With a legacy of more than 60 years, the Eurovision Song Contest is the largest song competition in the world with the media attention to match. It was broadcast live from Tel Aviv in 2019 to more than 50 countries with more than 182 million viewers worldwide. With 41 participating countries investing significant resources to win, the Contest is widely considered as one of the biggest and most important events of the annual calendar. For Israel as the hosts, the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest was the largest and most important international event ever to take place, providing the biggest communications opportunity Israel has ever experienced. KAN, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, chose Debby Group to tell Israel’s story to the world, showcasing the multiculturalism, plurality, musical prowess and diversity of the country as the world was watching on.
The public challenge was even greater – simultaneously we had to satisfy the enormous and intense interest from the Israeli public and also successfully communicate such a grand and complex event to thousands of reporters and media channels from Israeli and international media. In order to fully achieve our objectives Debby Group assembled a professional consultant team, skilled in social events and foreign press and built an extensive work plan containing a break-down of communication strategies for various target audiences and events, including Eurovision delegations, performers and artist representatives of each country, the four Israeli hosts, nearly 100 press conferences, the Final, semi-Finals, ticketed rehearsals, the Orange Carpet event, liaising with the EBU, daily crisis management and attending to the needs of more than 1500 journalists from across the globe.
Leading our communications activities were three key messages that we emphasised in all our work. KAN, the Eurovision Song Contest and Israel. Promoting KAN, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation as a professional and innovative public media platform with interesting, relevant and high quality content. Secondly, the Eurovision Song Contest as an a-political platform which celebrates music, creativity, diversity and inclusiveness. Finally, Israel, as a country with a new historic PR opportunity to be showcased in all its glory, in the context of an international cultural event with 200 million people watching on.
Debby Group's PR team, which joined forces with media consultant Ron Granot, began working intensively around the clock months before the event in order to provide professional and real-time responses to 1,500 journalists and media outlets covering the competition. Debby Group's PR team also served as Head of Press for the Israeli delegation to Eurovision, representing Kobi Marimi in Israeli media, ensuring excellent exposure across all media outlets and platforms leading up to the competition. The team promoted other Israeli artists performing at Eurovision, securing extensive positive coverage and interview opportunities.
Such a complex, international event involving many thousands of people inevitably involves many crises along the way. The Debby PR team formulated an effective plan for crisis management and the preparation, handling, analysing, and strategic response to a plethora of crisis scenarios. In addition, the consultants faced the pressures of the influx of demands from media outlets for exclusivity and found creative solutions that led to a broad and widespread coverage of the Eurovision events in the Israeli media. During the course of work, the team managed more than 80 press conferences, dozens of journalist tours, interviews and the daily positive exposure of the event based upon our pre-defined messages of the Eurovision Song Contest throughout the world.
It was clear to us at Debby Group that the added value of an event like Eurovision was the opportunity to show the world the beautiful face of the State of Israel. Therefore, every meeting with a media person was given professional, reliable and creative attention, and a special work plan was created for photographing the Eurovision “Postcards" which featured the Eurovision singers dancing throughout the country.
Eurovision 2019 was the most-watched broadcast in the history of KAN, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation and dominated the media agenda for months. The events were extensively viewed from dozens of countries around the world, include outside of Europe. The media coverage of the event was enthusiastic and positive. Not only was the personal and professional experience unforgettable, but all involved became ambassadors of Israeli international success. The Debby Group team was attracted the highest praise for the way it handled the intense PR challenge of the event. The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was crowned as one of the most successful Eurovision events in history.
