MWC 2025: The PR and marketing playbook for February (and beyond)
Five weeks from today, MWC will be behind us — we’ll have sore feet, tired eyes and a lingering tapas addiction (the price we pay for our sins). But with any luck, we’ll have plenty to show for it.
For any company working in the sector, you’ll know that the next 4 weeks are crucial to the success of the event, particularly from a PR and marketing standpoint. In my last blog, I covered the activities that should be underway in January and continuing through February, including:
- Defining your target audience and messaging for the show: tailoring your communication to speak directly to your audience’s emotions, challenges, and goals.
- Ramping up thought leadership activity: creating awareness ahead of MWC through proactive thought leadership, which in turn will create demand for meetings at the show. Ensure you’re promoting the hell out of this coverage through your owned channels (social media, email marketing, etc.).
- Outreach for analyst and media briefings: booking in meetings and also understanding when, if they aren’t already, they’ll be in a position to do this.Â
With these things underway, some major considerations for the next two months – the run-up to, during, and post-MWC – are as follows:
Preparing spokespeople for MWC engagements
Hopefully, you will have arranged some media and analyst briefings for the show. If you have, you need to ensure spokespeople are prepared to maximise these opportunities and put themselves in the strongest position possible to convert those meetings into long-term relationships, coverage, or inclusion in reports. Things to consider are:
- When were they last media trained? Could your spokespeople benefit from a refresher course to understand best practices for face-to-face interviews; a reminder of your company’s key messages and how to best articulate them; how to navigate/bridge any tricky questions.
- Preparing spokespeople on the nuances of media and analyst briefings:
- Media prefer to avoid deep technical discussions in favour of discussing broader industry themes. Be careful of what you share and clearly signpost any embargoed discussions.
- Analysts, on the other hand, will be interested in your company roadmap, and in particular how you feel you differentiate yourself from the competition. Do share upcoming announcements with them to give them a full picture of what to expect in the future.
- Ensure you provide spokespeople with detailed notes on each journalist and analyst, recent articles, and any tips or useful insights, alongside talking points. You want your spokespeople walking into any meeting with a firm agenda – the last thing you want them to do is ask a journalist or analyst what they want to discuss or run them through a one-size-fits-all PowerPoint.
Making an Impact During MWC
With spokespeople prepped and briefings aplenty, it’s time to deliver a polished, impactful experience for media, analysts and other influencers.
At Babel, we always text or email media and analysts on the day to remind them about the briefing – the time, who they’re meeting, and where – to ensure everything runs on time as a single late meeting can push everything off schedule.
Even though spokespeople should have received briefing notes, they’ll no doubt be back-to-back with meetings, so remind them what the focus of each meeting should be before they walk into it. Also, update them on major news being announced during the show (read the Mobile World Live Show Daily), and encourage them to embellish it in their discussions:
- What does this news mean for your business or your area of the sector?
- What are your competitors doing (you should be acutely aware of this) and why is this not a threat to you?
- What has the journalist you’re meeting with written about that you can add to?
Have copies of your marketing collateral on hand: whitepapers, press releases, etc. – in physical and digital format. Having a PR agency staffing the briefings is important as they can rapidly follow up on live media and analyst requests.
Sustaining Post-Event Momentum
While your legs will ache and your head will hurt, MWC doesn’t end when the doors close. Keep engagement high by sharing recap content—blogs, social posts, and emails highlighting key takeaways, using analyst quotes and media coverage for credibility.
- Extend thought leadership: Host a post-MWC webinar or publish a whitepaper to consolidate insights and maintain visibility.
- Follow up strategically with prospects: Use email nurture campaigns (6-10 touchpoints) to keep prospects engaged, leveraging the content you’ve created.
- Optimise for long-term impact: Keep your MWC landing page live for SEO, adjusting lead gen forms as needed.
- Stay consistent: Prospects may take months to act, so keep reinforcing your message through ongoing content and social engagement. Six months down the line, you’ll be gearing up to do it all over again.
As always, do get in touch if you’d like to discuss any of this activity with me or the team. Â
Paul Campbell
Director
