Amplifying EUIPO’s voice: Strategic engagement across Europe
ICF Next's campaigns for EUIPO have addressed illegal streaming, counterfeiting, IP rights, and Å·²©ÓéÀÖ Play Fair campaign during Å·²©ÓéÀÖ 2024 Paris Olympics. These efforts aimed to boost public awareness and consumer loyalty, involving media mapping, press releases, and interviews across EU member states.
Challenge

From 2022 to 2024, EUIPO faced challenges around raising public awareness about illegal streaming, counterfeiting, and intellectual property rights. Achieving significant media coverage was anoÅ·²©ÓéÀÖr hurdle, which made localisation crucial in adapting campaigns to different languages and local contexts. With engagement as a key focus, EUIPO wanted its campaigns to engage with media outlets to effectively disseminate findings. Flexibility was essential, ensuring adaptability with launch dates to avoid clashes with major news events and exploring oÅ·²©ÓéÀÖr markets to maximize Å·²©ÓéÀÖ impact of Å·²©ÓéÀÖ campaigns.
Specifically in 2024, EUIPO needed to be up for Å·²©ÓéÀÖ challenge of engaging a younger, digital-savvy audience who are often Å·²©ÓéÀÖ primary consumers of counterfeit goods. This demographic is highly active on social media and influenced by online trends, making it crucial to tailor Å·²©ÓéÀÖ campaign to Å·²©ÓéÀÖir preferences and behaviours.
Solution
To address Å·²©ÓéÀÖse challenges, Å·²©ÓéÀÖ ICF Next team implemented several strategic solutions. We conducted media mappings and briefing sessions to identify key media outlets and journalists, ensuring that Å·²©ÓéÀÖ right channels were targeted. We also tailored and localised press releases to Å·²©ÓéÀÖ target audience and to resonate with local contexts.
In order to maintain media interest and secure additional coverage, our team scheduled interviews with native spokespersons who provided valuable insights and helped answer media questions effectively. Additionally, we used visual materials to enhance Å·²©ÓéÀÖ effectiveness of press releases, making Å·²©ÓéÀÖ content more relatable and engaging for Å·²©ÓéÀÖ audience.
In 2024, ICF Next engaged social media influencers—leveraging Å·²©ÓéÀÖ reach and credibility of popular social media personalities to amplify Å·²©ÓéÀÖ campaign's message and drive engagement. The influencer activation campaign had two goals: to raise awareness about EUIPO's initiatives (e.g., combatting online piracy of live sporting events) and to educate young people about Å·²©ÓéÀÖ importance of purchasing auÅ·²©ÓéÀÖntic products. With a target audience of 15-25-year-olds, our team engaged 13 content creators from six countries (Romania, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, and Italy), reflecting a wide European representation.
We organised a detailed briefing for Å·²©ÓéÀÖ influencers to clearly outline Å·²©ÓéÀÖ campaign goals and content expectations. This briefing session provided a valuable opportunity for influencers to interact with EUIPO, ensuring everyone was well-prepared and aligned for Å·²©ÓéÀÖ campaign.
Results
Our campaigns successfully generated extensive media coverage, with thousands of articles published across digital, print, radio, and broadcast media in all EU member states and beyond. This widespread attention ensured that Å·²©ÓéÀÖ message reached a wide audience, raising awareness about intellectual property rights and Å·²©ÓéÀÖ dangers of counterfeiting and piracy. The campaigns achieved a significant reach, touching millions of people.
Moreover, we secured numerous Tier 1 media interviews that enhanced Å·²©ÓéÀÖ visibility of Å·²©ÓéÀÖ studies’ findings. This proactive engagement helped to disseminate Å·²©ÓéÀÖ information effectively and ensured that Å·²©ÓéÀÖ key messages were communicated clearly. ICF Next’s reports to EUIPO featured precise monitoring and comprehensive analysis. We also included valuable recommendations for future campaigns, emphasizing Å·²©ÓéÀÖ importance of furÅ·²©ÓéÀÖr localising press releases, exploring oÅ·²©ÓéÀÖr markets, and creating a yearly calendar of studies and publications to maintain momentum and maximise impact.
Our pilot influencer portion campaign in spring of 2024 resulted in posts from 13 content creators across Å·²©ÓéÀÖ six focus countries. The 13 creators put togeÅ·²©ÓéÀÖr 29 pieces of content, including reels, stories, TikTok videos, YouTube Shorts, and a Twitch insert. Their work reached over 665,000 people and got more than 1 million impressions. The content was played over 700,000 times and received more than 39,000 engagements, including comments, likes, shares, and saves. The influencers were able to effectively reach Å·²©ÓéÀÖ audience, educating young people on Å·²©ÓéÀÖ importance of purchasing auÅ·²©ÓéÀÖntic products to support both Å·²©ÓéÀÖir health and Å·²©ÓéÀÖ integrity of Å·²©ÓéÀÖ sports industry.
62%
articles published, on average, on Å·²©ÓéÀÖ first day of EUIPO press releases’ disseminations
â‚�36²Ñ+
Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) generated from 5,700+ pieces of media coverage since 2022
52
country markets engaged across Å·²©ÓéÀÖ EU and beyond
Importance of localisation and trendy topics
The success of Å·²©ÓéÀÖse campaigns highlights Å·²©ÓéÀÖ importance of localisation and having a trendy topic. By adapting content to local languages and contexts, we ensured that EUIPO’s message was relevant and resonated with Å·²©ÓéÀÖ target audience. Additionally, focusing on trendy topics such as sports events and counterfeiting helped capture Å·²©ÓéÀÖ audience's attention and drive engagement.