Earlier this year on the FiredUp! podcast, we discussed Turning Events Into PR Wins. With the fall event season in full swing, and the spring season coming up, we thought it would be worth reviewing some rules of thumb and best practices for getting coverage for conference announcements.
It’s a challenge even for accomplished marketing teams. Yes, conferences can focus media attention. But for that very reason, they tend to feature similar companies issuing similar news competing for attention from an ever-dwindling number of reporters.
Often, the challenge isn’t the inherent newsworthiness of your announcement. It’s when you pitch it, how you pitch it, and to whom. Here are a few of the main factors to consider.
Remember that events are dynamic
It might seem obvious, but when pitching around an event, you have to think about the physicality of it all. Reporters might be on a plane. They might be checking in at their hotel, wandering the floor at the conference expo, in line at Starbucks, or struggling with Wi-Fi in their rooms. They may have made a plan with their editor to sit in on certain sessions. They might be onstage moderating a panel or getting miked up in the green room. It can sometimes be harder to get the attention of a reporter in the same building than when you’re on opposite sides of the country. Whatever your PR goal might be, start by reviewing the agenda, identifying key speakers, studying the conference layout, and understanding the reporter’s lived reality of the show.
Don’t wait
The golden rule of conference pitching is: start early. Begin contacting journalists the month before at the latest. For mega-events like CES, a month isn’t nearly enough. Check in with your regular contacts to see who, if anyone, will be there from their publication, and who might be covering from home base. The conference media list can give you a useful headstart, but don’t depend on it. Organizers often release the list too late to be useful, and reporters will often sign up without firm plans to show up. Research how publications have covered the event in the past. And check social media for anguished pleas from reporters to ‘Stop pitching I’m not going this year!’
Often your press release won’t be finished before you need to start reaching out. That’s fine. Making contact too early beats too late every time. Pitch what you know and start a conversation. If the news changes, you can always send an update. Especially if you haven’t delivered the press release under embargo, the chance of a mix-up in the final coverage is minimal.
Consider a pre-event announcement
There’s a certain glamour about issuing news at a big event, but the smarter move is often issuing your press release a week or two earlier. Use the event to promote and celebrate your news, not to announce it.
If you stop and think, this approach makes a lot of sense. Reporters are fielding hundreds of announcements from vendors pitching news embargoed for the first day of the conference. Even if they succeed, the resulting stories are often less detailed and thoughtful than they otherwise might have been because of the sheer number of pieces the reporter was trying to write.
By issuing your news earlier, you neatly sidestep the crush of vendors trying to wedge their news into the same time slot. You’ll also give yourself a better chance of landing in-depth coverage instead of a paragraph in an end-of-day news roundup. The reporters you engage with will be under less pressure when they write, and many of your ideal readers — buyers who will be at the event — will be less distracted as well.
Participate in organized media scrums
Brands that exhibit at CES are familiar with pay-for-play events like Pepcom and Unveiled, which give media a chance to see vendors’ products in a single convenient location rather than having to hunt them down across CES’s notorious sprawl of hotel show floors.
Increasingly, event organizers are offering similar programs, where vendors pay for the opportunity to demo in front of reporters. In our experience, while the cost of these media days can be significant, they’re often worth the price of entry, especially for brands that are still building media relationships or that aren’t presenting at the event. Often, reporters on site will devote most of their coverage to the keynote and the organized media session. Everyone else has to fight for a “swing-by the booth” or a “quick coffee meeting with the CEO” — which isn’t the place you want to be. The guaranteed visibility media events provide can be a good way to kickstart your PR program and build valuable relationships with key reporters. And if you’re determined to issue news during the conference, rather than ahead of time, they can be practically essential as a way to separate yourself from the crowd.
Building confidence
Every conference has its own PR “feel.” Some are all-business. Some are schmoozy (and occasionally boozy). Some attract national media; others, Substackers and influencers; yet others, hard-boiled trade reporters with decades of experience covering the same circle of companies. Once you’ve attended a few years running, you’ll get a feel for which is which, and what kind of opportunities you can expect.
Those opportunities aren’t just editorial coverage. Increasingly, you’ll see podcasters recording from the floor, or short-form video creators doing interviews at booths. Understanding the nuances of each event is essential to getting the best results from your PR.
There’s no substitute for being there. Just plan ahead, keep your eyes open, and learn from others’ success. Pretty soon, you’ll be landing coverage at your big annual conference like a regular.
About the Author
Maura Lafferty is an influencer relations specialist, with a particular focus on media outreach over social channels. Maura has over 14 years' experience in public relations, and relationships with media working in national, California, and Silicon Valley newsrooms.
