Twin Cities PR campaign wins media buzz

The PR effort for Minneapolis St. Paul’s Republican National Convention overcomes challenges to win favorable media coverage

When a political convention comes to town, your city moves onto the national and international stage. It’s a prime PR opportunity for getting some great coverage of your town, assuming you can muster the money and the resources to get the job done. Teresa McFarland’s Minnesota PR firm recently completed a months-long effort to generate buzz when the Republican National Convention came to town in early September. Here’s how she and her team showed off “Minnesota nice” at its best.

No budget, and not much time: Last spring, McFarland, partner in McFarland Cahill Communications in Prior Lake, Minn., took on the job of communications director for the Minneapolis St. Paul 2008 Host Committee. The brief for McFarland and her PR firm: Ensure that when thousands of delegates and journalists descend on the cities for the RNC convention, the media takeaway on the two cities is nothing but glowing.