Get Creative and Focus on Quality
Media engagement has changed significantly over the last few years. Newsrooms are shrinking; niche outlets are becoming more respected; multimedia is becoming front and center; and reporters are working even harder to tell unique and compelling stories.
These changes are probably most evident at conferences. For a long time, the key measurement of PR’s success at a conference was the number of media meetings. But today, if we are being honest, it’s no longer about the quantity, it’s about quality of meetings – even if I have some peers that still brag about their number of meetings, while their clients begrudge the lack of engagement. We need to rethink and reset expectations.
The reality is that fewer reporters are attending conferences and the ones that are attending are being tasked with writing more stories about keynotes, the conference sessions and breaking news. They have less time to take intro meetings, especially if there’s no clear tie or hook to what they are writing about.
It would be a mischaracterization to say that the bar is higher. The reality is that the bar has moved. Reporters need spokespeople to help them tell the stories that their readers need. Where once they had the luxury to take meetings in hopes of uncovering stories, many times they only have time for meetings that inform the stories they are writing today.
This means you need to think outside of the message you want to push and consider the story that will benefit your customers or others in the industry and figure out how you can help tell that story.
Flip the Script and Get Creative.
- Bring in customers for exclusives and roundtables – prospective customers want to hear from current end-users they can relate to. Dig into their challenges and concerns. Align your messaging with the concepts your customers bring to the table.
- Take a hard look at your research. Instead of pushing basic findings or marketing collateral disguised as research, tailor your content to topics and insights that will benefit reporters at the show.
- Ask reporters what they want to talk about and bring new insights to those conversations. This is the reason we launched Inside the Media Minds (and Gov & Beyond for public sector) – to engage and learn directly from reporters. The media will knock down your door if you can use your focus to inform broader conversations.
Put the story and your event PR plan through a new lens. While industry events and conferences can help elevate an interesting perspective, they should not be viewed as standalone initiatives. They should be part of a broader strategy planned out months in advance, with associated assets, messaging, spokespeople, goals and most importantly contingency planning – what if the story isn’t as great as you thought, what if the best reporter for the story doesn’t go to the conference? Pivot. Reset expectations. Change plans and move forward.
If, like me, you are thinking about RSA which is coming up in March, planning starts now (or a few weeks ago). Bring in your stakeholders and PR team and set the course, based on the best possible outcome. (Which should never start with the number of briefings).