With in person events, powerful press releases, and a crystal ball prediction that comes true
This month has been nothing short of jam-packed at IBA – add to this back-to-back Bank Holidays, BBQ’s and a new king on the UK throne and there’s been no time to take a breather. It’s the start of the 2023 event season mayhem, press releases showing their power, and a crystal ball predicting the future. So, quite a lot to round up this month!
Yay to the power of the press release!
Some PR and Marketing professionals see the rise of social media as a source of the latest news heralding the downfall of the press release – but is this really the case? When well written and aimed at the right target audiences, press releases can be one of the most powerful tools in the PR armory. You may have heard this before that’s because we’re strong on the strength of a good press releases.
Our editorial team comes across a fair few press releases and we can certainly say we’ve seen it all – the good, the bad, and ugly. Those that don’t perform well often miss delivering relevant content to their target audience and fail to tell more to the story than meets the initial eye. Take it from us, there is more to press releases than disseminating the topline story – award, order, appointment, partnership – as it is a prime opportunity to promote hidden brand messaging. Our aerospace and defense client for instance, produced a well written press release on how they plan to enhance their partnership with the industry’s largest global manufacturer and contractor – and we were more than happy to pitch this news to our client’s target audience of global defense media. Brand association, field leader in their market, diversity of solutions delivery – getting the picture? No surprise here when it was able to quickly reach double figures for placements in top tier A&D outlets. Power to the press release Yay!
No shouts of mayday at IBA – we’ve got event season under control
Events come in all shapes and sizes. But whether you’re attending or hosting an event, they are an excellent opportunity for businesses to grow their presence and network with other industry experts. As the event circuit gets well and truly underway, we see first-hand how different events can be extremely important for our clients – and chaos just comes with the territory in events season.
Our enterprise software client is certainly leading the way with an action-packed agenda of nine conference events around the globe curated to showcase the company’s commitment to business and tech development, as well as support its partners and customers. We have been tasked with the job of securing top-tier industry journalist attendance (no pressure) for the North America event – and we are rising to the occasion. With less than two weeks to go, itineraries are being firmed up, interviews are being prepared, and travel and logistics are being arranged – all that remains is for the journalists to pack their bags! Who said in-person events for the media were a thing of the past?
Award shows are a unique event which give companies a chance to network and mix with the best in their industry, but they are often overestimated in some ways and underestimated in others. Not so for our contact center client and we’re in the process of preparing a submission for the 2023 UC awards show after receiving wide recognition from this well-regarded publication for its solution and its contribution to the Microsoft ecosystem. It’s all part of building their field leading position and recognition in the contact center industry.
The event shelf life and its role in the PR matrix can even outlast the event itself and help power more content, as we have seen for our data movement client who hosted its annual virtual summit with an agenda of customers across financial services, retail, manufacturing, and more all showcasing how they have redesigned the flow of data across their businesses. But the value of events doesn’t stop on the day, we have taken one of their on-demand recordings from an innovative banking customer at the virtual event and used it to support a new thought leadership article on countering payment fraud and money laundering in real-time.
May-be the Crystal ball was right?
In last month’s monthly round-up, my colleague Caitlin’s crystal ball predicted a top-tier placement for our CEO’s ChatGPT article. And who would have thought it came true not once but twice in top-tier publications. This article is flying off the shelves with even more placements queued up for next month from publications across the UK and U.S. So, watch this space!
Judith’s opinion has been in hot demand this month as her views on PR outreach featured in a top-tier PR and Marketing publication with a UVPM of nearly 200,000! In this journalist-written feature on how best to pitch to the media, she highlights the importance of understanding why your pitch is or isn’t working and understanding your target audience to make your pitch stand out – as a former Editor, she well remembers saying over and over again to PR execs: “If you read my magazine, you would understand why your story is irrelevant!” check it out here!
Spring has definitely sprung in the IBA office
As you may know (we’ve certainly talked about it enough) our offices have been having some extensive renovations to give it a modern office finish, and now the final touches are being put in place as old copper printing plates and mirrors get hung up to give a bit of added blitz with a nod to our publishing history. Meanwhile plants are cropping up left right and center adding an extra “leaf” of life (excuse the pun) to power us for what will no doubt be another action-packed month in June.
Sam Walker is a PR Executive at IBA International.
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