An everyday cornerstone-laying ceremony turned into a debate stage: how Reterra’s messages made it into Tallinn’s coalition agreement

Media coverage of new real estate developments has become saturated. Cornerstone and topping-out ceremonies are routine in the sector and typically generate only three to five pieces of coverage in industry media. The client’s expectation was to bring renewed attention to an already widely discussed new urban district across television, radio, and print/online media.

We identified an opportunity to leverage the pre-election period. By tapping into the media’s heightened interest in the elections, we brought the Tallinn candidates of seven major political parties to the construction site for a debate in the context of the local elections. Participants included lead candidates, former ministers, and deputy mayors.

Objectives

1. To raise awareness in the media of a pressing issue in the real estate sector: the slow processing of development procedures, which drives up property prices and hinders the city’s economic growth.
2. To proactively engage senior politicians seeking positions in the city government, positioning the client as a thought leader on the issue and strengthening collaborative ties between the developer and policymakers.

To achieve these objectives, we combined PR with government relations. Through the debate, we proactively created a connection between the future city government and real estate developers, using the client’s key messages as the basis for the discussion in order to clearly communicate the sector’s main concerns to policymakers.

Results

• We secured coverage across television, radio, and print/online media. Over a two-week period, a total of 22 pieces of coverage were published across various channels, including ERR, TV3 News, Postimees, Delfi, and others.
• The estimated reach of the coverage was nearly 700,000 potential media contacts.
• As expected, the pre-election period also generated organic reach through the social media channels of politicians and event guests.
• Urmas Reinsalu, chairman of Isamaa, brought two key discussion points into coalition negotiations, and both were later included in the coalition agreement:
  • How, and to what extent, should the city contribute to improving housing affordability?
  • What steps should be taken to speed up the processing of planning procedures in Tallinn?

Meta team

Mirjam Mäesalu Project Manager, Senior Consultant

Janet Õunapuu Consultant

Patrik Saksus Assistant

Gregor Sibold Senior Consultant