Get Better Press by Not Announcing at Trade Shows
by Kathy Keenan
Trade shows are primarily sales opportunities. But for some reason, normally same marketing professionals tend to lose their marbles when it comes to trade shows and public relations. “Comdex is coming!” they cry. “Let’s introduce the most important product of the entire year — whether it’s ready or not!”
The result of this insanity is usually disappointing, unless you are Bill Gates. (If you are, you can skip this article.) The reason is simple: every other company at Comdex — or Interop, or whatever — is doing the same thing. The journalists, already beleaguered by more demands on their time than they can possibly accommodate, have to make some decisions: do we cover Microsoft’s introduction of Windows 4 Eternity, or do we cover Pooky Software’s announcement of NerdWare Version 1.5?
It’s a tough call, but generally journalists go for the big announcements. That’s life in the big city.
You can take advantage of shows to promote your product. Announce your product prior to the show, timed to hit pre-show issues. This will get you on attendees’ list of “things to see” at the show. Alternately, announce after the show. So many companies squander their interesting product announcements on big shows like Comdex or Interop that the press is faced with a news hiatus following the show. This may present an opportunity to get a little better coverage than at other times.
It’s also perfectly legitimate to use trade shows as venues to meet the press and give product demos. Keep in mind, though, that journalists receive many hundreds of such requests. They rush from appointment to appointment; people literally track them down and pounce on them in the aisles, and they can easily, with the best intentions in the world, get sidetracked on the way to your booth. The proper response to this is righteous indignation. Just note who showed up and who didn’t, and contact the no-shows afterwards to offer an interview or a demo. Also, don’t beat up your public relations person about every editor who didn’t show. This is not something the PR person can control.
You may or may not get coverage from your press liaison at the show. Keep in mind that the primary objective of a show is to talk to your customers, not the press. If you aren’t announcing something, a show should be viewed as an opportunity to build relationships with journalists that you don’t normally see face-to-face. It’s relationships that are built and maintained over time that lead to consistent coverage.
An excellent relationship-building technique that works well at shows is to invite a small group of your top-tier journalists and market analysts out to an excellent local restaurant for dinner with some of the firm’s executives. This should not be used as a “press conference” or an opportunity to make a formal presentation. This should be an evening of good food and quiet conversation that provides a forum for journalists to ask questions, and get to know the company and its leaders better. Again, the purpose of this activity is not to generate “ink,” although coverage may indeed result from it.
If you feel compelled by timing, company management or other factors to announce something at a trade show, do yourself a favor and do not hold a press conference. Press conferences work only if the journalists don’t have a choice abut whether or not to cover a story. Journalists do not want to sit next to their competitors in the media and ask questions. They want to develop their own angle on a story, and they don’t want the competition to steal their ideas.
Another hazard: if someone else — like Microsoft, for example — schedules a press conference (because they can get away with it) for the same time, guess where the press will be sitting during your press conference.
Instead, schedule one-on-one appointments with the press. This allows them to see demos and ask questions without fear their competition will be lurking over their shoulder. This approach takes more time and company person-power, but will e far more successful in generating coverage.
Companies spend a lot of time and money developing press kits for shows. Journalists collect massive quantities of these kits and ship them back to the office for future review. Most of these kits get thrown away. If you have an announcement, have a kit at the show in the pressroom as well as kits at the booth to give to visiting press. Back it up with an electronic version on your web site, and let the media know via press alert that they can download the material, saving them from lugging the kits around at the show.
If you don’t have an announcement, build enough kits for use at the booth, but don’t stock the pressroom with kits that have no news value. These are the kits that get tossed.
When meeting with press and analysts at a show, avoid asking them to leave the convention center floor. The further away your meeting site is, the less likely it is that the press will attend the meeting. If your meeting requires a demo, meet in the booth. If a demo is not required, it’s probably better to meet in the pressroom because it’s quieter and you can sit down. The pressroom has tables making it easier for the journalist to take notes. Meeting in the lunch or snack area is not a great idea because it requires waiting in line, it’s noisy, and your conversation may be overheard by anyone sitting around you.
The exception to this rule is if you want to demo something to the press that is not being announced or shown to the public yet. In that case, you can’t demo it in the booth, and your hotel room or hospitality suite may be the only option. (Unless you have a Cadillac booth with those private meeting rooms!) If you do ask the press to leave the floor, you must still expect a larger percentage of no-shows and refusals, even if your hotel is just across the street.
There should always be someone in the booth who is the designated spokesperson to the press. Others manning the booth should be aware of who the spokesperson is, and they should also be told that no one else talks to the press. Many a product introduction has been blurted out at the wrong time by an over-eager salesperson at a trade show.
Rules, of course, are made to be broken. You will undoubtedly encounter situations where these rules don’t apply — maybe you’ll go to work at Microsoft! But in the majority of cases, following these guidelines will result in better press relations and more coverage than sticking to the show-time conventions of announcing at shows, holding press conferences, etc. These tactics may have worked well when high tech was in its infancy, but today’s public relations challenges call for an acute understanding of the way the press works and thinks — and this is changing as quickly as the high tech industry itself.