AIDS Foundation of Chicago Raises $500,000 with 15th Annual “Not Just Song & Dance” Gala

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s (AFC) celebrated its 20th year of service in the fight against HIV/AIDS with an aggressive year-long public relations campaign designed to increase visibility of AFC’s contributions to the community and to bring attention to its “Not Just Song & Dance: I’m So Excited” gala featuring the Pointer Sisters.

AFC sought substantive advance media coverage of the gala to increase attendance and funds raised to support HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and advocacy services in metro Chicago.  AFC also was looking for substantive post-gala coverage, especially in the society pages and in prominent Chicago media outlets.  The challenge was to differentiate this May gala from other prominent galas occurring around the same time.

PCI  secured an ongoing stream of coverage that began well before the gala and wound up reporting results. Local celebrity reporter Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times kicked off the advance gala coverage in late January announcing that the Pointer Sisters were coming to town. A news alert and graphic distributed to national and local publications resulted in significant advance coverage, particularly right before the event.

Interview opportunities with the Pointer Sisters were limited to a specific window of time the morning of the gala. PCI took advantage of what was determined to be the media opportunity with the best chance of generating last minute ticket sales and donations, a 90-minute live morning show appearance on WVAZ-FM [V103], the fourth highest rated morning show in Chicago  To generate additional coverage of the star performers, b-roll of the Pointer Sisters performing was provided to all Chicago stations, which used it as background for their reports.

To generate post-gala coverage, select society editors were invited to attend and interviews orchestrated with AFC executives. PCI assisted media in capturing photos of key guests, board members and staff. Following the event, photos were distributed to society editors who were not able to attend and to community newspapers, along with a detailed post-event news release.

PCI achieved coverage by the four daily newspapers in the Chicago area, as well as placements with television, magazines, radio and on-line media, including advance stories, features with interviews and multiple calendar listings. In addition to the Zwecker item, advance coverage included:

• A photo and interview with Anita Pointer in North Shore Magazine

• Stories by WBBM-TV [CBS] and WGN-TV [WB]

• Feature coverage as a “Top Ten” event in Chicago Social’s calendar section

• The cover of the Windy City Times including numerous photos

• An online presence with prominent Chicago event Web sites such as Metromix.com and ChicagoScene.com

• The cover of Chicago Free Press’ Lifestyle section including a photo and an interview with Ruth Pointer

• Advance items in A&U Magazine and OUT Magazine

• Listings in national HIV/AIDS and gay magazines and many Chicago publications including N’Digo, Time Out Chicago, and Today’s Chicago Woman 

Post-gala coverage included:

• A three-page photo spread in Gay Chicago Magazine

• Photo coverage by  Chicago Free Press, Skyline newspaper, the Times Weekly, Windy City Times

The media campaign generated approximately 57 media placements, reaching an estimated audience of 3,120,205.  More than 1,100 guests attended the benefit and raised upwards of $500,000 for HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and advocacy services.