5 Ways To Supercharge Your Event PR

Whether you’re attending, sponsoring or hosting an event, a well-thought-out PR strategy can supercharge your event ROI, amplify press coverage and boost your database. Events are excellent PR opportunities for your company and spokespeople if you know how to capitalise on your available resources. The starting point is an effective communications plan.

1. Plan ahead

You should map out your PR strategy well in advance of the event date itself. The main goal of event PR is to create attention around the event and your involvement. In order to maximise visibility, the majority of the press coverage should ideally be secured before the event. This means your event PR strategy should be proactive with a strong and sustained flow of varied content building up to the event, targeting key media and audiences, tailoring content for editorial requirements and seizing press opportunities that appear in the lead-up to the event.

2. Leverage your network

With event PR, there’s a multitude of potential content in your network. Connect with other stakeholders, speakers and sponsors involved in the event with the aim of creating specialised and collaborative content for articles, columns, interviews etc. Identify individuals whose core subject aligns with your key messages and objectives and join forces. Ask yourself, which publication, radio or TV channel would be a good fit for your story or topic? And vice versa, can you contribute any relevant and timely content to a publication’s planned feature? How can you optimise your collaboration with the event media partners for pre- and post-event press coverage? Remember, all the content created has to link to the event and be industry relevant.

3. Amplify your social media presence

Share the content you create on social media to draw further attention to the upcoming event. For B2B events, LinkedIn is a great platform on which to post tactical and strategic information, share industry relevant features, showcase strategic thought leadership and re-post content from other stakeholders and media. Always link and tag for increased reach and coverage. For B2C events, Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok etc. are all appropriate platforms for creating a pre-event buzz, showcasing spokespeople and increasing public engagement.

4. Strengthen your brand awareness

Get creative with your event PR strategy. Events are strategic opportunities to increase and strengthen brand awareness. You can seek out opportunities to profile your spokespeople as thought leaders in the industry through columns, articles, radio and TV interviews and as speakers on expert panels and roundtables. Pre-event PR activities include meeting with key editors to understand their content needs and how you can collaborate on exclusive interviews or features.

You can also create industry specific content which ties in with the event as well as current themes being covered by publications. During the event itself, consider livestreaming parts of your involvement, schedule interviews and/or press conferences with media, and scope out opportunities with print and broadcast media attending the event at the press office on site.

5. Be authentic

Whatever you write, be authentic. Don’t create clutter content just for the sake of “getting something out”. Your content should be insightful, fresh, and industry relevant. A fundamental communication trend today is a focus on authenticity and differentiation. Audiences are increasingly looking for personable communication, for brands they can relate to. Organisations and leaders that are authentic, responsive and responsible in their communication have the opportunity to widen their reach, deepen their connections and increase their engagement with stakeholders and audiences.

By Cristina Kristensen, Director of Communications