Project Management Institute: The Post-COVID Playbook

As COVID-19 spread and countries shut down, offices scrambled to create new processes for essential workers, and business leaders had to rethink how work gets done. For the project management industry — a profession that thrives on enabling outcomes while navigating change — this presented both a challenge and an opportunity.  

Ketchum helped the Project Management Institute (PMI), the world’s leading association for project, program and portfolio management professionals, launch an ambitious virtual program to quickly share much-needed expertise and resources with its 600,000+ members and beyond. Before the world could say “unprecedented times,” PMI had created a playbook for the New Work Ecosystem.  

This playbook provided unifying messaging and assets to promote new e-learning coursework and digital offerings to 300 chapters in 97 countries. We launched The PMI Official Blog and drove media coverage focused on virtual meeting best practices, remote team bonding, productivity and managing virtual teams to help businesses learn to be more “gymnastic” through improvisation, business agility and rebuilding.  

In the first seven months of the campaign, the New Work Ecosystem became the foundation for the association’s external communication activity. The campaign helped reassure current members, attract new ones, and introduce new project management skillsets for a post-COVID landscape to a business world in flux. The playbook also helped PMI retain revenue in the face of stiff economic headwinds. 

The second quarter of 2020 was PMI’s most successful quarter to-date for media coverage and engagement. Between March and September 2020, the volume of traditional and social mentions of PMI grew 169% year-over-year.