trust and securing tenants. To do this, we focused on: planning and executing a celebration commemorating the milestone grand opening of an incubator with massive potential to transform the region’s economy; securing attendance of at least two public officials with influence to impact the allocation of funding critical to the incubator’s ongoing success; securing stories in the region’s major media outlets; and positioning the incubator team to secure new tenants.
Work began immediately to curate a regional list of potential incubator tenants, stakeholders and influencers for event invitations. Along with designing and overseeing distribution of invitations, our team was responsible for managing all event logistics.
Simultaneously, we crafted media materials about the incubator and designed testimonial boards featuring two tenant companies that had already entered into contract. We also developed a news release about the grand opening and crafted reactive message points to address how this differed from a similar project that had previously failed.
As part of the run-of-show, we drafted remarks for UCF’s Interim Provost and Associate Vice President for Innovation and Commercialization, and engaged public officials to deliver complementary opening remarks. This led into a special grand opening moment, when a commemorative cornerstone plaque was unveiled. Afterward, knowledgeable incubator personnel provided personalized tours for guests. Following the event, we distributed a news release and photos to media who could not attend, as well as to a broader list of outlets with the potential to reach our key publics.
Impact
We secured more than 75 attendees for the event, including a state senator and City of Orlando commission. An Orlando Sentinel photojournalist captured our grand opening moment, and the community paper sent a reporter to cover the event. We also landed an Orlando Business Journal feature story and Orlando’s ABC affiliate covered the incubator opening as part of an ongoing series on innovation beyond the region’s hallmark tourism industry. In all, our efforts resulted in 13 traditional and social media placements – including a retweet of an Orlando Sentinel post by Sen. Marco Rubio – immediately following the event, and an additional 12 stories over the next three months, for a total potential reach of 10.8 million.
By November 2018, half of the incubator’s available space was occupied.
This award-winning campaign was honored with a Florida Public Relations Association Orlando-Area Chapter Image Award of Distinction.
