EUMETSAT: launching Europe’s new generation of weather satellites

Context

In the current context of climate change, severe weather events are becoming more frequent and impact all regions across Europe. European communities and their economies will be the direct beneficiaries of a revolutionary new meteorological satellite system, Meteosat Third Generation. EUMETSAT (Europe’s meteorological satellite agency) and ESA (European Space Agency) started to deploy this new system as from December 2022. The Meteosat Third Generation system  (MTG-I1) is the most complex and innovative geostationary meteorological satellite system ever built. The purpose of this multi-billion-euro investment is to provide meteorological informations with a vastly increased level of precision which will help protecting lives, property and infrastructure.

Objectives

The new satellite constellation will consist in 6 satellites that will replace the current devices. The objective is to finish the whole deployment process by 2025. In that context, EUMETSAT wanted to officially announce the launch of the first satellite and get the most possible coverage in the European media. The first phase of the campaign consisted in organizing a media briefing in Brussels, where all European press correspondents and Belgian national media were invited. In a second phase, we organized physical and virtual press events in 6 European countries (France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and UK).

Results

In parallel with the new satellites’ enhanced abilities and performances, we focused our angle on the “saving lives” aspect they will bring. That topic was very attractive for the main media and created enthusiasm from reporters, who wanted to receive details and speak with the developers of these new devices. As a result, the main Belgian media attended the briefing in Brussels (print, online, radios and tv channels), as well as major press correspondents, among others: Le Monde, EFE, ANSA, AFP, Czech news agency, Reuters, Swiss and Swedish radios. A dozen of interviews were organized with EUMETSAT managers and the Belgian meteorological institute, leading to an impressive coverage, reaching regions such as Latin/Central America and Asia. Insticom also led the second phase of the project. We worked together with our Worldcom partners from France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK, who secured and managed media presence to local events, as well as interviews (between 5 and 10 on each event). All events happened in local language, and journalists from other European countries were invited to attend the (virtual) UK event. The campaign was a great success, with coverage about the MTG-I1 launch in the whole EMEA, Americas and APAC regions.