Getting the most from events – covering the basics
As you may have seen from blogs and tweets elsewhere on the site, we were busy last week at the World Petroleum Congress in Moscow, with international oil and gas company MOL Group. In the end, we did seven interviews across broadcast, print and online media – both general and trade outlets – including CNBC, Upstream, Petroleum Economist and Interfax.
Not bad exposure, considering that most of the world’s majors and supermajors were in attendance – and a timely reminder of some of the dos and don’ts when trying to maximise the PR value of events.
In the planning stage, it is important to think about the client’s involvement in the event in a holistic sense. Don’t just look at whether they are doing a keynote speech, but also ask yourself: are they involved in the technical programme, presenting papers or posters? Do they have an exhibition stand ? If so, is this something that can act as a hub for journalists and others?
Armed with this kind of overview, you are then in a much better place to segment your target publications and approach them with a much more specific, tailored pitch – increasing your chances of success.
At this point, have a think about the broader news agenda. The ongoing dispute between Russia and the Ukraine over gas transit to Europe has put EU energy security back in the spotlight recently. As an integrated oil and gas company with an established footprint in central and Eastern Europe, as well as upstream assets in Russia, MOL’s senior team were well placed to give their thoughts.
It is also worth bearing in mind local linguistic requirements – for WPC we had a Russian-speaking member of the team contact key Russian trade titles. Having secured interviews with some of these, we then ensured we had a Russian speaker on hand for the interviews.
All of the above should help you secure those all important interviews – but what about the client? Two words – brief them. If the client knows about who is interviewing them, the media outlet that they work for, and what the journalist is interested in, you will maximise your chances of a good smooth interview. So make sure you spend time gathering as much of this information as you can.
If you would like to hear more about how we can support you at future events, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at info@bcmpublicrelations.com