MEDIA RELATIONS
Media Relations takes in a lot of territory. Understanding the needs of the overall market, the magazine or publisher, the various editors at each media outlet, and being able to align those needs with your clients’ goals are all a part of the picture. So is the art of maintaining good relationships with your industries’ editors and being able to negotiate with them and with your own clients to keep everyone happy. But I chose four special media events that I ran for various clients in the past, to give you an idea of the types of special projects we do and have done.
Several shows back, I was approached by a relatively new but rapidly growing equipment manufacturer of a truly one-of-a-kind piece of heavy equipment. They attended a couple of trade shows and were very unhappy with the lack of attention their amazing machine garnered in the trade press. They commissioned me to handle that problem at the upcoming ICUEE (now The Utility Expo) show. I used my huge editorial database and the show’s own press list to identify all the pertinent editors. (I knew all of them personally, as it happens.) I sent them a small gift—not crassly branded with the client’s logo—and a formal, physical, US Postal Service mailed invitation to set up private interview times in the booth. I promised them access to at least one of the two partners. I then called them all and booked as many interviews as possible. Next, I emailed the remainder multiple times to set up even more interviews. Finally, I sent personal reminders by email to each confirmed editor one week ahead of the show, and again one day ahead of the show. Turnout? 100%. Ink for the client? 100%.
At a fairly recent World of Concrete in Las Vegas, my client was a significant overseas manufacturer of heavy construction equipment. But their relatively new US branch’s executive management and marketing team knew they needed more than just a company-written and emailed press release about their participation to move their exposure up to the next level. Much as I did at The Utility Expo event, I used small gifts, physical mail, email, and telephone calls to set up personal and private interviews in the booth between the company’s top management in the Western Hemisphere and only the largest and most prestigious of the trade press editors planning to attend. At this show, I was asked to attend, manage the schedule, and shepherd the editors to the booth as needed to make sure that everything went according to plan. Once again—a home run.
While working for another agency, I was assigned to deal with the European HQ of the world’s largest manufacturer of air compressors. They were hosting an all-expense-paid two-day meeting at a Panama beach resort for hundreds of their best customers worldwide. They needed me to handle the press. First, to get them there. Second, to help the editors, reporters and photogs in whatever ways I could when they were on site. And third, to make sure that paying all these editors to come to Panama would result in real, credible editorial content in all their magazines. The meetings were held in English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, and the magazines included all the industry media leaders in the Western Hemisphere, and Europe. (A separate meeting was held later in Asia, but I was not involved.) Besides the overwhelmingly positive response from the trade press, I wore a second hat as the client’s in-house “journo”, and I wrote up a comprehensive report of the meeting for their own self-published magazine.
My team and I were responsible for several successful press events at various ConExpos over the years, some while I was working at a previous agency and some under my own banner. Some clients requested in-booth one-on-one interviews, like those I described under The Utility Expo and WOC. Others required the coordination of press event rooms and trade press in the Las Vegas Convention Center during the expo for full-blown press conferences. Still others went for a hybrid press conference, inviting all press to the booth at a particular time.