Award-winning international PR for “Apturi Covid”

It was May 2020, month 3 of the pandemic, and the world was jealous of Latvia for its successful fight against the spread of Covid-19.

While the rest of the world admired this global success story, Latvia was already preparing for the second wave of the virus and, in a record-short time, built a user-friendly contact tracing app Apturi Covid.

Born out of a pro-bono not-for-profit initiative, the Apturi Covid app became one of the first apps of its kind to be built on the Google-Apple API and, with the help of the Truesix team, made headlines across the world.

Challenge

The Apturi Covid app was built in less than a month and we were involved just one week before the first press release had to be sent out. With such a tight deadline, we didn't have much time to plan and strategize, instead, we had to act promptly and decisively.

Solution

In collaboration with the developers of the app, we quickly identified the best story angles to address international media and prepared two press releases. To distribute the releases, we used the existing media lists, as well as manually created a list of journalists to address in person. We also mobilized the personal media connections of all parties involved.

Results

The Latvian Apturi Covid contact tracing app gained remarkable international publicity and was mentioned in more than 200 different media – from global news sites to popular niche publications.

After distributing the press release, we maintained communication with journalists, answered their follow-up questions, and helped to set up interviews with the key parties involved in the development of the app.

The PR campaign for Apturi Covid is a Mi:t&Links Baltic Communication Awards 2021 winner in two categories – ''Consumer Relations'' and ''C-19 Business''. It also received a Bronze in the ''No Budget'' category.