iKalkulator.pl is an online financial product comparison service and knowledge base on banking, saving, and the latest bank offers. The blog regularly features useful guides and articles explaining the more complex issues related to personal finances.
Our worked together for a year, starting in July 2018. iKalkulator.pl wanted to be more recognized, increase their visibility online, and create an image of an expert. When we started working on their blog, we focused primarily on optimizing and expanding existing entries and creating new content on similar topics.
To strengthen their brand awareness and gain new links, we also established relationships with financial websites and blogs by publishing expert guest posts about tips on saving money, for example. The key element of our link building strategy for iKalkulator.pl were creative campaigns, i.e. extensive publications and reports that we promoted in the media and on business, financial and economic websites.
After some time, however, we decided to slightly modify our strategy. After analyzing the effects of our work so far, for our next campaign, we wanted to focus on promoting it in the local media.
A great opportunity came in the spring of 2019 – that’s when the European Parliament elections took place. How did they relate to finance? Well, they must have somehow because we landed 135 publications, brand mentions in Gazeta Wyborcza and Onet, and we even got shared by the official profile of the EU commission!
A local look at European funds
Due to the upcoming elections, the issue of managing regional EU funds was often mentioned in the local media, which caught our attention. We were looking for a topic that would interest not only journalists but also the most important target groups of iKalkulator.pl.
So we decided to take a closer look at the investments financed with EU funds in individual regions of Poland. This is a topic that is familiar to many of us, because the effects of these investments can be seen in our cities, parks, and even workplaces. We decided to check which voivodeship uses the resources from regional funds most effectively.
We noticed that although detailed numbers are publicly available, there is still a lack of a broader discussion and comparison of key investment areas. So we started working on a report that would shed light on how the EU funds affect local transport, infrastructure, education, and business in an accessible way.
31 billion and just 3 questions
We wanted our report to answer primarily three questions:
- How are EU funds allocated among regions?
- Which voivodeship distributes their funding most effectively?
- What areas of development and local investments does the money flow into?
How did we conduct the analysis?
To check how each voivodeship splits its share of the 31 billion euros allocated from the Regional Operational Programme 2014-2020, we analyzed reports published on the official websites of individual programs. For each voivodeship, we added up the value of subsidies granted by local districts, excluding investments implemented in several voivodeships and local districts.
On this basis, we calculated what percentage of subsidies had already been used in individual regions and compared the effectiveness of local governments in allocating funds. After collecting this data, we contacted the local offices to confirm our calculations. This step turned out to be the most difficult stage of the entire campaign.
After we verified the information we gathered, it turned out that a large part of the documents available on official websites contains… incorrect data. In order for our report to be as reliable and up-to-date as possible, we had to change the calculations each time officials sent us the right numbers.
17 articles made up the final publication: a nationwide report presenting the most important conclusions and an overview of the rules for distributing EU funds, and 16 shorter pieces for individual voivodeships. Each of them had examples and photos of local investments that used EU funds and infographics summarizing the most important numbers.
The results
The finished report “EU subsidies in Poland – which voivodeships use them best?” appeared on the iKalkulator.pl blog in April 2019, a month before the European Parliament elections. Shortly after publishing, we started an intensive outreach campaign, reaching out to local media and information outlets, press offices of local governments, as well as business-related websites, among others.
This creative campaign was also shared on social media. The EU Commission, Radio Olsztyn, and MP Kamila Gasiuk – Pihowicz shared it on Twitter. Various political news outlets wrote about the report on their profiles too, including PiS Olsztyn or Nowoczesna Wilanów.
Effects
135
publications
64
dofollow links
89
brand mentions