Theme: Lunar Elevator Project

Opportunity: The setting up in Romania of a Centre of Excellence to enable research in order to

advance in the Lunar Elevator Project

• Characteristics of the organization for which the campaign was conducted. A coincidence, happy we

believe, makes us, in a year when the Romanian PR Award chose space and its related topics as a

metaphorical theme, to put forward for consideration a PR project that we have successfully

implemented and has the same theme - space - but this time it is for real, not a metaphor.

• The specific issue addressed / Opportunity Campaign. After meeting dozens of Romanian young

people, gifted at astronomy and space sciences, in the last 5 years in the US, who have been winning

frequently many competitions of innovation in space technologies in North America, the NASA

consultant - Charles F. Radley - has decided to set up a Centre of Excellence to advance his project,

Lunar Elevator, in Romania.

The campaign aimed at presenting the Lunar Elevator concept, the status of the technologies involved

and the technical problems which remain to be solved, everything in the context of a project with a high

commercial potential.

The challenge for the PR agency has been to get acceptance from media and other associated

stakeholders a theme that apparently seems to be in the realm of science fiction, though it is essentially

an endeavour of a private company interested and capable of successfully developing an ambitious

space project that involves the use of a totally new concept: the transport of equipment and rare earths

/ materials – and hence expensive – to / from the moon.

Research. Before developing the strategy, we conducted an extensive documentary work on the space

technology known as Space Elevator / Space Lift, focusing on Lunar Elevator / Lunar Lift. We went

through books and studies in the area of space science, of exploration of the Earth’s natural satellite, we

took some specialized online MOOC courses on the Coursera platform and we capitalized on some

materials on the Space subject we had benefited in 2011, in Silicon Valley, at Singularity University

GSP'11.

From Charles F. Radley we got a number of very informative materials (.ppt / .pdf presentations and

video recordings of conferences that he recently held in the US), on the history of Lunar Elevator

concept and its components, as well as on the business opportunities arising from the actual

implementation of the project.

We also had meetings with: the Romanian astronaut, dr Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu, , with the President /

CEO of the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA), dr Marius-Ioan Piso, with the former Chief Technology

Officer, currently Managing Partner of big data firm Terrasigna , dr Florin Serban, with the director of

the National Institute of Research and Development for Aerospace "Elie Carafoli" - INCAS, dr Catalin

Nae, with the General Director of the Space Studies Institute (ISS), dr Sorin Zgura, with the Dean of

Aerospace Engineering Faculty from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, dr Virgil Stanciu, and with

the director of Science and Technology magazine, Mr. Alexandru Mironov.

Following the documentation process, we identified the best ways of presenting the theme when

dealing with journalists:

- Generalists from the news broadcast media, focusing on TV, based on an illustrative animation

material received from Charles Radley

- Specialists in outer space from science publications

The subliminal idea of the campaign was focused on resuming a tradition Romania once had, in the era

of aeronautics pioneering. The explicit idea capitalizes on young academic talents within the country

and throughout the Romanian Diaspora, and on the approach - seemingly counterintuitive – of the

research in Romania, necessary for a highly innovative and ambitious project, which for the moment,

out of strategic reasons linked to the concentration on Mars, NASA no longer dares to get involved into.

Strategy. Our idea was to turn Charles into the “Lunar Elevator Man", a model of an Anglo-American

scientist who convinces everyone to believe in the lucky star of the academic and technical powers of

Romania, which you follow - if needed – up to … the Moon; as well as to convince the Space related

people and journalists to disseminate the news stories.

Planning

Objectives:

- Presenting - focusing on TV stations –the history, context, challenges and especially the potential of

the Lunar Elevator Project, and its promoter, Charles F. Radley, NASA consultant.

- A conference on the Lunar Elevator Project at Bucharest Polytechnic University

- Involving science journalists

Target audience:

- The general public, studious young audience (pupils and students), specialized public interested in

spatial area and new technologies

- Influencers: journalists, bloggers, celebrities in the Space area and opinion leaders in the tech zone.

Key message: Lunar Elevator is a feasible project, in which Romania has a say

A campaign in 3 steps: 1. An intensive media relations campaign, which began on 12 May this year,

concentrated in just six weeks to generate exposure among opinion leaders in the Space area and help

to build our Centre of Excellence

2. A creative approach to the Dean of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, in order to obtain

acceptance for organizing Charles F. Radley’s conference within the faculty

3. Negotiation of the establishment of the Centre of Excellence for Lunar Elevator Project.

Note that before the start of the campaign we organized in Brasov-Fagaras-Zarnesti area a two-day

team building, involving Charles, whereby we increased team cohesion.

Implementation. Part 1 - An intensive media relations campaign

The idea: We started with a music show (about the legendary pirate radio station "Radio Caroline" – in

the UK of 60’s, where Charles spent his adolescence) that we made it with the help of Maria Barabaş

from Radio Romania Cultural, to test Charles’ capabilities of facing a live audio-visual programs in

Romania.

On the other hand, unsure of Charles’ ability to withstand direct contact with a number (possibly) too

many journalists (potential skeptics, poorly informed on the Space issues or simply unwilling), we

avoided to expose him to debut in a press conference and started small, in the radio first, then migrated

immediately to the TV news and TV talk show.

Campaign steps. We started in "concentric circles": with the science journalist from Radio Romania

Cultural, Mrs. Corina Negrea, we organized the first extensive interview. We edited then and

disseminated the first press release, describing the essence of the project and its differentiators and

after its release, we contacted personally decision makers editors in major television stations, etc.

Results: Very quickly we obtained materials which were broadcasted on the radio show of the well-

known anchor Andrei Gheorghe at ProFM radio, as well as at the News programs of TVR 1, ProTV,

Antena 1, Antena 3, Nasul TV, in the Science and Technology magazine, etc:

http://stirileprotv.ro/ilikeit/smart-things/ilikeit-in-viitor-am-putea-avea-un-lift-care-sa-ne-duca-pana-

pe-luna-interviu-cu-frank-radley-fost-consultant-nasa.html

http://stiri.tvr.ro/un-savant-american-cauta-in-romania-talent-academic-pentru-constructia-unui-lift-

pe-luna_60730.html

http://observator.tv/extern/in-curand-oamenii-vor-putea-ajunge-pe-luna-cu-ajutorul-unui-lift-

157388.html

http://www.nasul.tv/specialist-nasa-la-nasul-tv-in-citiva-ani-vom-avea-un-lift-intre-pamint-si-luna/

http://www.profm.ro/andrei-gheorghe-greeg/lsquo-liftul-pana-la-luna-rsquo-explicat-de-un-specialist-

nasa-in-aceasta-dimineata-la-profm.html

http://stiintasitehnica.com/revista-tiin-a-tehnica-numarul-48-iul-aug-2015_2266.html

These results were instrumental in the decision to create the Center of Excellence for the study of Lunar

Elevator Project by the Faculty Board of Aerospace Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest,

on 10 July 2015, and thus achieved the objective of the campaign 100%.

Secondary Outcome: intense media exposure, enabled Charles F. Radley to obtain in July 2015 a new

consultant contract with NASA Kennedy Space Center (USA), in a project of assessing outsourcing

solutions of NASA, provided by Space X and Boeing.

• Difficulties: for the implementation we had a very limited time frame available, less than two months

(six weeks) and a very limited budget.

Evaluation

Although our agency has conducted since 2002 some of the first content analysis performed ever in

Romania, based on the methodologies recommended by the Institute of Public Relations in Miami, FL

(USA) this time, if it is to evaluate the estimated audience of the above mentioned show broadcasted on

ProTV (approx. 800,000 viewers) and the news program on TVR1 (approx. 600,000 viewers, according to

Kantar Media), we estimate that in itself were sufficient to achieve our goals.

We calculated an extremely high ROI based on outputs, audience, quality messages, entries in Social

Media, Community Growth, cost reductions, positioning the Lunar Elevator Project.

Creativity

Through this project, we entered the Romanian media mainstream with an approach somewhat

iconoclastic, close to Guerilla PR, and an original approach of the "rocket science", that we have made

perfect "digestible" for the Romanian public. Romanians had a chance to discover unexpected local

research potential in the area of space identified - go figure! – by an American scientist from NASA.

We facilitated dialogue between key agencies, organizations and other Romanian entities involved in

space research, and we have brought together as stakeholders under the umbrella of the very recently

created Centre of Excellence for Lunar Elevator Project, where they can perform together to achieve a

higher purpose.