PRESS COVERAGE, AND AN AMAZING CLAIM
AbsolutelyBangkok has a post today about the recent press conference promoting a forthcoming flower show in Bangkok. Subsequent comments from the apparent event organiser claim "... we got a total of 532 media covering the event which has become the talk of the town!" The comments also talk about the gifts given to journalists attending the event, including a 1GB flash drive loaded with a press kit and a bottle of wine worth 1,400 baht.
I find the suggestion that 532 press attended the event to be highly questionable (and for the record we didn't get invited, although it doesn't strike me as the kind of story we'd cover). There are only 649 (official figures) magazines in Thailand, and when you add newspapers and other media outlets you're only talking about 1,000 possible news organisations.
Personally I think the organisers - PR Express - have managed to get 532 press cuttings (make that 533 now) which is pretty easy to do with RSS feeds, free online press release distribution services and the like. In fact that company was recently advertising for part time online news distributors to "distribute news online and to wire services". We had more than 1,000 such clippings for the launch of our magazine last year but only 30 or so were in any way valuable.
For me it's the quality of the coverage and not the quantity. I do not dispute there has been some excellent coverage of the press conference in sections of the local media, so well done to PR Express for that.
Honesty and accuracy are vital when it comes to PR as anything not 100 per cent correct is likely to come back and bite you. I speak from experience and with a declared interest that my company also provides PR services to Thai and overseas organisations.
5 comments:
my online publication was also invited, and we did attend. our coverage at http://www.thaindian.com/news-snippet/worlds-largest-orchid-garden-at-nai-lert-park-hotel-bangkok-4844.html
I didnt do a headcount there.... but the place looked packed! Was a struggle for tiny me to take the group photos.
Also.. the 1 GB thumb drive with the press kit inside was really impressive. At most other places u get a CD which becomes useless a week later (I got a pile of useless CDs. if anyones interested, i can sell by the kilo).
Sajal. Thanks for your comments.
Good to hear your experiences. I've been to so many press conferences in my time, and I agree it's a real challenge to do something different that will impress the attending media.
Did the fact you got the thumb drive and the wine (I assume you did, according to the comments on Absolutely Bangkok) influence your coverage? Did you feel obliged to write something, or would you have written something anyway if you'd just been given a standard printed press kit?
The company's website looks bare in the 'core clients' category, or whatever they call it. Their press room, even more so...just one story.
Re press coverage...some newspapers here are routinely showered with gifts by PR firms. They get used to it.
Do the journalists feel obliged to go? No, but nor would they be conflicted by ethical dilemmas, as they enjoy mixing with the hi-so crowd, and fancy themselves as one of their number.
The paper concerned might have a page set aside for social functions and the like, and that space has to be filled like any other part of the paper, so in that regard, PR events can become events worthy of coverage, though they would have to compete for space with other social events on at the same time.
You know the pages I mean...they routinely run awful crowd pics where you can't tell one face from another. Some Thai glossies get up close and carry a picture of two or three people rubbing shoulders and fondling their champagne glasses.
Often, these pages become PR opportunities to be exploited by the same newspaper which publishes them...if the editor holds some PR event eg a birthday bash, or if the editor or MD goes to some outside event, he will make sure the photographer takes a picture of him.
Then the editor will run pictures of himself in that space, presumably to impress his golfing friends.
Well...
If i have some press releases only in hard copy, then ill run the story only if i really need to ... its much easier being able to copy and paste stuff.
The wine and thumb drive might have influenced, but the main influencing factor was the presence of tourism and sports minister and that it was a crowded press conference, so people would be talking abt it, hence its worth covering.
Unlike print for online media the space is not limited, so we can put how much ever stuff we want. what is limited is manpower to make the stuff.
Interesting, thanks for the follow-ups.
A rather unhealthy "precedent," such PR practices ... But don't blame the media!
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