Back in the PR heyday, we’re talking the Sex and the City Era, throwing an epic party was all you needed to do to generate tons of public relations coverage. These days Sydney is cluttered with brands vying for attention. Events have the unique power of giving people an IRL experience, however there’s no room for error. Do it wrong with media and influencers, and you’ll lose more than just money, you could lose your brand reputation.
In this blog we’ll cover: when businesses should part with hard earned cash for a PR event, how to ensure you throw a good one (with examples of what ‘good’ looks like) and pitfalls to avoid along the way.
1. Is investing in a PR event worth it?
- Launching a food product, health service or restaurant concept and need to get the word out? The best way to do that is with a captive audience of influencers and media who can spread the word to thousands of Australians. There is nothing like creating a full brand experience and immersing Sydney’s elite, the people that set the trends, in your experience to help them have a good impression and encourage others to part with their hard-earned cash.
- It helps elevate your brand and creates coverage opportunities. Sydney Confidential in the Daily Telegraph is a section that covers events, and only events, so if you don’t do one, you can’t get in. Similarly, your guests would all post on their social media channels about the fabulous event they are at. If you don’t do one, they can’t post.
- Events enable you to control the experience people have with your brand. Asking people to experience your food ingredient at a celebrity chef restaurant can deliver a far better outcome than their lacklustre home cooking attempts.
- If you are a leader in a new category, it is even more crucial to have a captive audience. In our experience, people move away from what they don’t know and dislike uncertainty.
- Events help create personal relationships with key media and influencers. It may not be that you get oodles of coverage from the initial event, but you may enjoy the slow burn of coverage over time as those journalists remember you for future articles.
2. Tips for a successful PR event?
a. Details are everything. The food needs to be delicious and plentiful; the drinks need to be on time with a variety of options to choose from and there should be stunning brand touchpoints everywhere.
Breakout Brand Touch Points:
Papaya hosted a launch for The Tea Centre’s new Australian Botanicals range and brought in sensory touchpoints throughout: The food menu featured the exact flavouring of the tea in each dish such as the Lemon Myrtle alpine salmon infused with the Desert Lime & Myrtle tea.
We also had bespoke sensory lazy susans covered with jars of tea leaves for our guests to touch and smell.
Tea Sommelier Caitlyn Pollard also spoke about the tea blending processes and where the native ingredients were sourced from around the country. Our guests including Australian Women’s Weekly, Country Style, Home Beautiful, Woman’s Day and New idea were captivated by the experience.
b. Invite many more than you think will fill the space. Drop out rates with media and influencers are alarmingly high – say one in four – and there is nothing more embarrassing than having a half empty space (okay, well I’m sure there are more embarrassing things but you do feel like dying in that moment).
c. Make the venue highly desirable. It’s worth splurging for a big name venue in Sydney or a newly renovated restaurant to entice people there with an additional thread. We were one of the first to host an event at Kiln in the new Ace Hotel for the Barramundi Farmers Association and it was very well attended by some of Sydney’s most elite food media from News Ltd, the Financial review and the Sydney Morning Herald
d. Always get a snapper. Occasionally we have a client who doesn’t want to put up the extra few hundred for a good snapper and I always regret not capturing the moment. As a marketing manager or brand manager, it’s also a great way to show the success of the project that you spearheaded to the rest of your organisation.
3. Common pitfalls and mistakes to avoid when holding a PR Event
- Ignoring the bread and butter pitching program. Doing an event without any tailored media and influencer pitching around it will lead to a one-way ticket to tumbleweeds. The real work is in the different story angles you are pitching to media
- Late invites look desperate. Early invites are crucial in order to secure a good volume of A-list attendees. We like to send our invites out around 5-6 weeks ahead of the event. If you’re not getting the early response you’d like then sending a second round to tier two invitees is possible without looking like they are tier two (if you catch my drift).
If you are looking for an agency that has years of experience hosting some of Sydney’s best and most memorable events in the public relations space, please drop us a line or give us a call. We would love to chat to you.