Electrifying Road Trip through Portugal

How do you make an abstract buzzword like “sustainability” tangible during a road trip with an electric car? You let the participants pitch in. OSK staff, journalists and influencers rolled up their sleeves and cleared a Portuguese beach of washed-up garbage – for sustainable communications.

In terms of communication, the clean-up campaign was one of the most important stops on the four-day road trip from Faro, in the south of Portugal, to the country’s capital Lisbon. The motto was “Sustainable Surf” – because the Mercedes model EQC stands for sustainability.

The origin of the focus topic therefore became obvious. The challenge: to surround the much-used buzzword “sustainability” with truly relevant content that will remain in the minds of journalists and influencers and evoke emotions that they are happy to share with their audiences.

The solution: not only provide the participants with information, but also actively help shape the program and make them part of the story − the keyword is Experiential PR. People want to be part of a good cause these days and be involved with something meaningful. The clean-up campaign within the road trip was suited particularly well to this. It also paid off in the area of corporate social responsibility.

The clean-up was part of a diverse program with test drives, information and entertainment, with many opportunities to create content. The participants tried surfing off the Atlantic coast, inspired by a visit from surfing legend Garrett McNamara. In addition, the stages along mountain and coastal roads provided a lot of driving enjoyment.

A visit to a cork farm illustrated the advantages of renewable materials. Furthermore, a digital expert explained in a speech how sustainability and digitalization interact and what they mean for city life. The road trip ended in Lisbon, just in time for the beginning of the “Web Summit 2019” technology conference. It was a successful mix that was well received by all participants.