Marine Week/America250 Ceremony at Fort Sewall in Marblehead
JGPR gathered members of the media and social media influencers to capture and preserve the Marine Week Boston ceremony held at Fort Sewall in Marblehead, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps.
SECTOR
Municipal
CLIENT
The Town of Marblehead
GOAL
To gather members of the media and social media influencers to capture and preserve the Marine Week Boston ceremony held at Fort Sewall in Marblehead, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Background
Through JGPR’s event planning and support services, drawing upon our success with America250 commemorative events such as Lex250 and the Battle of Bunker Hill 250th, combined with our extensive media relations expertise, JGPR helped immortalize the U.S. Marine Corps 250th birthday celebration held in Marblehead at historic Fort Sewall. The event was a part of Marine Week Boston, and was one of two events throughout the week held outside of the City of Boston, making it extremely meaningful for the Marblehead community.
The event included the United States Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon, the Quantico Marine Band, a salute by Glover’s Regiment, and a dramatic flyover of four Marine Corps F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.
The event came together quickly, with only three weeks to plan and execute a comprehensive strategy. The Town of Marblehead and Marblehead Police brought in JGPR to manage media relations, credentialing and event logistics for the Town.
Our team worked directly with Marine Corps Public Affairs and the office of U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, and JGPR took the overall lead on media relations. We procured several media outlets and social media influencers to cover the event on Thursday, Aug. 21.
Concept
In less than one week, JGPR executed an aggressive media strategy to maximize the reach, earned media and social media coverage of the Marine Week Boston celebration at Fort Sewall in Marblehead on Thursday, Aug. 21. From Friday, Aug. 15, when the initial media advisory was distributed, to the day before the event, JGPR leveraged our media relations expertise and aggressively pitched the event to members of the media and social media influencers, with an additional focus on local media and military news outlets. JGPR also provided on-scene support, photography, live social media posting, and credentialing. We ensured that the attending press and new media were in the best position to capture a spirited celebration honoring the 250th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps and Marblehead’s unique connection to the Corps.
Hundreds of people attended, including many Marine Corps veterans. Coverage via television, radio, newspaper, online and social media personalities documented the day.
Components
Comprehensive media strategy, including daily media advisories, direct pitching, and arranging pre-event interviews to maximize media attendance at the event.
Site visit in the days leading up to the event to ensure that members of the media had the best vantage point to capture all aspects of the event, including speeches and the Marine Corps flyover.
Designing, ordering, and managing credentials for members of the media to access the coordinated media staging area.
JGPR Associate Payton Hebert managed media on the ground during the event and arranged interviews between the media and the Town Administrator — maintaining a focus on the client.
JGPR Public Safety Liaison Robert Mills produced high-quality photos to be used on Town social media accounts.
Event planning and logistics, including a public awareness campaign, communicating key public safety details like parking and public transportation, using social media graphics.
Impact
JGPR reached a combined audience of over 8.97 million-plus between social media and television/print media placements with an estimated publicity value of over $57,000.
Several Boston social media accounts posted about the event, expanding the event’s reach. Among those accounts are Only in Boston, which has 281K followers on Facebook and 558K on Instagram, and Live Boston News, which has an Instagram following of 147K.
Each of these placements produced favorable coverage of the event, showcasing the speeches, flyover, performances, and the spirit of community and pride established through the ceremony.