Αθεnative: A place to be

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AD DISCOVERY — CREATIVITY Stories by ADandPRLAB

10 min readJul 1, 2021

Introduction

As part of the Εvent management Lab with Mrs. Athena Fradelou and Mrs Betty Tsakarestou in charge, we, the EVENTually team, were invited to organize an event that would prove that Athens is an ideal destination for every season. Our main idea was to promote Athens as the top destination for all seasons by insisting on Greece’s multicultural integral part. We want people from all over the world to acknowledge Athens as a place which can certainly provide diverse content, as a center to a lot of cultures and as a safe place for anyone. Overall, the absolute combination of greek authenticity but also with multicultural elements.

SWOT Analysis of Athens

Firstly, we will begin with a SWOT analysis of our city, Athens in order to point out it’s strengths and to mention and analyze the opportunities, the weaknesses and the threats.

As regards the strengths of Athens we end up with the fact that it is the crossroad to everywhere you want to go in Greece. It is a standard stop before Greek islands. It has rich ancient culture and history and important cultural centers, for instance Stavros Niarxos. It is famous for its hospitality and geniality. It’s mediterranean weather is also an important strength. Visitors also have access to beaches within walking distance of Athens.

The main weaknesses of Athens are it’s criminality. In addition, it is an unattractive urban landscape due to the poor garbage management, the lack of greenery, and the traffic. Besides, there are not many airline connections to other cities.

Thinking about the opportunities of our city we came to the conclusion that it is not promoted as much as other cities. It can improve it’s infrastructure. It can also use the Olympique properties. Moreover, Athens can be promoted as a multicultural area.

As for the threats COVID-19 is an international problem for countries’ tourism. So, it could not but affect Greece. Furthermore, Greece is preferred for seasonal domestic destinations, islands in summer and mountain destinations in winter. Other cities such as Paris, Rome, Barcelona, London are also an important threat.

Our main competitors

We continued with the competitor analysis. We chose five cities, Rome, Barcelona, Paris and Constantinople whose characteristics make them significant tourism competitors for Athens.

More specifically, these cities have a rich culture and history but they are also famous for their architecture. They combine the urban and the natural environment. Moreover, they are characterized by multiculturalism. An important advantage is also their good public transportation. Additionally, Rome and Paris are fashion centers with the most famous fashion houses. Their cuisines compete greek cuisine.

Strategy and Communication Plan

First of all our strategy plan focuses on our product which is the Αθεnative, Athens. The production is free for the audience and is taking place in Zappeion, Ergon, Concert Hall and it will also be streamed live on YouTube live-streaming. We decided to promote our event through Social Media (Instagram, Facebook). We also create a site for the event and a newsletter, press release and listings.

Our profit will be the publicity and the economical long term thanks to tourism. We will also collaborate and have some partnerships with COSMOTE, municipality of Athens, Ergon, Zappeion and Concert hall. The personnel of the event are the staff of the hostess venues.

Now, moving forward to the communication plan we have already decided the days that we will inform the audience of the upcoming event. To be more specific: 15/7–15/8 we promote our event through the site, newsletter, press, social media, release and paid advertisements.

Then 16/8–30/9 day to day we will have social media, newsletter, paid ads and event partnerships. 1/10–7/10 it’s the last call of the event: final newsletter, socialist media and event partnerships. And last but not least, 8/10 -10/10 it’s the day of the event and we will promote it on social media and on live streaming.

Logo

During the discussion of our logo we concluded that we wanted a design that would best fit the Athenative Way. Our first draft had too much information in it and we decided that we wanted something more minimal with a modern touch that would also represent best the past and the future of Athens. As we were designing the logo we noticed the need to have a smaller logo that is also part of the main one. This one fitted best in the concept of our need for our event to be memorable and mesmerizing. Our mini logo was designed in a minimal way and is easy to remember.

Tagline

The Tagline that we picked was “A place you can be”. That’s the main message of our event! Athens is a place you can be whoever you want, a place you can be happy, adventurous, introvert, extrovert, whatever and whoever you want to be. This majestic city offers you everything and you will surely be satisfied.

Poster

Pop art is surely trending lately so for our poster we wanted to catch that vibe and pick a design that can combine pop art with classic art. An alternative or better yet an Αθεnative way for people to notice the event from our posters!

5W’s

Next, we list the 5W (what, who, why, when and where). Starting from “what”, we refer to our event, which we have named Athenative, and it will be with free admission, 3-day workshops, promotion on social media and sending invitations by mail. Then, with “who”, we refer to the organizers, to the EVENTually team and to the Municipality of Athens. All this is happening (“why”) because, we want to promote the image of Athens as a cosmopolitan place. The event will take place (“when”) on October 8–10, 2021, at the Athens Concert Hall, in Zappeion, at Ergon House (“where”) and of course it will be broadcasted via YouTube Live Streaming.

Target Group

Regarding the target group we want to attract and invite 100 people from different European cities. We address mainly food & travel bloggers, famous Greeks with a pan-European reputation (artists, athletes, journalists, etc.). Finally, we would like to host famous philhellenes and influencers.

Subject Areas

Our team, in terms of choosing the themes for the promotion of Athens, decided on the themes: “History and Tradition”, “Wine and Gastronomy” and “Modern Culture” as each theme has special characteristics and show of the city in their own unique way. More specifically, in the thematic “History and Tradition”, by focusing and taking into account the importance of the past and history, our goal is to inform and familiarize foreign tourists with the Greek-European culture and tradition. In the theme “Wine and Gastronomy” we chose to combine Greek flavors and traditional food with European gastronomy and local products of other cultures.

From this combination emerges the creation of a different and creative gastronomy that the guest can try in Athens. Finally, the theme “Modern Culture” focuses on modern art, museums, architecture and folklore.

Workshops

Since our event lasts 3 days, each day will be dedicated to each of the themes we have chosen. Each day of the event includes speeches by approved people from each industry and workshops in order to ensure the interaction and participation of our audience. An illustrative example is the day of the theme “Wine and Gastronomy”, where guests will have the opportunity to participate and help chefs in creating a dish that will combine Greek cuisine with another culture.

Programs

As mentioned before, our event will last 3 days and each day of the event is dedicated to each of the 3 themes. It is scheduled for October 8–9–10, 2021 On Friday, October 8, the event will take place in Zappeion and will last 3 hours (18:00–21:00). On Saturday, October 9, it will take place at the Ergon House from 17:00–21:00 and on Sunday, October 10, at the Athens Concert Hall from 17:00–21:00.

Divercity app

Many of you know the achievements of Athens, many of you know the monuments of Athens and its cultural parts. However, what many people do not know is its hidden spots! The state is known, society is not. We want to approach buildings that represent the social and aesthetic of old Athens, as people have built history rather than books. Through a game you can meet Athens and its straits! You can learn about modern civilization, but also about the history of Greece. Divercity app is a unique way to know Athens! Follow the path you like and scan the QR codes!

Site

The online presence of our event is necessary, and that’s why we created our site. On the site visitors can see all the information they need about both the event and the idea behind it and the general prominence of Athens. Of course, our speakers have a dominant role on the site. Look at the program details and each day’s speakers and useful information for them. Visitors can quickly and easily download “Divercity app” as well as make a first contact with it. Finally, you can look in detail at our sponsors who play an important role in the event’s implementation.

www.athenative.com

Social Media

For the social media part, we created a YouTube channel, named Athenative, in order to broadcast the Athenative live streaming, for anyone wanting to attend the event from home. Also, videos of the speeches, the workshops and the closing party will be uploaded on the channel after the completion of the event.

Furthermore, we created an Instagram account for the event, named athenative_, to upload event posters and some information about the guest speakers, so people get to know them better and, of course, stay tuned. We, also, followed the guest speakers in order to have interaction with them, via reposted stories and posts about the event and, by this, to promote the Athenative live streaming event to an even bigger audience.

In order to keep people posted about the event, we created an email newsletter. The email newsletter would reach people that signed up for the live streaming event and keep them posted about the days left until the event, the schedule and the guest speakers. Of course, we, also, added the link that will lead people directly to the live streaming when the time comes. Last but not least, we added a “Get to know more about Athenative” section attaching the link of the Athenative site below and, of course, a “Share with friends!” section with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn sharing options.

Digital Listing

In order to make the event more viral we made a digital listing to invite more and more people to Aθεnative:

Press Release

We also made a press release to summarize our event, so people can understand better what it stands for:

Our Sponsors

We had to find resources to make our dream event happen! For that reason, we found some sponsors from significant fields for the economy, with a big impact on consumers’ behavior.

Some of them are: Aegean, Cosmote, Ergon, ΕΜΣΤ, Onassis,Project Soma, Papadopoulou, Tsantali etc

It was a win-win situation, as we were able to complete the event as we wanted, and they got to advertise themselves and be in the spotlight of interest.

We also had some Media sponsors, who helped us spread the word and achieve WOM marketing. Many thanks to 24 media, Lifo, Athens Voice, Mega, Kathimerini, Shedia.

In order to “spoil” our special guests, we designed a promotional tote bag, which was filled with greek products they could, later, enjoy and remember their time back in Greece.

Our Proposals

On the occasion of the event, we would like to promote some proposals that we believe will help Athens to become an ideal tourist destination. First of all, the government should invest in multicultural restaurants so that tourists will feel familiar when visiting Athens. Additionally, as the image of a city is very important to tourism, Athens should organise cleaning projects to take care of the urban center, and build up a more eco-friendly attitude. Lastly, the improved and cleaned public transport will surely make up tourists’ impression about this very everyday and necessary tool when travelling.

EVENTually Team