Other Publicity

Tools
PRO527
 Media Tours and Press
Parties
 What is a media tour?
 Generally it's an event, a tour of a
place or institution, organized
specifically for members of the news
media to allow them to become
familiar with the place or institution.
 It's specifically a press event, usually not
open to members of the general
public. ex. a media tour of the
detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay
in Cuba, or a media tour of a newly-
opened museum.
 The intention is usually to try to either
get publicity (the case for a museum
opening, for example) or to avoid
having to deal with the same questions
and issues over and over individually by
media members.
Media Tours and Press
Parties, cont.
 When an organization wishes to brief the
media or get to know journalists and
editors on a more personal basis, there
are two approaches: a media tour or a
dinner/cocktail party.
 There are three kinds of media tours: trip
(junket), familiarization trip (FAM trip) or
media tour.
 Whatever form the press party takes,
standard practice is for the host to rise at
the end of the socializing period and
make the ‘pitch’.
 Types of media tour

 SMT (aka Satellite Media Tour) – A technique used by corporations

(primarily) to provide an ‘expert’ of their choosing to local television
news broadcasts for often-live interaction, with the goal of getting out
a specific message.
 As the name implies, the expert is broadcast to the local TV stations
through a satellite feed.
 SMTs generally are conducted from a studio but can originate from
remote locations and may be aired live by the television station or
recorded for a later airing.
 Conducting a satellite media tour on-location or as a
‘remote’ is typically more expensive than conducting
from a studio.
 However, great visuals can often enhance an SMTs.
Organizations have done media tours from mountains,
national parks, racetracks, restaurants, homes, convention
centers, city parks and stores.
 The producers from the local stations are sent an
information sheet both about the expert and about the
message the company is trying to get across and some
sample questions and intros. But the news anchor has the
final authority to ask questions they want to ask as it’s
generally live TV and they want their own voice.
 Costs can vary greatly for a SMT, with the biggest factors
being length, location and spokesperson or expert fees.
 A successful SMT is a team effort involving media
relations, PR, technical and production teams to work
together. If done properly, a SMT will provide your brand
or organization with guaranteed coverage on top tier
news outlets anywhere in the world. You could be looking
at 4-6 earned back-to-back TV interviews in an hour.
Expand this to a full morning, you’ll get16-24 interviews in
half a day.
 SMTs put your spokesperson in the spotlight – literally and
figuratively. For 4-5 hours, your spokesperson will be
talking to a wide range of TV, radio and web outlets with
very little time in between. While exciting and
exhilarating, it also means that there’s little room for error.
 If you’re responsible for managing the SMT you must
ensure that the event goes as smoothly as possible.
4 Key Components of SMTs
(cision.com)
1. Your Spokesperson
 Your spokesperson could be an executive at your
company, an internal or external subject matter expert
who specializes in your tour’s topic or an A-list celebrity.
Even an enthusiastic customer with an intriguing story tied
to your brand – like a doctor and patient discussing a
prevalent health topic.
2. Your Pitch Team
 Have your broadcast pitch team reach out to TV and
radio producers throughout the country. If there is a
blogger component, then reach out to bloggers. There’ll
also be assignment teams booking satellite space and
pulling all of the onsite logistical details together behind
the scenes and your project manager who helps
facilitate seamless communication.
3. Your Production Team
 includes the SMT’s producer, the studio or remote
location crew, catering, stylists, etc.
4. Your Media Strategy Partner
 A media strategy partner (i.e. PR firm or production
company) who is savvy on what works/doesn’t work
can do wonders to your tour’s performance.
A successful SMT includes
the following elements:
 Develop compelling story angles. Stay relevant by
understanding what makes a good story for the outlets
you are pitching to. Understand the decision making
process of the newsrooms. A timely, topical story that fits
the news outlet’s agenda will ensure your spokesperson
gets relevant air time and coverage.
 Identify the most relevant TV, radio or web outlets. Not all
news outlets or programs would be relevant for your
specific tour.
 Make sure your pitch is well targeted and you understand
the tone, style and direction of each
channel/program/anchor
 Get the right spokesperson. It is important to get the right
talent for your particular media tour - be it a senior
executive, an external subject matter expert, a celebrity
or brand ambassador. Get media training if necessary.
Make sure your talent is comfortable with the messaging
and is briefed appropriately.
 Allow as much time as possible. While it is possible to execute a
media tour in less time, 4-6 weeks is ideal to plan a successful
tour. For events such as a motor show, you will need to plan 12 to
14 weeks in advance. A site survey is also a good idea if you are
doing a remote SMT.
 Be detailed oriented. A satellite segment not booked properly,
wrong coordinates or an overbooked time slot, will turn your tour
into a nightmare. Ensure you are working with professionals who
know what they are doing.
 Provide additional footage. Do not underestimate the
importance of b-roll in a media tour. Newsroom will often want to
illustrate what is being discussed by your spokesperson.
 Be thoughtful about branding. Too much branding is a turn-off for
any news outlets. Your best brand visibility during a media tour is
your spokesperson and b-roll provided.
 If promoting a specific product (ex. new car launch) and this is
the topic of the interview, it is fine to have this in shot.
Additional Tips for SMTs

 Tip #1: Don’t Forget to Rehearse

 When spokespeople know the messaging and are
comfortable on the subject matter, the interviews
look, sound and feel better. As a PR pro, insist upon
mock interviews, rehearsals or formal media training
for your spokesperson leading up to the SMT,
especially if they don’t have significant on-air
experience.
 Tip #2: Don’t Crowd the Kitchen
 You’ll want to have only one or two (at the
absolute most) people offering your spokesperson
tips, advice or details during the tour. Normally, the
producer is the only person in the ear of the
spokesperson. If there are too many people
providing their two cents, you’ll have a confused
and distracted spokesperson.
 Tip #3: Don’t Stress
 Loosen up! If you’re tense or stressed, your
spokesperson will feed off your mood. Project an air
of confidence even if things aren’t going exactly to
plan. If you’ve hired the right SMT firm, whatever
may be interrupting the SMT is temporary, and will
get back on track quickly.
RMTs
 RMT (aka Radio media tour) - is a series of
back-to-back interviews that take place in a
3-4 hour span.
 A RMT generally consists of 10-15 back-to-
back interviews with radio stations ranging in
genres from NewsTalk to business to public
radio. Unless indicated otherwise, the radio
interviews booked will be about 5-10 minutes
long with one reporter or host.
 Like SMTs, there are 3 types of interviews for a
RMT: live, live-to-tape, or taped.
 Live interviews are live over the air and
streamed in real-time.
 If an interview is taped, then the reporter will
be looking for soundbites they will then
package for a story to be aired at a later
point.
 If the interview is live-to-tape, it will be
conducted as if it is a live interview, and
played back in its entirety at a later time.
Before embarking on your RMT, bear in mind these tips to
integrate social media into your radio outreach to
maximize efforts:
 use your social media channels to promote upcoming
LIVE interviews.
 On Twitter and Facebook you can “tag” the station by
following them on social media and tagging them by
using the station’s handle. You can then add a link
where would-be listeners can easily access the audio for
the interview from their PC or smart device.
 Not only can you promote your interview ahead of time
on social media platforms, but you can also engage with
the station from there to help establish your relationship
with them.
 Simply follow the station on Facebook and Twitter. If they
post something in relation to your booked interview, it gives
you an opportunity to retweet, like and share and get
additional mileage to your RMT booking.
 After the radio interview has aired, you now have a
second opportunity to promote and now share the audio
from the interview.
 Once you have audio – either from the station aircheck, or if
you were able to record on your own – post and share it on
your organization’s FB, Twitter, and other social media
channels.
Tips for RMTs

 You’re the expert: The interviewer is interested in

hearing what your representative has to say – whether
it is a legislative call to action or a consumer
awareness campaign – your organization
spokesperson is the expert in this situation.
 Localize the story: If possible, find a local angle. If
there’s a stat pertaining to the city or state where the
radio interview is taking place, or even a local event
that is taking place there, make sure it’s mentioned in
the interview.
 Drink water: A RMT can be long, so keeping hydrated
is key to sounding fresh and coming through loud and
clear during the interview. Have water nearby.
 Smile, stand-up, use your hands: To help convey authenticity and
energy over the air, spokespeople can stand-up while speaking,
talk with their hands (if on a headset), SMILE while speaking!
 Avoid mentioning reporter’s name: When conducting taped
interviews, avoid saying the host’s name. The reporter is recording
the interview so they can package it up to play as a produced
story. They’ll be looking for soundbites in your conversation. If
mentioning their name, it will be harder to edit out and include in
the final story.
 Don’t Hang Up! While participating in a RMT, a conference
service will be used to connect to each radio station. After each
interview, don’t hang up!
 The station will be disconnected while the RMT producer and the
spokesperson stay on the line. The conference operator will then
connect and announce the next station on the schedule to
begin the next interview.
 Give feedback: Following the RMT, provide your
spokesperson with a few quick pieces of feedback.
 Listen to the interviews: Get airchecks after your tour,
and use these as a media training device or learning
tool. Listen to the interviews to develop a list of things
your spokesperson did well, and what need works.
 GMT (aka Ground Media Tour) – Similar to the SMT,
except rather than use a satellite to broadcast the
feed, the ‘expert’ will actually travel to the local cities
and appear live in studio.
Reasons to conduct media
tours
 Firstly, it is important that the media and your supporters
know you and understand who you are and how you fit
in.
 Developing a relationship and a familiarity with your
audiences is an essential element of successful
communications and regular contact with the press is
important.
 Secondly, when you have a specific message to
disseminate or news to make, or if you are in a position
where you have to answer complicated questions, it can
be done through media tour outreach.
 Ex. Companies or industries that are controversial or under
attack often utilize campaign-like media tour road shows to
fight back and tell their story.
Reasons to conduct media
tours, cont.
 Finally, when you need to manage and influence
editorial opinion, it is essential to go out on the road
and talk with newspaper and magazine editorial
writers and editorial boards in order to seek fair and
balanced opinion coverage.
 ex. Foreign governments often put their leaders on the
road to tell their stories and their spokesperson can be a
Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Ambassador or other
diplomat.
 Governments with close ties to trade, immigration and
other issues regularly meet with media from other
countries to tell their stories and maintain solid
relationships.
 Scheduling media tours takes long-term planning and
commitment (a month or more) from identifying
where you need to go, to arranging meetings, logistics
and doing the necessary preparatory work
developing a fully-formed message and background
materials, training for interviews and practicing
answering tough questions.
Supplement to media tour -
the B-roll
 B-roll – an essential part of any broadcast media plan.
 Secondary background footage that will be cut into
any film footage’s primary story line.
 This is used to help establish atmosphere, location, and
accentuate artistic measures.
 A B-roll video package provides television producers
the background video source material they use as
part of their locally produced story coverage.
 It is distributed via satellite feeds and digital delivery to
broadcast outlets.
Press Previews
 Press previews are often scheduled in connection with
some event to which the general public is invited.
 Usually the preview is a day ahead of the event.
 By inviting the press early, the reporters are able to see
the entire occasion minus the crowd and in time to
get their stories and pictures published or air on the
day of the event.
 Normally a press kit is given to each reporter.
Exhibitions vs. Trade shows
 Exhibitions are the only medium that brings the whole
market together (buyers, sellers, competitors.)
 A Public exhibition is open to the public.
 Admission to a trade show is limited to those who are
sent tickets or who are admitted on showing a
business card. Sometimes educational visits are
arranged for trade shows.
Special characteristics

1. Attractiveness
 Appeal to the curiosity and have entertainment value.
 Gregarious—allow for audience participation, thus heightens interest.
2. Visibility
 Exhibits can be seen, touched, used, or sampled.
 Sometimes represented by a working model or by videotape.
3. Personal confrontation
 Exhibitors and visitors can meet, talk, explain or complain.
 Visitors get firsthand information and resolve problems or
misunderstandings.
 Exhibitors get reactions to new products or prototypes.
 Exhibitors can get close to consumers, something they can’t do when
working through wholesalers, agents, and retailers.
Trade Shows/Exhibitions
Objectives
 Maintain a presence in the market
 Sell to new and existing customers, agents and distributors
 Reinforce links with customers by introducing them to
managers and directors.
 Support local distributors/agents
 Customer research
 Competitor analysis and intelligence gathering
 Product testing
 Bring staff together– pride in their organization
 Meet new staff or potential recruits
 Meet the media
Participation In A Public Or Trade
Exhibition For Public Relations
Purposes
 Many organizations such as government departments,
public services, state enterprises, trade and
professional bodies exhibit at public or trade shows as
part of their PR program of communicating with their
particular publics.
 The purpose is to inform and educate, not to persuade
and sell.
Public Relations Support for a
Public or Trade Exhibition’s
Participant

 Contact the organizer’s publicist as soon as contract

for stand space is signed, and ask what help is
required.
 The organizer usually sends out advance information
and needs details (about your organization and what
it does.)
 This publicity will help increase the number of visitors to
shows, which is to every exhibitor’s advantage.
 Find out at early date the identity of the VVIP. An
approach can be made direct to him or her (through his
or her secretary or PRO) to visit your stand during the
official tour. Do this weeks or maybe, months in advance.
 Check out newspapers and magazines for previews of
the event. Offer them information on your organization.
 Since the organizer often calls a press preview or organize
a media day, have important company personalities
available on the stand.
 You can invite journalist direct, or have a private press
reception on stand, in a private room at the exhibition hall, or
at a nearby hotel.
 During the exhibition, there are always opportunities to
secure media coverage: a large order may be
announced, your stand receives an important visitor,
etc. Most times, facilities for dissemination of such
news are provided. Tweet, blog!
 If a new product with export potential is to be shown,
advise MITI well in advance as they may be interested
in issuing overseas news stories or filming the exhibit.
 You can invite radio and TV producers to gain ideas
for future programs. Example: Locally assembled
product (Made in Malaysia)
Exhibition Organizer’s Public
Relations
 Your efforts are three sided:
1. To inform prospective exhibitors
2. To inform prospective visitors before and during the
show
3. To achieve follow-up coverage
You may be involved in the
following:
 Organize PR activities like media reception and issue
news releases to announce a forthcoming exhibition.
 Issue details to all publications, which publish a diary of
forthcoming exhibitions.
 Co-operate with government agencies, which
circulate information abroad about exhibitions such as
MITI and Tourism Malaysia.
 Seek advance information from exhibitors and
distribute same, including translated versions to the
overseas press.
 Negotiate, write and publish feature articles prior to
the show.
 Co-operate with arrangements for the official
opening.
 Organize press preview or media day and media
coverage of the official opening.
 Advise exhibitor of press previews or
media day arrangement.
 Invite news releases and captioned
photographs for display in the
pressroom.
 Prepare the pressroom, displaying news
releases, photographs and captions.
Press kits are not required.
 Obtain maximum coverage of the
official opening in the media, including
the social media.
 Maintain the pressroom throughout the run of the
exhibition, assisting journalist with information, sending
materials to their offices, and providing hospitality.
 Invite exhibitors to inform the pressroom of any
activities, which can be posted on the notice board in
the room.
 Some exhibitions publish a daily bulletin, which the
PRO edits, prints and distributes.
 Produce an end-of-exhibition report on exhibitors’
comments.
 Monitor and announce attendance figures, especially
if it’s a large public exhibition when, say, the millionth
visitor will be celebrated.
Develop An Exhibition
Strategy
The following is a selection checklist:
 Type of exhibition: local, national, or international;
vertical (tight focus of interest for buyers/sellers) or
horizontal (wide range of interest for buyers/sellers);
general public or trade event; conference (limited
amount of exhibiting facilities available).
 Target audience
 Timing: does it meet buyers’ purchasing patterns; can
the organization prepare it in time; i.e. foreign shows
need to be planned 12-18 months in advance.
 Facilities: any limitation or constraint; how the
organizers intend to promote the event; supporting
contact events, such as dinners, award ceremonies,
seminars, breakfast receptions, etc.
 Costs: cost of space rental should be about 20% of the
total cost of exhibiting.
 How long has the show been running?
 What official bodies are supporting it?
Tips to Getting the Most of
your Trade Shows
1. Have enough people– make
sure you have enough staff
for the expected visitors.
2. Identify booth personnel–
with distinctive buttons, shirts,
blazers, or uniforms. Nothing
frustrates a visitor more than
having to look for someone
to help him/her.
3. Practice—Spend time with
your staff rehearsing the sales
presentation. Try out some
Q&As.
Tips to Getting the Most of
your Trade Shows, cont.
4. Set rules– The demeanor of your booth personnel says
a lot about your professionalism. No smoking, no
swearing, no drinking, no eating, etc.
5. Pay attention to booth design - Make it easy to get
into and out of. Make it look inviting. Plan on
supplemental light to complement the exhibit hall’s
overhead light that might not be able to showcase
your booth and products well.
6. Keep it simple – Don’t get bogged down in detail. Make
sure your company and brand name are clearly
identified, then concentrate on just the main points of
your sales.
7. Use signage effectively—Use “shelf talkers” and other
signage to put across the key benefits and features of
your product.
 Some people prefer to shop alone than to speak to a
salesman.
8. Tie booth graphics to advertising– Make sure you have
the same theme or look like your advertising campaign
going for your booth.
 Unifying your themes will give better recall and more
mileage.
9. Don’t let them walk away empty handed– Give
prospects something to take along that re-emphasizes
your key selling points.
10. Make it easy for buyers– Give prospects a listing of
dealers in their area, set up a specific sales
appointment for after the show, or arrange a sales
meeting during the show.
11. Focus on the product—having a magician, a barker, a
model, or a robot gets attention, yes but don’t overdo
it to the detriment of your overall sales presentation.
12. Remember the trade press– prepare press kits for journalist
that may drop by. Or, invite key editors to your booth,
and give them access to top executives and information
they can use.
13. Target key prospects– Send invitations to customers and
prospects, informing them about your participation and
inviting them to visit your booth.
14. Don’t go for body counts– Having a give-away or a
contest in your booth generate traffic, but are these
people qualified prospects?
15. Analyze your performance—At the end of the day, spend
a few minutes with booth personnel to compare notes
and discuss any adjustment for the succeeding days.
Reasons for Poor
Performance
 Inadequate statement of purpose– nobody quite
knows what they’re supposed to do.
 Poor quality visitors.
 Poor recognition by company by buyers.
 Ineffective quality and design of the stand.
 Bad location of the stand.
 Undistinguished performance of personnel running the
stand, because of poor selection, training, motivation
or management.
Reasons for Poor
Performance, cont.
 Lack of follow-up leads and inquiries.
 Ignoring the competition and letting them steal your
prospects.
 Breakdown in organization and control, leading to last
minute panics, such as an unfinished stand on the
opening day of the show, or late arrival of literature,
giveaways, etc.
 Inadequate arrangements for staff working on the stand
such as locating their accommodation too far from the
event, failing to obtain car park permits, or not organizing
meal vouchers.
 Inadequate control of costs and budgets, leading to
over-expenditure and consequently a poor return on
investment.
12 TIPS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA
FOR TRADE SHOWS
 Twitter:
 Tweet Reasons To Visit Your Booth: Tell attendees all the
great things you will be offering in your booth, such as
show specials, giveaways, contests, new products,
special offers, and the like. You can send a few messages
a week for the month or two leading up to the show.
 Pre-Schedule Tweets: There are free, web-based
programs such as Hootsuite.com or Tweetdeck.com that
allow you to pre-schedule your tweets, even down to the
five minutes you want.
 Learn the Hashtag (#) for Your Shows: turns the word into
a hyperlink that lets a viewer click and see all recent
messages with that same hashtag.
 Facebook:
 Set up a business page and start engaging with your
clients on a more personal level
 Post Photos and Videos from Your Trade Shows: Show
what new things you introduced. Even better: give
your attendees a reason to have their picture taken in
your booth, with a fun banner stand backdrop or a
celebrity.
 Announce News from the Show for Friends that
Couldn’t Come: Did you announce a new strategic
alliance with a partner? Introduce a new
product? Share the news.
 YouTube:
 Include Company & Show Name In Video Title: YouTube is
actually the second-most popular search engine in the
world! People search on just about anything, including the name
of the show they will exhibit at. So include in video title the show
name, plus your company name – and maybe even your booth
number.
 Great for Pre-Show and Post-Show Promotions: For pre-show
promotions, load up the video with all the great reasons to visit
your trade show booth (see point #1 about Twitter).
 You can also record and produce a video showing all the action
you had in your booth – new products, demonstrations, happy
client interviews – and post that to YouTube soon after the
show. Then email links to people, or embed the video on your
website or blog, or get found by searchers using great keywords.
 Blogs:
 Blog About Your Exhibiting – Find who blogs for your
company, and give them info about your events –
they will want to publish great content like your event
news.
 Or start your own blog about what your company is
doing at events. Your blog can serve as a home base for
each show’s promotional activity.
 Blog Post Show: Recap Trends, New Products: Reach
out to your new found blogger friends before the
show, and give them the information they need so
they write about you after the show.
 Get them an interview with your company CEO or
leaders, to share your views about industry trends.
 Set up an appointment to demonstrate your new
products introduced at the show, so they may include
it in their recap about new products on their blog.
TRADESHOW LINKS

 http://www.eventseye.com - Trade Shows,

Exhibitions, Conferences & Business Events
Worldwide
 http://www.matrade.gov.my/en/etrade (Support
for tradeshows in Malaysia and internationally)
 https://10times.com - tradeshows worldwide