EMCDDA: Producing a launch event for a landmark report

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is the leading authority on illicit drugs in the European Union.

The agency used to invite European media to an annual press conference where they unveiled their latest statistics. But, when Covid prevented them from running their traditional unveiling, they asked us to produce the online event for them.

We researched the best tools and platforms available at the start of lockdown. We then prepared a series of animations to support video interviews with Commissioner Ylva Johansson, and their own team.

We developed the animations so they could run together to support the script for the event or be atomised to run independently on EMCDDA's social channels.

And we supported the EMCDDA's team to encourage journalists to attend the launch.

On the day 495 people attended the live press conference.

We arranged for 67 participants to put questions to expert representatives from EMCDDA.

The report's launch generated significant international media attention, including coverage in El Pais, the Financial Times and the Guardian, as well as featuring on broadcast news across Europe.

The use of the hashtag set up to track coverage showed that 5,000 organisations or individuals participated in online conversations about the report.