Frequent mistakes in organizing PR events

In the topic - about how to organize a press conference, a party with a presentation or something like that noisy, where journalists will come, and not to be mistaken .

With an event, it is quite easy to walk around the rake: this is a tool where it is very easy to lower a huge budget with exhaust close to zero. If you don’t need money to be spent on money, there are a couple of things that you need to think about.

I hope this basic information will be useful to you: I have been working in BTL for about 10 years and quite often I see really poorly organized events, in particular, in IT presentations (where you need to convey the advantages of a complex product very clearly).
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But let's start with why we need an event.

• Explain a complex product . For example, if you make a piece of iron that looks like others in this class and is different in technology, journalists will write that it is beautiful, comfortable, fast — but they may simply not understand what the key feature is. This can be clearly and visually convey on the spot.
• To form the right mood . In some cases, you need to work not with the guests' brain, but with emotions: where you cannot give facts, you need to give mood and atmosphere. The event is the best channel for this.
• Get to know bloggers and journalists . It is clear that it is better to decide separately by personal meetings, but here you have both the goods face, and the reason to meet, and everything is in place. Optimally - to collect contacts from all and maintain communication later.
• Show that the company is fine with the budget . It concerns only large companies, but still it is quite often a real reason to make an event.

Thin places

Journalists need to know why they are coming.

Journalists receive dozens of invitations for every kind of mess every day, and therefore they almost always answer “send a release later”. Naturally, then the publication, most likely, will not. Journalists need to be interested, and to interest a lot. They need either content or money.

Bloggers just won't come

Top bloggers are spoiled not worse than journalists, plus they don’t work with post-release and want money openly. They also need to be interested or not touch. Both bloggers and journalists need to say in a personal conversation (by phone) that gifts will be given to guests if they are scheduled.

Must be clear target

The cost of contact for an event exceeds the limit: an organization costs several tens of thousands of rubles (or hundreds - depending on where, which table, how long, and which staff is needed), and there are quite a few people. Accordingly, if each contact does not work out - the money was just beautifully flushed into the toilet. It is necessary to think in detail about what exactly and how it will be delivered to the guests, who will talk to them and how. In general, the scenario of a bad event: “no one understood anything, everyone went sober and evil.”

2 + 2 = 5

But PR-events are very much loved by advertising agencies and try to push through them to almost everyone. The reasons are completely prosaic:

• Yield is not less than 30%, often - more. At the same time, according to estimates, the agency commission amounts to about 10-15 percent, plus in the process the rest of the income is “drawn” at the expense of its contractors or the receipt of work at in-house cost.
• KPI is usually not: a photo report is too easy to overshadow the lack of publications, and the client is “eating”.
• The client does not ask “what did you do all month?”, He sees a noisy result and a crowd. At the same time, for example, working with the media (personal meetings, letters and calls) is more confusing to the client, it costs less, but there is also more panic and anxiety: you don’t see what is happening!
• If the journalists didn’t come, we’ll just kill people, and the customer’s general director will still be happy. They consider it according to their heads, and not according to the final results.

The basic principle is that if the management is not registered, the agency will bite off everything that can bite. It is useless to fight: if you “press” it, then the love for the client will not increase. Here, as elsewhere, you need to find an agency or team you can trust. From experience, I will say that for a good client, with whom there is a normal contact, I want to give everything, sometimes at a loss (though rarely). Many clients do not like it when there is a “project management” + agency commission in the budget, therefore many agencies simply do not state the management in the budget. But if you propose to honestly insert into the estimate all the working hours of the agency’s employees, then the desire to hide a piece of expenses will be diminished.

How to read a quote?

We look at the blocks and the detail of their description . If the estimate says "decorating the room - 150,000 rubles," then this amount is exactly the extra income of the agency. And if it is “fabric for decoration - 15 meters, satin red + work of an interior designer - 2 hours + color compositions - 8 pieces, all together 150,000 rubles”, then there, too, you can sew up a percentage, but without the “lawlessness”. Phased cost detailing is a good bargaining method, by the way.

Catering : in fact, food will be less than in the estimate. If the estimated 15 bottles of wine, the catering will be ordered 13-14, catering "hide" another 1-2, in the end, when the performers went too far, you will have 10-11 on the table. And so, in principle, for each position.

It is important to understand that an agency that values ​​its reputation will never worsen the part that affects the impression from the event.

More tips

• It is necessary to record the results of the event not by the number of visitors and the volume of alcohol consumed, but by the actual publications in the media and the response in the blogosphere. And to prescribe it in the contract with the advertising agency.
• You need to understand that fig events are almost always a drain of money. Accordingly, it is necessary to do either well, or even abandon such an idea.
• It is necessary to live every step from the beginning to the very end, looking for all the "bottlenecks" and bugs in advance: there will be only one attempt. Little is compiled from the first time - but the event should be completely successful.
• It is worth doing an event at the start of the project: it is still a good opportunity to get acquainted with the target audience of journalists and bloggers. Specifically, it is quicker and easier to make basic contacts.
• The event is vital when your product needs to be “translated” into human language (you can’t just give it away and hope everyone understands everything). For example, if Google launches laptops - you can put them under the geeks' door, and the Internet will be filled with reviews the next day. But if you invent a device a few years ago that combines a player, a phone and a breakthrough Internet device, it is better to make a presentation.
• If you have a superstar (a technician with charisma, a director with burning eyes, celebrity, a patient with a product) that needs to be shown, the event will have a much greater effect - and then you also have to do it.
• The last case - when your major leadership said "must." This happens, for example, if a noisy event is part of a product launch policy for a company in all regional markets, and you just have to go according to the standard.

Format features

• Adequate theme. At the same time, this is not something that is interesting to the management, but something that is interesting to the guests.
• Start on time. There is nothing worse than calling everyone by 18:00, and starting at 20:00. This happens quite often.
• The duration of the main part - no more than 2 hours. Better shorter.
• Disciplined speakers without surprises: charisma and training are better than encyclopedic knowledge.
• Presentation - the principle of 3 times (now I will tell you about this thing, here I am talking about this thing, summarizing, today I told you about this thing).
• The presentation should be short: for example, on the slides - only pictures and basic words. There is nothing worse than a sleeping audience.
• If the event is crowded and evening with an entertainment part, guests should not forget who and why gathered them here. Need a normal branding.
• Get guests to do something with their hands, feet, or head. Do not forget the relevance and connection with the theme of the event.
• Good food and normal gifts improve the impression.
• Check everything in IT three times: surprises with a falling channel, a lost presentation or the inability to start a video are not needed by anyone.

What you need to think before the event:

• General timing of work - when we deliver, we pay and approve. And who is responsible and who approves for each job.
• Estimated. Here it is necessary to lay 5-10% on "unforeseen expenses" for its part as an organizer.
• Scenario of the event - every minute, who, what and after whom says.
• List of contents of the press package (list of press materials and promotional materials).
• Guest accreditation list.
• Presentations and speeches of speakers.
• Expected questions of journalists and answers to them
• Themselves press materials (press release, info about the product, information about the company)

Where can be the bases

• Speakers do not know how to talk. It just does not add up and that's it. In this case, we change the speaker, or we teach at rehearsals several times, plus we add another person “on the pickup,” preferably charismatic.
• It happens that the production failed (no souvenirs and branding). We work with reliable suppliers, and for those we don’t know - we put the deadline at least one week before day X.
• Often forget about the host of the event. Someone, in any case, should assume this role. If you forget - you have to take the rap one of the speakers.
• The technique does not work (microphones, a projector, and so on) - a check and a partial run before the event are necessary.
• Journalists did not come. Smile and wave, nothing can be done. Next - we are trying to work with a media manager to understand why this happened. Insurance against this problem - the ringing of all accredited on the eve of the event + mobile phones accredited in the database + plan for the event attached to the invitation.
• The food is bad, the gifts are not great. Bad, but not terrible. Work with proven contractors, take on the work of normal managers. But even if the food is bad, and the content of the event is at a height - everything is ok.
• The 2nd hour of the presentation is on, the journalists are sleeping, the speaker continues talking. Before the presentation, it is necessary to work out a conditional stop signal with the speaker, plus give the facilitator the right to interrupt the speaker who has spoken.

Now - ready to answer any questions in the comments.