When securing event PR, don’t merely limit your efforts to the pre-event coverage. Offering a wrap up story to the media is a great opportunity to boast about your success, and to begin drawing exhibitor/sponsor participation for next year.
Although our 50+ PrimeTime Living Expo was held earlier this month, we’re still busy following up with new story ideas for our media contacts. We want the media to report on the expo’s success story. We have developed pitches from the Expo’s 50+ Strut Your Stuff Talent Contest: who competed, what was performed and most important, the winners.
The most crucial thing to remember is that reporters and producers think visually. Offer photos or video of your event. When pitching our wrap-up story, we offered photos and video for the media to use with the story.
Localize. Localize. Localize. One hook that works well with reporters and producers is local stories. Reporters have to pitch ideas to their producer or managing editor before getting the green light, and you can help them demonstrate the relevance of your story by linking it to newsworthy events and people from their community.
Two great examples are the post-event stories that ran in Still Water Gazette and Owatonna People Press featuring local residents who competed in the talent show as well as the winners.
Remember, doing good press outreach is never a guarantee of coverage. Especially as mainstream media outlets struggle to keep in business, they have less time to cover all that’s happening. You need to engage the media rather than simply announce an event, so that your news is deemed worthy of reporting. Most important, don’t miss out on your post-coverage PR opportunities.
