Event season is underway, and timely trendjacking opportunities provide the perfect pitching piste to secure gold medal coverage!
February has seen the pistol start the 2026 event season, and not just in the Winter Olympics. The IBA office has flown out of the starting gates this February to make sure its clients get the PR gold medal. So, let’s speed skate into all the PR action to see what Team IBA has been up to this month – sorry about all the Winter Olympics puns, they’re just snow much fun!
IBA hits the trendjacking slopes to perfect their pitch
Snow may be greatly appreciated by the event organizers at the Winter Olympics, but earlier this month, the winter snowstorm that hit North America pushed their electrical grid to the brink. At IBA, extreme weather events like this are a great opportunity for a lessons learnt approach, and our asset investment planning and management software provider was ready to spring into action with a ready-to-go comment. This has secured them an interview with a leading energy industry publication.
Avid readers of the IBA monthly roundup will know we are keen supporters of the press release and its powers, but what about this for a double-whammy? A new customer in a country where national defense is at the forefront of the news? Trendjacking and brand equity building in one hit. Actually, fifteen placements across North America, the UK, and Asia-Pacific, to be precise. And, the gold medal for this goes to our aerospace and defense client!
The winter Olympics were not the only event IBA has kept a keen eye on this month
The Super Bowl, Rugby Six Nations, and T20 World Cup also kicked off the sporting event season this month – but don’t worry we didn’t miss out on the action as February also marks the start of the 2026 B2B event calendar for our clients and the perfect way of showing up and showing you care to build audience trust!
First to hit the event slope was our aerospace and defense client at a region-leading aviation maintenance event. With a targeted media list and a personalized pitch to hand, we landed five interviews for our client’s President. The result? A gold medal coverage haul – think interviews, podcasts, media alerts, and event write-ups! But the event fun didn’t stop there. Walking the floor at the largest U.S. Sea Service Operations event, our client’s SME secured a key interview with a global defense industry publication, which was a great way for them to flex their industry knowledge.
Never listen to a PR company who says it’s too big and too busy an event to secure interviews – just tell them to try harder. So, to wrap up the event fun, the team secured a key interview for our asset investment planning and management software provider with the leading electrical power system publication at yes, one of the biggest energy & utilities industry events on the calendar. Another excellent example of the IBA team getting to work on building our latest client’s executive profile!
Medal-winning haul of PR coverage across North America and Europe
We’ve all heard about the potential powers of AI, but less so about its actual real-world use cases. Until now! IBA clients are saying goodbye to AI pilots with real-world use cases of AI.
Following our business management software clients’ time on the judging panel for a prestigious industry award, they put together a blog on the top five innovations from the factory floor. The key takeaways showed various AI use cases across the manufacturing industry in action. For our editorial team, this source material was perfect for a media-facing thought leadership piece – and the media appetite was clearly there as the piece has already landed placements across tier one publications in the UK, with many more waiting in the wings – so watch this space!
The blueprint for gold
And it didn’t stop there. Remaining media-relevant requires tapping into the latest trends! Through a hot topic tracking exercise, our team identified that manufacturers are trying to close the skills gap and sprang into action. We pitched our connected worker platform client’s article, looking at how forming smart teams is just as important as smart tools to build successful smart manufacturing initiatives. The article has been a hit across North American manufacturing, food and beverage, and HR/learning and development media.
Elsewhere, our data movement client tapped into the growing smart building trend with the creation of a case study that focused on an innovative German city’s smart “living lab” blueprint – it’s already secured some excellent publication hits including breaking new ground with some new titles across Europe.
The PR games must go on
As the closing ceremony for February approaches, it’s clear the IBA team has stuck the landing. But, unlike the athletes at the winter Olympics, there’s no time to rest and recover for Team IBA. With momentum high and strategies sharp, it’s time to power on!
Sam Walker is a PR Executive at IBA International.
