The Communications Directorate, comprising the Press Office and Image Area, works with the other departments of the Port of Barcelona to build a consistent, recognised and recognisable image of the Port as well as disseminating and presenting Port projects to all its target audiences.
Rolling out this strategy involves maintaining daily contact with the media (dealing with journalists, press conferences and press releases, interviews, etc.), making them the best mouthpiece for the Port. The regular mention of port issues in the country's major newspapers (La Vanguardia, El Periódico, Ara) and specialised publications (Sàpiens, l’Econòmic, International Transport Journal, etc.) have helped raise awareness of the Port both in nearby markets and internationally. Barcelona has a global port and its Communications Directorate is working to achieve global communication that meets the needs for dissemination of its Port Community.
Channels
The Port's communication policy is in line with the positioning and aim of the Third Strategic Plan 2015-2020: to become the main Euroregion distribution centre in the Mediterranean competing with the ports of Northern Europe. In this connection, it uses various channels to explain its services, its role as an economic driver and its growth potential to audiences near and far. The main strands of the Strategic Plan - growth, competitiveness and sustainability - have been set out in its communications, explaining the Port's infrastructures, services and potential, and the various activities it performs.
During 2016 the Port of Barcelona has increased its presence on the social networks and new media channels (Twitter, Youtube, Linkedin, o el newsletter). We would particularly underline the @portdebarcelona Twitter profile, which has increased its followers from 5,600 in 2015 to 7,000 in 2016, the year in which it published 3,000 tweets in Spanish and Catalan and 720 tweets in English.
Subjects
Among the initiatives that were especially published in 2016 were: the Port Links web tool; the Barcelona Port Challenge programme; its participation in EU programmes like the CLYMA project; the Getting Contacts event, with a bespoke agenda among shippers and logistics operators; the sectoral Sustainability Plan, to develop the aims of the Strategic Plan; and the first event for the Review of Commitments under the Efficiency Network Quality label.
The Communications Directorate has actively supported the dissemination initiatives which the Port has undertaken in its catchment area and to distant markets. Thus, the Port's expansion it its hinterland was accompanied by press releases, reports and interviews in the media and tailored attention to the media of the key domestic markets: Zaragoza and Aragon, Madrid and the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, France and the rest of Europe, etc. Communication support was also provided to the commercial and dissemination activities of the various departments, enterprises and institutions of Barcelona Port Community, such as the trade mission to Panama and Cuba, participation in fairs and attendance at conferences and international sectoral meetings.
The Port was also active in explaining the various initiatives in the area of the Port Vell, especially the refurbishing of the Fisherman's Wharf and new projects such as Palau de Mar's Pier 01. In the environmental field, conventional media and social networks made particular mention of the Port of Barcelona Air Quality Improvement Plan.
The Communications Department has set out and advocated to citizens the needs of Catalonia's top transport and trade infrastructure: the importance of new road and rail accesses to ensure growth in traffic; the demand for more freedom to set rates in order to have an active trade policy, and the development of rail infrastructures and connections to help the Port of Barcelona to genuinely compete with the major European ports, among others.