- 21 February 2023
How to increase awareness of the benefits of cohesion policy across Romania, reaching a maximum number of people through various media? This was the challenge met by the “Mind the Gap” project, managed by The National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA) and Democracy, Bucharest, Romania (CPD), or "SNSPA-CPD". The project aimed at raising awareness through a global communication strategy, running from April 2019 to November 2020.
The campaign aimed at raising awareness of EU-funded projects among the younger demographic of Romanians, primarily through social media. Research into success stories and best practices furnished the raw material for a steady stream of interesting content shared in 11 dedicated thematic Facebook groups which attracted over 1 000 members each. Facebook was also the site of an ad campaign targeting the whole population, albeit with a youth slant, with a mixture of video, graphics and text, which reached an estimated 1.3 million people. Even more people were reached through a radio spot broadcast by the main national stations.
In addition a series of 8 seminars (one per region in Romania) targeted youth, primarily university students and high school pupils, with an average of 50 participants per seminar. These informative and highly interactive workshops focused on increasing people’s awareness of the benefits of the Cohesion Policy for Romania’s citizens. All the participants received informative brochures regarding the EU Cohesion Policy, as well as other branded promotional items in order to increase the visibility of the EU support among the public.
The communication actions implemented as part of “Review of EU Cohesion Policy in Slovakia” were very popular. The figures speak for themselves:
- 33 000 Facebook group members
- 3 million views of Facebook ads
- 5 million listeners reached with radio ads
- 8 regional seminars, approximately 50 participants each