Communication Plan 2022 - April 2022 - Interreg Euro-MED
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Communication Plan 2022 April 2022 Programme co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund Programme cofinancé par le Fonds européen de développement régional
INTERREG MED PROGRAMME 2014-2020 – COMMUNICATION PLAN 2021
6th January 2021
Summary
I. Intro ................................................................................................................................... 3
BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................................................... 4
II. Progress of the Programme’s communication strategy ..................................................... 5
a) Performed activities overview .................................................................................................................................. 5
14.1 – Web platform ................................................................................................................................................. 6
14.2 – Information and data management ............................................................................................................ 13
14.3 – Visibility and recognition/recall ................................................................................................................... 14
14.4 – Online Communication ................................................................................................................................ 14
14.5 – Events organisation and participation ........................................................................................................ 16
14.6 – Identification and participation external promotion occasions................................................................ 21
14.7 – Thematic publications .................................................................................................................................. 24
14.8 – Media relations............................................................................................................................................. 25
15 – Communication working group ...................................................................................................................... 27
III. Evaluation of the 2021 Communication plan ......................................................................... 28
IV. 2022 communication plan for the 2014-2020 Programming Period .................................... 34
Intro ............................................................................................................................................................................. 34
Synthesis of the SMART annual objectives and activities for 2022 .......................................................................... 35
SyntHesis of activities.................................................................................................................................................. 38
Website articles ....................................................................................................................................................... 38
External web communication ................................................................................................................................. 39
EU/Interreg campaigns and joint activities ............................................................................................................ 40
European/ Interreg events ...................................................................................................................................... 40
Publications / Promotion materials ........................................................................................................................ 41
Programme campaigns............................................................................................................................................ 41
Calendar of activities ................................................................................................................... 41
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6th January 2021
I. Intro
2021 has been a complicated year for the communication activities of the Joint Secretariat (JS). It started
as a continuation of 2020 in relation to the Covid-19 Pandemic and, in addition, the JS Communication
team suffered from a loss of human resources. Project and Programme communication activities were thus
severely affected. Most European events organised by the Commission were cancelled and the JS could not
implement some of the activities foreseen.
However, the pandemic slowed down towards the second half of the year, therefore, activities started little
by little once again.
We were thus able to celebrate the new Programming period in Lisbon with a successful in-person and
livestreaming event. The number of participants on site was however limited to comply with safety rules.
Just as in past years, the Programme participated in the project slam competition organised by Interact
each year.
We also took part in the so-called “Interreg policy campaign” coordinated by Interact in collaboration with
other Interreg transnational Programmes. Our participation has been limited to the publication of one
article together with the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme on the Interreg portal against three
that were foreseen.
Two projects: CAMARG and CHEBEC were selected to be featured in the “This is Europe” podcast.
The BLUEfasma project participated in the Maritime roadshow organised by Interact to showcase how
organisations and people across Europe cooperate to face maritime challenges.
In 2021, the Monitoring Committee approved projects 24 projects in the framework of three different calls
for proposals. Two Applicant seminars and two Lead Partner seminars were organised to help applicants
and project partners. We provided these new projects with their logos and websites except for the
“Transfer & mainstream” projects that inherited from the previous project websites since they are
considered as a continuation of past projects.
Additionally, we promoted all Programme and project activities on our social media.
A good part of the year was also dedicated to preparing the next programming period: a public tender for
the Programme branding was launched with the selection of designers in mid-June. However due to some
delays in the approval of the Interreg branding by the EC, we were only able to start working with them in
late 2021. The general branding of the Programme and the web platform design were defined by December
2021. The graphic designers also designed the image of our kick-off event.
A public tender was launched for the development of the next web platform. The service providers were
selected in late September and the development of the web platform started shortly after.
To conclude, the communication activities slowed down a bit in 2021 but we achieved most communication
objectives as we can see in the following document.
This document is the state of the art of the 2014-2020 communication activities delivering a brief analysis
of where we stand at the 9-year communications strategy.
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6th January 2021
BACKGROUND
Taking as reference article 116(3), of the EU regulation No 1303/2013, this communication plan has three main
sections:
• Information on the progress of the communication strategy together with an analysis of the
results of the communication strategy implementation;
• Evaluation of the 2021 communication plan
• A plan of action for the communication activities of 2022.
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6th January 2021
II. Progress of the Programme’s communication strategy
A) PERFORMED ACTIVITIES OVERVIEW
Budget status report
Budget foreseen
900 000,00 €
in communication strategy (a)
TOTAL SPENT IN COMMUNICATION
1 009 865,33
ACTIVITIES (b + c)
Remaining budget on TA 2014-2020 (a - c) -109 865, 33
Action progress
14.1 – Web platform
14.2 – Information and data management
14.3 – Visibility and recognition/recall
14.4 – Online Communication
14.5 – Events organisation and participation
14.6 – Identification and participation
external promotion occasions
14.7 – Thematic publications
14.8 – Media relations
15 – Communication working group
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6th January 2021
14.1 – Web platform
WEB PLATFORM
After the extensive increases of the web platform indicators for the first 2 years after its launch (mid 2017), in 2020
we observed a sharp decrease in the news, events and deliverables published. In 2021, this trend continued with a
small exception for the events: their number increased slightly as the health situation improved. This can be easily
explained by the closing of most of our Modular projects. Closed projects stopped publishing news and events and
finished uploading their project results in their deliverable library. There are currently 42 projects up and running
against 91 in 2019, as a consequence the web platform website indicators dropped.
There is a significant drop in the number of deliverables uploaded on the webplatform. The probable reason for this
decrease is that projects decided to remove some deliverables that were later on considered as not relevant.
(analytics of the whole webplatform)
The numbers of these tendencies are expressed in the tables below.
Web platform Indicators:
2018 2019 2020 2021 %1
Websites 85 91 110 120 9,1%
Frontend users 1,670 2,410 2,789 3176 13,9%
News 1,448 3,078 876 855 -2,4%
Events 1,029 1,704 326 395 21,2%
Deliverables 2942 2608 3244 2543 -21,6%
Web platform web traffic indicators
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 %2 Since launch
Visits 53 371 269 037 290 679 281 561
Pageviews 174 328 734 383 727 595 629 298
Actions 219 280 947 240 900 593 774 474
1 Evolution rate calculated on the basis of the previous year, so bewteen 2020 and 2021
2 Evolution rate calculated on the basis of the previous year, so bewteen 2020 and 2021
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The five top Horizontal Project websites in terms of page views are: Sustainable Tourism, Biodiversity Protection,
Blue Growth, Social & Creative and Efficient buildings. Sustainable Tourism is the number one website for the 5th
year in a row and since the launch of the web platform.
We also analysed and present the top-5 modular projects. The numbers in the left column are expressed in
thousands.
Most visited websites of the web platform
Top 5 HP 2021
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
Sustainable Biodiversity Social & Blue Efficient
Tourism Protection Creative Growth Buildings
Visits Page views
The number of visits to the PANORAMED website slightly decreased compared to 2020 but they managed to
maintain them to a good level. It is worth mentioning that 3 Horizontal project websites showed a significant
increase in the number of visits in 2021 compared to 2020 and even recorded their best score since their launch
(respectively): Biodiversity Protection, Social & Creative and Efficient Buildings
N° of visits per site HP website
Number of visits to HP website
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
2018 2019 2020 2021
As aforementioned, the closing of many of our projects started in 2020. As a consequence, the upload of project
deliverables increased dramatically between 2019 and 2020. In 2021, this trend is a bit less obvious as many projects
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INTERREG MED PROGRAMME 2014-2020 – COMMUNICATION PLAN 2021
6th January 2021
were closed already. In addition, the project officers carried out a final drastic screening of the Programme library
therefore some deliverables that were previously published in our library were eventually removed. However, a
major increase in the number of deliverables published in the Programme library can be seen for some thematic
communities in 2021 such as Sustainable Tourism (117%), Biodiversity Protection (100%) and Green Growth (49%).
These rises can be explained by the fact that those are the communities with most projects still running.
The number of deliverables uploaded in the Programme library therefore increased quite significantly. They raised
by 41% between 2020 and 2021.
Deliverables uploaded in the Programme website, per type of project and Thematic Community
HP MP Overall Progress
2020 2021 % 2020 2021 % 2020 2021 %
Social and Creative 12 13 8,3 33 35 6,1 45 48 6,7
Blue Growth 9 12 33,3 25 32 28,0 34 44 29,4
Green Growth 12 14 16,7 39 62 59,0 51 76 49,0
Efficient Buildings 9 9 0,0 33 51 54,5 42 60 42,9
Urban Transports 7 10 42,9 24 28 16,7 31 38 22,6
Renewable Energy 15 15 0,0 60 64 6,7 75 79 5,3
Sustainable Tourism 35 38 8,6 143 199 39,2 178 237 33,1
Biodiversity Protection 25 30 20,0 41 115 180,5 66 145 119,7
Governance 15 21 40,0 9 0,0 15 30 100,0
139 162 16,5% 398 595 49,5% 537 757 41%
Total deliverables in the Programme library per thematic
Governance community 2021
Biodiversity Protection
Sustainable Tourism
Renewable Energy
Urban Transports
Efficient Buildings
Green Growth
Blue Growth
Social and Creative
0 50 100 150 200 250
As a reminder, the Programme library is a selection of the project’s key deliverables, spotted by the Joint Secretariat
project officers.
In the table below, we present a breakdown by category of deliverables, showing a more robust programme library,
with clear results from the projects in all categories.
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Deliverables uploaded in the web platform and validated in the Programme website, per type
Total deliverables uploaded (since launch) Deliverables in the Programme library (since launch)
2018 2019 2020 2021 % 2018 2019 2020 2021 %
Project 22,7 6,3
management
1275 2286 3273 4016 5 10 16 17
Project 23,2 10,0
communication
987 1725 2634 3245 77 112 170 187
Studying 215 386 521 582 11,7 72 131 171 182 6,4
Testing 263 554 1152 1762 53,0 20 39 128 152 18,8
Transferring 43 180 443 791 78,6 2 12 66 97 47,0
Capitalisation 41 182 444 592 33,3 7 27 74 86 16,2
Delivering
1
information
Systematising
1
knowledge
Community 16,6 13,8
building
84 186 259 302 13 17 29 33
Other 3
11366 29,3% 199 659 759 15,2%
Deliverables uploaded in the Programme website until 2021, per type of deliverable
Community building
4%
Systematising Other Project management
knowledge 1% 2%
Delivering 0%
information
0% Capitalisation
11%
Project
Transferring communication
13% 25%
Testing Studying
20% 24%
Prog. Library per deliverable type
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6th January 2021
In 2021, the main distribution of categories remains the same as in 2020, with project communication, studying and
testing work packages leading. However, some increased more than others. The deliverables categories with
greatest increases in 2021 are “Transferring”, “Testing” and “capitalisation” reflecting the Programme life cycle but
not only. As stated earlier on, in 2021, the Programme approved 24 new projects, those projects were
“mainstreaming and transferring” projects. This certainly had a consequence on the type of deliverables uploaded
in the Programme web platform.
As regards to the news and events sections, the numbers show an intense decrease in the publishing activity
compared to 2019, as explained before, due to the closure of many projects since 2020, leaving the web platform
with 42 operational websites.
However, 2021 was a slightly more active year than 2020 in terms of news and events published with a 3,4% rise in
total number of the news published and 22% in the events compared to 2020. The most active thematic
communities are Green Growth, Social & creative and Urban transports in terms of news published and Efficient
Buildings, Blue Growth and Governance in terms of events.
News published in the web platform
HP Total (HP+MP)
2020 2021 % 2020 2021 %
Programme 24 31 29,2 24 31 -54,8
Social and Creative 35 29 -17,1 166 89 86,7
Blue Growth 4 18 350,0 90 205 -61,1
Green Growth 15 9 -40,0 126 60 200,0
Efficient Buildings 11 16 45,5 21 79 -15,6
Urban Transports 28 25 -10,7 64 60 45,5
Renewable Energy 12 8 -33,3 22 44 13,7
Sustainable Tourism 39 20 -48,7 211 301 21,8
Biodiversity Protection 15 15 0,0 87 131 39,0
Governance 24 15 -37,5 59 101 -54,8
Total 207 181 -10.1 870 900 3,4
Events published in the web platform
HP Total (HP+MP)
2020 2021 % 2020 2021 %
Programme 11 21,0 90,9
Social and Creative 3,0 7 133,3 35 35,0 0,0
Blue Growth 1,0 0 -100,0 69 106,0 53,6
Green Growth 7,0 9 28,6 52 26,0 -50,0
Efficient Buildings 3,0 7 133,3 7 28,0 300,0
Urban Transports 14,0 8 -42,9 27 21,0 -22,2
Renewable Energy 0,0 0 0,0 0 18,0
Sustainable Tourism 9,0 11 22,2 66 59,0 -0,1
10INTERREG MED PROGRAMME 2014-2020 – COMMUNICATION PLAN 2021
6th January 2021
Biodiversity Protection 5,0 18 260,0 38 48,0 26,3
Governance 11,0 6 -45,5 36 54,0 50,0
Total 53,0 66 24.5 341 416 22
PROGRAMME WEBSITE
In 2015, the JS launched a provisional website, together with the launch event. This first website presented the
priorities, calls, list of beneficiaries, the news and events of the Programme and it counted with a forum for partner
search activities.
Together with the development of the web platform, a new Programme website was launched in March 2017, up
taking all the previous contents, and some new features embedded in the new web platform, such as an internal
exchange area with accounts, a library of deliverables and integrated websites of projects.
In 2018, to start preparing the capitalisation phase, the JS revamped the Programme website. In this effort, we
emphasized some parts of the technical content (programme manual, governing documents, the previous
Programme website link), highlighted the programme results, through an interactive map and by putting forward
projects results with a new section on capitalisation and a new section in the homepage called "in the spotlight".
This section particularly aims at bringing forward examples of good practices and project stories and results.
In 2019 the programme website has made use of its new homepage layout, publicizing spotlights and Focus stories,
in order to bring forward the #MadeinMED campaign. On these sections, there was a total of 4 stories published.
In 2020, a specific section of the website was created to gather the main projects results, presented the programme
library and displayed the flagship stories of projects.
In 2021, we continued to publish project stories with 6 new stories for a total of 19 stories. The following list presents
all the topics covered up to now:
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• BLUE GROWTH: MAESTRALE: involving students in a blue growth experiment, a bright initiative!
• GREEN GROWTH: The Green Growth community is awarded the UFM label!
• GREEN GROWTH: The MADRE projects: urban agriculture at the centre of cooperation on both
shores of the Mediterranean
• SOCIAL & CREATIVE: Prompting creativity with living lab method
• SOCIAL & CREATIVE: PROMINENT MED - Public procurement is going green in small Interreg
MED municipalities
• EFFICIENT BUILDINGS: the renovation wave in the Mediterranean
• EFFICIENT BUILDINGS: Stepping project, smoothing the financing of greener public buildings
• EFFICIENT BUILDINGS: SISMA project, subsidy evaluation tool supports greener public buildings
• RENEWABLE ENERGIES: Clean energy: a real opportunity in isolated Mediterranean territories
• RENEWABLE ENERGIES: overcoming energy poverty in rural areas and islands
• URBAN TRANSPORT: The Mediterranean endeavour towards sustainable mobility
• URBAN TRANSPORT: EnerNETMob - Plug it: Interreg MED strategies to boost e-mobility
solutions
• SUSTAINABLE TOURISM: 24 projects acting for a more sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean
• SUSTAINABLE TOURISM: DestiMED project, Ecotourism packages, a socially responsible way of
travelling in the Mediterranean
• BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION: ACT4LITTER project, tracking litter in Mediterranean marine
protected area
• BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION: Protecting the Mediterranean biodiversity from tourism, a shared
challenge for our projects
• BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION: FishMPABlue2 - How the involvement of fishermen in MPAs can
change the fishing industry?
• GOVERNANCE: strategic projects: towards a better coordination of initiatives in the
Mediterranean
• GOVERNANCE: project experiments push forward governance in the Mediterranean
In addition, we created a specific page where information about the 2021-2027 Programme is published: the
decision process, our goal and missions, the new cooperation area, the policy cohesion framework and a series of
key documents such as a summary of the Programme, the environmental report, the Mediterranean orientation
paper, etc.
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In the first two years of operations the Programme website and the web platform presented impressive increase
rates. The trend reversed in 2020 to a slight decrease, due to the closure of many projects and an overall decrease
in activities due to the Covid-19 crisis.
On the contrary, in 2021, the number of visits and page views increased again compared to 2020. This can be
explained by an increase in the Programme activities on the website, the approval of new projects and the upcoming
launch of the new Programming period attracting potential partners on the website to get information about
potential funds.
Programme website indicators since launch:
• 759 key deliverables in the Programme library
• 141 news published
• 79 events published
• 438 526 total visits
• 1 195 750 page views (total)
Programme web traffic indicators
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Since launch
Visits 53 371 86 653 62% 98 327 14% 84 603 -14% 97833 15,6 438 526
Pageviews (all) 174 328 241 035 38% 267 953 11% 197 303 -26% 246163 24,8 1 195 750
total searches 2 991 8 675 190% 7 764 -11% 5 840 -25% 5252 -10,1 32 167
Downloads (all) 24 997 42 516 70% 42 041 -1,1% 29 149 -31% 35620 22,2 190 538
average visit
duration
5'33" 4'15" -1'18'' 3'47" -1'08'' 3'34" -13'' 3’26" -0,13'' 4’2"
bounce % 38% 36% -5,3% 37% +2,8% 45% +21,6% 44% -2,2 40%
14.2 – Information and data management
In 2019, the JS published its first dashboards, under a dedicated section entitled “chart and results”. Developped by
a new IT manager, the charts present the performance of the programme in terms of its financial indicators,
thematic and axis implementation. As long as the programme progresses, the dashboards are updated and adapted
from new sources of information.
In 2018, we developed a quality analysis tool, associated to the deliverable library, in order for the Programme to
improve the management of results, by easily identifying the ones that could be used for capitalisation purposes.
This tool allows the Programme officers to select the project deliverables considered quality key examples, and
contributing to the performance indicators of the Programme.
In 2021, an extensive analysis of the deliverables produced by the projects was carried out.
CONCLUSION?
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14.3 – Visibility and recognition/recall
The corporate identity elements of the Programme, the projects, and the thematic communities branding were
concluded in 2016. This milestone allowed the production and delivery of the 1st call projects' logos. In addition, the
Programme produced two brochures and a roll up for Programme authorities to be used in events and information
days.
In 2018, as Interreg changed its branding, we were forced to introduce changes in our corporate design manual as
well. Therefore, the logos of the projects have also changed. As for the projects of the 2 nd call, they were provided
with the new logo versions at the same time as we developed the new version of the corporate design manual.
In 2019, the 3rd call for modular projects’ logos and the strategic projects logos were delivered. The second call for
horizontal projects kept the community logo, as reference to the project.
In 2020, we provided the logos of all Strategic projects.
In 2021, we provided the 24 new projects with their logos and individual websites except for the “Transfer &
mainstream” projects that inherited from the previous project websites since they are considered as a continuation
of previous projects.
14.4 – Online Communication
The Programme regularly updates its social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. For this
reason, the outreach figures have been consistently raising. On top of the regular activity, the figures were propelled
on the occasion of major events. It was the case during the mid-term event, the capitalisation seminars in Athens
and in Sarajevo, the participation in European events such as the European Week of Region and Cities, the
“MEDforYOU” event and the related photo competition.
In 2019, the outreach results have increased due to the fact of results showcasing phase of many closing projects,
the subsequent release of videos, policy documents, final events, which animated the content to display in the
Programme social media channels.
Furthermore, in a webinar at the beginning of 2019, targeting the communication officers of the modular and
horizontal projects, the JS mobilised the projects to use the hashtags #MADEinMED and #EuinmyRegion (DG Regio
hashtag) to pool the results showcase of all Interreg MED projects and thus creating a snowball campaign effect and
making them visible to DG Regio and other potential multipliers.
The image below shows some Twitter analytics since the opening of our Twitter account in 2015 from the
Twitonomy map.
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Here below are the hashtags we have been using the most. Unsurprisingly, #MADEinMED is the hashtag we used
the most, followed by #mediterranean and #euinmy region showing the Programme social media strategy to catch
the European Commission’s and Mediterranean stakeholders’ attention.
In 2021, the social media indictors continued their growth path, although in a far less significant way. This is partly
due to a decrease in the time dedicated to managing social media because of a lack of human resources but also
due to a decrease in project results to showcase as many projects finished their activities in 2020 already.
The LinkedIn page increase rate is promising though, we’ll therefore continue our efforts with this social media in
2022.Facebook continues to be the most widely used and favourite social media among our target audience as the
figures demonstrate it.
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Social media outreach indicators:
2021 % Progress
2017 2018 2019 2020
2020/2021
Facebook
Followers 4 258 4 883 6 184 7 359 8229 11,8 %
Likes3 4 222 4 797 6 054 6 699 -
Twitter
Followers 4 940 5 886 6 987 7 631 8291 8,6 %
Tweets 3 827 4 314 5 015 5 339 5576 4,4 %
LinkedIn
Profile (discontinued) 5 541 5 604 5 634 - - -
Page - - 484 2 570 4787 86,3 %
YouTube
Video views 10 725 15 537 18 855 22767 26 315 15,3 %
14.5 – Events organisation and participation
TRANSNATIONAL EVENTS
3 From 2021, this data is not available on Facebook anymore
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In 2021, no major event for the 2014-2020 Programming period was organised because many projects were finished
already since 2020 and few results came up. Instead, the JS focus their efforts in organising a kick-off event to launch
the 2021-2027 Programming period. The details regarding this event will therefore not be detailed in this report.
In 2020 the Programme organised the “MEDforGOV – Past present and future” event, devoted to showcase results
from the Governance axis in one hand and to debate future perspectives of cooperation in the region. This event
was fully taken online, due to the pandemic situation, being the first online conference ever organised by the
Programme.
In 2019 the programme held two capitalisation seminars: one was dedicated to the partners of the IPA countries
results under the title “MADEinMED in the Balkans”. It took place in Sarajevo, Bosnia, under the organisation of the
Bosnian members of the monitoring committee. The second event, with the title “MED for YOU – a strong narrative
for policy change” took place in Athens, under the Greek presidency, and it focused on showing Interreg MED
architecture results and its practical outcomes resulting from the grounded links between thematic projects and the
Governance project.
In 2018, the Programme held a mid-term “Made in MED” event, in Rome, under the Italian presidency of the
Programme, raising to three the main transnational events, organised so far. This was the occasion to present the
first results of the communities of projects. To that end, an event took place including a conference of results, an
exhibition of experiences, a video room with project videos, a stage performance and in general a very interactive
and engaging event.
Before this major event, in 2015 the kick-off event “Global challenges, Mediterranean Solutions” took place and, in
2017, the community building event, in Alicante, under the Spanish presidency, “We are MED”. The former, allowed
to raise awareness on the Programme's new architecture, priorities and procedures for the 1st call, bringing over
700 participants from all the Mediterranean countries. The latter targeted the approved 1 st call project partners and
brought together around 200 attendees from the eight communities of projects. The aim was to show and boost
the community building side of the Programme architecture. It paved the way for Horizontal projects and the
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Modular projects to foster synergies between themselves and learn more about other peer’s progress and future
plans, thus creating a new dynamic of work among projects of different objectives and different territories.
APPLICANT AND LEAD PARTNER SEMINARS
A considerable number of applicant and lead partner seminars have been organised to present the different calls
and recruit potential beneficiaries in the latter and instruct beneficiaries in the latter.
Following the opening of the 1st call, in 2016, two seminars were held: a candidate’s seminar for Horizontal projects
and a lead partner seminar after the approval of all projects.
In 2017, following the launch of the 2nd call for Modular and Integrated projects, an applicant seminar was held in
Barcelona, for around 230 participants. In this event, other than presenting the technical details of the call, the
agenda included partner search activities, to bring about future partnerships.
In January 2018, a lead partner seminar was also held for the 21 approved Modular and Integrated projects of the
2nd call.
In November, the JS held an applicant seminar for the 3rd call for modular projects, with speed dating activities and
exercises to help improve the applications of the 1st phase.
In 2020, two applicant seminars for the 4th call for modular projects and applicant and lead partner seminars for the
2nd call for Strategic projects.
In 2021, following the approval of 24 new projects by the Monitoring Committee, the JS organised two Applicant
seminars: one for the 1st call for “Transfer & mainstream” projects and another one the call for carbon footprint
projects and two Lead Partner seminars: one for the 1st call for “Transfer & mainstream” projects and another one
for the 2nd call for Transfer & mainstream” and carbon footprint projects.
TRAININGS ON THE WEBPLATFORM, ADVOCACY AND COMMUNICATION
One of the communication strategy activities that have been put in place is to support capacity building activities
for the project partners to improve their communication skills and activities. A series of training sessions were
organised covering topics such as Advocacy, web writing.
In 2017, we held two training sessions in Greece and France, and a webinar for the webmasters of the platform, in
order to build their capacity of managing efficiently their project websites.
In 2018, to prepare the capitalisation phase, the Programme held a boot camp on advocacy, lobbying, storytelling
and social media, a joint initiative with the Interreg SUDOE Programme. This seminar received 70 participants,
mostly from capitalisation and Horizontal projects.
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Other trainings have taken place during 2018 for first level controllers and for NCPs about the application IT system
“Synergie”.
In 2020, a series of three online sessions took place in order to push forward the projects capacities in driving
capitalisation of their results. On this note, the series comprised a session on digital communication, advocacy and
lobbying and finally on press relations. These sessions were mainly targeting the project partners dealing with
capitalisation and promotion of their results.
In 2021, no trainings were organised.
The table below presents an overview of the satisfaction results with events organised under the programme
framework. Not all the events have treated results, either because there was insufficient response from the
audiences, or due to limited time and resources.
In general, the figures obtained so far are encouraging, showing a positive capacity of the programme to organise
engaging events that reflect the programme objectives and keep the good will of the target audiences. The event
that generated unprecedented satisfaction rates was the “MED for YOU” capitalisation seminar, surpassing the
Advocacy training, as presented in the table below.
Events indicators
Satisfaction Quality of Event met
Reply rate Total audience
rate interventions expectations
Kick off N/A N/A N/A N/A 1186
We are MED 23% 71% 74% 67% 187
Made in MED 20% 69% 71% 61% 753
Transnational events
MADEinMED in
38,50% 96% 97% 96% 108
the Balkans
MED for you 34% 91% 86% 85% 330
GOVforMED 4% 77% 93% 77% 309
LP seminar 1st call 34% 74% 82% 76% 126
Applicant seminar
8% 80% 81% 77% 204
2nd call
LP seminar 2nd
21% 80% 80% 82% 53
call
Capitalisation
seminar 18% 75% 100% 75% 45
(Thessalonica)
Seminars
LP seminar 3rd call N/A N/A N/A N/A 86
LP seminar Strat
N/A N/A N/A N/A
Proj
LP Seminar HP 2nd
N/A N/A N/A N/A
call
Applicant Seminar
2nd call “Transfer
N/A N/A N/A N/A
& mainstrem
projects”
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Applicant Seminar
« carbon
N/A N/A N/A N/A
footprint »
projects
LP Seminar 1st call
“Transfer &
N/A N/A N/A N/A
mainstrem
projects”
LP Seminar 2nd call
“Transfer &
mainstrem N/A N/A N/A N/A
projects” + carbon
footprint projects
Communication
12% 63% 100% 75% 70
webinar
Advocacy Training 45% 85% 84% 83% 100
Web platform
23% 74% 74% 70% 82
webinar
Trainings Web platform
N/A N/A N/A N/A 25
local trainings
Digital
11% 92% 92% 88% 153
communication
Advocacy and
15% 84% 89% 77% 152
lobbying
Press relations 14% 98% 94% 100% 153
NATIONAL INFO DAYS
During the launch of the 1st call and the 2nd call for proposals, several national events took place in all Interreg MED
countries.
As a result of the launching events, applicant seminars and info days, the 1 st call led to 375 validated applications,
involving an impressive number of 4,475 institutions from all across the Mediterranean, and the 2nd call received 96
applications for the Modular projects and 34 applications for Integrated projects.
To our knowledge, no national info day have been organised by our NCPs for the last calls.
Numerous examples can be found in the events search engine of the web platform.
NCP NETWORK
Targeting the National Contact Points, annual meetings have been organised every year since the first meeting in
Gibraltar in 2016. These meetings have an informal get-together for NCPs’ to exchange information, inspire and
express any difficulties on the ground to develop communication activities in the benefit of the Programme.
In 2020 we did a step further in this cooperation group and created in Microsoft Teams a working group to improve
the exchange with NCPS and between themselves.
In 2021, unfortunately, no NCP meeting was organised. At the beginning of 2021, we continued communicating with
NCPs on the Teams group. Though because of a lack of human resources nor any pressing matters to advertise, the
communication with them was discontinued.
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14.6 – Identification and participation
external promotion occasions
The Programme has been actively participating in several events and communication initiatives at the European
level, with different objectives in line with the phases of the communication strategy.
In 2021, the Programme participated in the so-called “Interreg policy campaign” coordinated by Interact in
collaboration with other Interreg transnational Programmes. Our participation has been limited to the publication
of one article together with the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme against three initially foreseen. This
article is about two projects MPA Adapt and COAST (Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme). It aims at showing
the concrete impact of Interreg projects in the EU citizens’ daily life and their potential in influencing local policy
making. It is entitled “Divers, fishermen and drones in the frontline to protect coastal areas” and ca be found on the
Interreg portal.
Two projects: CAMARG and CHEBEC were selected to be featured in the “This is Europe” podcast 2021 edition.
The BLUEfasma project participated through a video in the Maritime roadshow organised by Interact to showcase
how organisations and people across Europe cooperate to face maritime challenges.
In addition, we participated in the project slam competition organised by Interact. This year the objective of the
competition was different. It aimed at showcasing the results of the Interreg programmes though the production of
a video. For this video, we selected two projects: MPA ADAPT and CreativeWear because they both illustrated how
thanks to great partners, networking and cooperation skills amazing results can be achieved. Unfortunately, we did
not win the competition but at least we made it until the final stage.
Last but not least, together with 2 other programmes: Interreg Adrion and ENI CBC we organised a joint online
workshop on 13th October on the occasion of the European Week of Regions and Cities in an effort to increase our
cooperation with Mediterranean Interreg Programmes. The workshop entitled “Accelerating the Mediterranean
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Green Transition: Contributions from the Interreg Programmes” showcased tangible results and stories of projects
supporting the green transition across and beyond the European Union.
The event also offered an outlook on the 3 programmes environmental-related priorities for the new EU 2021-2027
period, insisting on the importance of synergies and cooperation in order to maximize available funding and the
impact of projects for a greener, more sustainable development across the Mediterranean region.
In 2020, the programme integrated the Interreg MED 30 years campaign, where we integrated several initiatives:
- The interactive project exhibition and podcast with the Tourismed project;
- The #Interregtalks campaign, where we invited Members of the Committee of the Regions and of the
European Parliament to deliver their testimonials on video. According to results presented by Interreg
Central Europe, this video campaign reached 90,000 impressions;
- The Interreg storymap, where all the Transnational programmes built an interactive map with
information about each programme.
In 2019, the Programme actively mobilized the projects for the programme capitalisation campaign #MADEinMED
and DG Regio Campaigns “EU in my Region”. Further to the participation in campaigns, the HP projects were invited
to jointly organise sessions during the EURegionsWeek, as well as participating in the common transnational
initiatives that took place all along the year.
• EU Protects: Heroes campaign with two examples from Italian partners from REMEDIO projects and
PLASTICBUSTERS;
• Flagship projects in Inforegio database; Three flagship projects were published in the inforegio (DG Regio
page) projects database: MPA-ADAPT; PEFMED; LOCATIONS;
• Exhibition of projects in Palermo, Italy, during the first INFORM meeting;
• Presentation of Greening communication in the second INFORM meeting;
• Contribution to the PANORAMA magazine Spring edition, with Urban Transport community examples;
• 10 sessions organised by all the Horizontal projects during the EURegionsweek2019, including 1
participation in the “Project slam” (ARISTOIL); applications to the REGIOSTARS award (LOCATIONS);
• Interact MED Lab on tourisme, organised a visit to the Tourismed project.
In 2018, the programme participated in the European Week of Regions and Cities (EURegionsWeek) joint initiative.
In this event we commissioned the participation of two projects – Locations and Bluemed – at the session “Interreg
talks – project slam’”, featured by Interact, where Bluemed won two prizes: “Best social media” and 3rd place of
the public choice. Secondly, in the EURegionsWeek we also participated in the coordination team of a very
innovative stand of the transnational cooperation “MadeWithInterreg”, on behalf of 12 TNC programmes.
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Another joint participation of our own initiative took place at the DG Regio INFORM network meeting, in May 2018,
in Chania (Greece) where we promoted the Interreg branding and presented our web platform as an innovative
tool, together with other Interreg programmes: Central Europe, Interact and Danube. On the occasion of
EUROPCOM in November 2018, the greatest annual event on EU communication, we coordinated a stand at the
“Market place” to showcase our web platforms as good examples of digital Interreg communication together with
the same programmes as in Chania.
In 2018, we took part in the European Maritime Day by participating in the joint stand and sending a project example
– Act4litter – for the joint brochure “Maritime cooperation producing results that matter”, which was produced for
the event. For the EU Green Week, we developed a factsheet about the Interreg MED Green Growth topics, which
was handed over to visitors of the exhibition.
In 2018, we took part in DG Regio public campaigns, “The Roadtrip project”, participating in the Mediterranean
route. The participants, selected among the public, met with Interreg MED project partners in Italy and Greece,
during some of the route stopovers. Pictures and videos of these experiences were published in the landing page of
the project.
Additionally, we participated in Interacts’ communication and heads of programmes network meetings, and in the
INFORM communication network of DG Regio. In the latter we presented in 2018 during a digital good practices
workshop, the Interreg MED web platform, in cooperation with Central Europe, Danube and Interact programmes.
In 2016 and 2017 we took part in joint actions to boost the promotion of the Programme under the context of
transnational programmes. These actions took several shapes: in the European Maritime Day, in 2016, we produced
a joint brochure with the Interreg ADRION Programme to advertise the priorities related to maritime economy
topics. In 2017, we took part in the Interreg Annual event in Malta, where we moderated a panel of experts and
contributed to a project visit of a previous Programme MED project, during this member State EU presidency.
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14.7 – Thematic publications
Three publications were produced for the launching phase of the Programme, in 2015-2016, namely: a Programme
synthesis, a promotional brochure on the Programme and its thematic priorities "MED with us, explore the Interreg
MED Programme", and an overview presentation, all available for
download on the website.
In 2017 we participated in the elaboration of the joint transnational
brochure "10 Things to Know About Transnational Cooperation", by
presenting an example of the maritime projects of the previous
Programme MED': the Cypfire project.
In 2018, in order to prepare the mid-term event, we launched a catalogue
of projects “Explore the Interreg MED Projects”, presenting the main
goals of each project and a synthesis by thematic. This catalogue has a
digital version and a paper version, both in English and French, and its
purpose is to distribute it during events, thus presenting in a synthetic
and colourful way the main results of the Programme. This catalogue was
updated on 2020, integrating the Integrated projects call, the HPs of
second phase, the 3rd Modular projects call and the new strategic
projects.
We have also contributed to joint cooperation programmes publications
with project examples:
• “Connecting Cultures, Connected Citizens” a publication issued
by Interact to celebrate the European year of Cultural heritage,
where we participated with Bluemed as a project example;
• “Made with Interreg – project stories”, a guide of transnational cooperation projects prepared for the
exhibition of #EUregionsWeek, where we contributed with Locations and, again Bluemed, as the
Programme examples.
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In 2019 we participated with REMEDIO project in the Interact’s publication “Interreg makes a difference in
sustainable transport”.
IN 2020 we have integrated the e-book “Interreg addressing Climate Change The power of cooperation for a Greener
Europe”, published by the Climate-Change network of the Interact Programme.
In 2021, we did not produce nor participate in any thematic publication.
14.8 – Media relations
To better amplify the Programme’s messages regarding results’ showcase, we have been a driving a strategy of
establishing media partnerships during the main transnational events.
In 2021, we did not launch any media partnership.
In 2020, during the “MEDforGOV” event, about the results of the Governance axis and the future cooperation
prospects in the region, we established a media partnership with the EU Observer, where 3 articles were published
in the media outlet website:
• The Mediterranean is a hotspot of climate change
• Synergy need to tackle climate change in Mediterranean
• How to make Mediterranean mass tourism sustainable?
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Following the “MED for YOU” event, in 2019, the JS established a media partnership with the Brussels office of
EURACTIVE, to publish a series of press pieces about the event and the project outcomes being displayed in the
event. As a result, EURACTIVE published in the ensuing week a special report, with the title “How Interreg transforms
the Mediterranean region”, which included 5 articles. The report covered the thematics of Green growth and
sustainable tourism. In the EURACTIVE readership page it is reported that it has 1 million unique readers, coming
from the community of EU actors.
In 2018, during the Mid-term event, we called for a media partner. Through this tender procedure, a team of
journalists from “Econostrum” covered the event and released a series of articles on the conclusions and produced
a set of interviews with key political figures and with project partners, which are now published in the Programme
website.
In 2017, we started to contact the most accessible media, covering the Mediterranean, such as “Econostrum”. We
also established relations with the European Commission magazine “Panorama”, featured by DG Regio, as a relevant
media inside the Brussels context. Both media published articles regarding Axis 4 – project platform, the flagship
project of the Programme.
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We also identified the media that follows topics related to the priorities and thematic communities of the
Programme. Consequently, the JS made available a media database shared with the projects and to inspire the same
approach from the projects, allowing for all the Interreg MED community to access a pool of targeted media to
further capitalise their results.
15 – Communication working group
The communication working group, established in the Communication strategy, includes among its members the
communication officers of the horizontal projects and, later on, the Governance project. The objectives of the
creation of this working group is to coordinate the actions of communication between the three levels of the
Interreg MED architecture, facilitating the exchange, plan and decisions on joint actions and possible needs of the
projects that the programme can possibly solve.
In 2020, the Communication working group started to work in Microsoft Teams to closely establish regular
connections and flow of communication between the JS, the project communities, and between the members of
the group in a horizontal way. In 2021, the Teams group was slightly left apart.
In 2019, during the capitalisation meeting in Thessaloniki, the group gathered around a session on best websites
practices and to mobilise the project communities for several EU events and campaigns and to obtain their
collaboration for the animation activities to be set up in the capitalisation conference that took place later in the
year, in Athens.
In 2018, the group had a meeting after the mid-term event to discuss the next steps of the communication strategy
of the Programme in coordination with the projects.
In 2017, the communication working group had its first meeting during the “We are MED” community building
event, where several topics were debated with the communication managers of the Horizontal projects.
Several measures were implemented to reinforce the work done by the Horizontal projects: namely the creation of
a media list, to share the twitter accounts of all projects and the list of all communication manager of the projects.
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III. Evaluation of the 2021 Communication plan
This table presents a summary of the activities, with reference to the target audiences, the objectives and their achievement expressed in %, 100% meaning the objective is achieved.
WHO List of channels
JS (internal communication to JS team)
COM: communication team
Programme website
COM/CAP: communication & capitalisation Prog. social media
working group Newsletter
Proj. social media
PU: Project Unit
NCP net: NCP network group
COM WG: Communication working group NCP social media
with project communication managers COM WG: Communication working group with
project communication managers
Inforegio database
ANCT website
E-mailing
Tutorials
Media outlets
Interreg portal
Interreg social media
28INTERREG MED PROGRAMME 2014-2020 – COMMUNICATION PLAN 2021
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Action type Activity Target audience Media Who Objective Achievement
Advocacy Develop a meaningful set of thematic messages HP and Axis 4 JS COM/CAP Organise the
network creation Partners Proj. social activity by O%
NCP media the end of This activity was
JS NCP net the 1st dropped out.
Stakeholders COM WG semester
Focus/Spotlight Publish web articles on the programme website about Potential Prog website COM/CAP Publish a
projects best practices and stories beneficiaires Prog. social COM minimum of
150%
Partners media PU 4 articles.
We published 6
NCP JS
articles (check
JS NCP net
report)
Stakeholders Newsletter
Public COM WG
Newsletter Programme quarterly newsletter Potential Newsletter COM/CAP Publish 4 NL
beneficiaires Prog. Social COM respecting
Partners media PU deadlines 100%
NCP Prog. Website We published 4
JS NCP net newsletters
Stakeholders COM WG
Public
External web Send project examples to DG REGIO Inforegio and to ANCT Potential Inforegio COM/CAP submit at
communication database beneficiaires ANCT COM least 4 25%
Partners Prog website PU project Only 1 more
NCP Prog. social examples to project example
JS media both was added to
Stakeholders JS databases the DG
Public NCP net database
COM WG
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Action type Activity Target audience Media Who Objective
Interreg MED 4th call LP seminar Potential Prog. website COM 70/%
N/A
seminars Carbon footprint call: Applicant seminar; LP seminar beneficiaires Prog. social PU satisfaction
The satisfaction
Partners media rate with the
of these
NCP Proj social media events
seminars was
JS E-mailing
not assessed.
Stakeholders COM WG
EU/Interreg - Contribution to Interreg policy campagn Partners Prog. website COM/CAP Respect the
campaigns and - Contribution to EUinmyRegion NCP JS COM commonly
33%
joint activities JS Prog. social PU agreed
We participated
Stakeholders media deadlines
in the Interreg
Public Proj. social
Policy campaign
media
with 1 article
Interreg social
only against 3
media
initially planned
COM WG
NCP net
European/ - Contribution to the programme and projets’ single Partners Prog. website COM/CAP Respect the 100%
Interreg events participation in EU events NCP JS COM commonly We organised a
- Contribution to joint Interreg participation in EU JS Prog. social PU agreed workshop at
events Stakeholders media deadlines the EWRC
Public Proj. social together with
media Interreg Adrion
Interreg social and ENI CBC
media One of our
COM WG projects
NCP net participated in
the EMD
(check report
for more
details)
30INTERREG MED PROGRAMME 2014-2020 – COMMUNICATION PLAN 2021
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Programme - Promote projects results Partners Prog. website COM/CAP 80%
campaigns - Prepare a school kit NCP JS COM The school kit is
JS Prog. social PU almost ready
Stakeholders media but we did not
Public Proj. social have time to
media finalise it and
COM WG promote it.
NCP net We continued
promoting
project results
on social media
and our website
31INTERREG MED PROGRAMME 2014-2020 – COMMUNICATION PLAN 2021
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Target Objective Achievement
Action type Activity Media Who
audience
Programme CP chapter Comm Strategy Partners Prog. website COM/CAP To release the 50%
communication Communication section of manual Potential JS COM different The communication chapter is
development Communication templates beneficiaries Prog. social media PU deliverables finalised.
Technical tutorials JS Proj. social media respecting the The submission of the programme
Tenders for communication: branding / NCP E-mailing deadlines. was delayed as well as the approval
graphic design + content provider + web Tutorials of the Interreg branding by the EC.
platform NCP net Therefore, some Communication
parts of the manual are still under
construction (but on time together
with the rest of the manual)
No communication templates have
been designed yet nor technical
tutorials
The public tenders for the
Programme branding as well as for
the web platform were launched.
Branding Common branding production and Potential Programme COM Deploy the 33%
deployment beneficiaries website JS tools The brandbook was ready by the
Branding guidance Partners E-mailing respecting the end of 2021 but the EC made a few
Preparation of documents templates NCP Tutorials deadlines changes again so the brandbook
Communicating the branding package JS needs to be adapted
Stakeholders No template was designed in 2021
Web platform Production of: Potential Programme COM/CAP
To deploy the 20%
• Programme website beneficiaries website COM
tools
• Projects website template Partners Tutorials PU
respecting the
The programme website was
• Common tools NCP Prog. Social media JS launched by the end of 2021 in
deadlines.
JS English only. As for the project
• Guidance
Stakeholders website templates, common tools,
Programme Newsletter guidance and NL they were moved
to 2022.
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