coverage

Don’t let your hangover be the only awareness of your award win

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An award win gives you a big opportunity to obtain press coverage.
If you’re a finalist, Robert Zarywacz suggests preparing in advance so you don’t waste your big moment.

“It’s the morning after the regional awards. What a hangover! But what a win! And, boy, did we celebrate!” 

(Enough to warrant three exclamation marks.) 

“Now it’s time to tell everyone about how great we are. I’ll just get another cup of coffee and sit down to write the press release.”

pressme: Don’t let your hangover be the only awareness of your award win

Make best PR use of your award win

It can be a big achievement to win an award and it’s definitely useful for obtaining media coverage, but an award win isn’t always enough on its own.

As our bleary-eyed winner sits down to compose their press release at 9.30am on the morning after, a journalist on their target publication has already been writing an article on these awards since 9.00am.

What’s more, another four businesses won awards last night, one of them winning two awards, so they are going to be the main focus of the newspaper article. The journalist has received a press release from one of the other winners and has already spoken to the winner of the two awards.

Add to this press releases sent to the newspaper from two other businesses which have each won national awards that outrank the regional awards, and our friend’s press release is an also-ran even before it’s written.

Does this really happen? Yes, this is based on my experience as a journalist when I observed award winners working to get my attention when it was too late.

Now, there are other ways of generating publicity from winning an award – in newsletters to customers, on social media and on web sites – but free coverage in the press and media is usually worth a lot. Think how much you would pay to advertise.

What can you do to improve your chances of media coverage?

Plan – write your winner’s press release before the awards event. You won’t be able to put in all the details, such as judges’ comments, although ask the awards organisers at the event when you have been named a winner. Get as much material as you can in advance.

Competitors – you will not be the only award winner. What makes you different? Will you win two awards? Will it be the third year you’ve won this award? Have you won other awards this year? What is it that will get you noticed by journalists so that your story becomes the focus of their awards articles?

Photos – usually an official photographer takes photos at awards ceremonies. Find out how the press can obtain photos of your award win. Sometimes photos can be a pain to obtain, so any help you can give journalists will make their job easier.

Move fast – contact the media as soon as you can. If the awards were announced during an evening event, do it first thing the following morning. Remember our journalist who was writing the article at 9.00am. You may be hungover, but the journalist will probably have a clear head and be writing to a deadline.

Respond – if a journalist calls you or emails, respond immediately. They’ll have other articles to write if they can’t get a response from you.

With a small amount of preparation you can do a lot to help your chances of getting media coverage of your awards wins. And that’s another reason to celebrate.

Have you missed the holiday PR boat?

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We’ve seen the stream of incoming press releases stop during the holidays.
Next week everyone will start sending at the same time, but have they missed holiday PR opportunities?

pressme: Have you missed the holiday PR boat?

No one reads news during the holidays.

Don’t they?

It’s true that stories such as the Prime Minister on his surfing holiday have appeared, but there’s also been many big news stories.

The flow of press releases stops during school holidays, but next week when the new term starts I expect a flood of press releases to come through at the same time for my weekly newspaper business pages.  Instead of repeatedly trying to speak to people for details of news stories, there will probably be too much to fit in the space and some news won’t get covered.

I believe many businesses are missing useful PR opportunities by not sending out press releases over the holiday period. With many publications having reduced resources, interesting news is often welcome. An eye-catching photo will also help.

Will anyone read it? Many print publications also publish news online and many of us still check up on news and business when we’re supposed to be relaxing.

Create a PR schedule to take advantage of all opportunities at all times. That way you can achieve more coverage, especially when journalists are eager to receive good material. And by helping them out, they are more likely to contact you in the future.

• See our #SillySeasonPR school holiday challenge for ideas on how to take the PR opportunities available over holidays.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t call back . . .

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. . . if you don’t want to take advantage of publicity for your business.

In my role as a newspaper writer I continue to wonder at how many businesses lose out on media coverage simply by not returning calls or responding to emails from journalists. If they’ve got more business than they can handle, that’s their decision, but how many businesses are operating at full capacity or don’t need more business?

I know people are busy and can’t always respond instantly, but an attempt to return a call to get a comment or article in the paper at no cost would seem to be worth the effort. Perhaps they think it won’t do them any good.

I know from writing for a local newspaper that editorial does generate enquiries. That’s why many businesses I’ve covered previously contact me again when they have some news they think will interest me.

Perhaps they think they won’t be able to talk about their business coherently. Surely they talk coherently to their customers or else they wouldn’t make any sales. There’s not much difference.

And what if the call is about something negative, such as the horsemeat scandal? If you can comment knowledgeably or have a food business where you can demonstrate traceability and quality, you do have the opportunity to benefit.

So the next time a journalist calls for a comment, take a moment to think about the opportunity and what you want to say before calling them back promptly.

 

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