Oftentimes, you and your company are not just looking for online engagements — you are also looking for (and promoting) opportunities to meet your customers. Whether you are sponsoring an event or hosting an event yourself, most likely you have an end goal of increasing attendance and awareness. That’s why events are an ideal subject for media, as they are a two-for-one: brand awareness and driving more people to your event.
For nonprofit or charitable organizations, event coverage is traditional and incredibly necessary. Walks for awareness of diseases or illnesses, donation roundups, and events of the like are great topics of discussion for media outlets to cover. It gives them the opportunity to promote the event before it happens, and also the opportunity to attend and cover the event live. This is important, because video and livestreaming is so relevant in our current social and professional media world. The value of being at an event and recording it while it is in progress is invaluable to viewers.
This past April, the American Cancer Society (ACS) hosted its second Relay for Life in Minneapolis. Major Twin Cities networks like KARE11 covered and promoted the relay before it took place. In the article and video clip that KARE11 published, the station gave background information on the ACS and how viewers could get involved. The ACS gained coverage again (later in the year) with the Relay for Life Global Celebration that took place at the Mall of America. Media want to cover big, charitable events. You provide them with content that elicits goodwill from viewers, and they boost your chance of donors or event-goers.
Other types of events make great opportunities for media coverage, too. If you are a theater company, you can pitch your upcoming show dates to local media. Perhaps you are on the planning committee for a city festival, or maybe your company’s anniversary is fast approaching and your boss is throwing a picnic. Events are off the daily beaten path, and the more unique your event is, the better chance you have of attaining media coverage. When you pitch to the media about your company event, you give them the chance to stimulate community involvement. Events are an appropriate and exciting time to invest in media relations.