New to the PR world, attendees got a chance to ask questions to tech journalists about what they like and don't like in regard to media relations ie. new pr professionals who are naggy or don't know their products. Although I've worked in PR through my past internships at Shearman & Sterling LLP and Altria (parent company of Philip Morris), I still feel a little uneasy about pitching stories to journalists especially since I'm new to the Australian media landscape.
Working in an agency, you have to be accountable to your client and deliver on the promises you've made. For instance, your client may pay you $10,000 per month to get 4 pieces of coverage whether it is in newspapers, trades, broadcast or online. In PR, you always want to go above and beyond the 4 pieces so that your client is happy and will confidently continue to do business with you. It's kinda of a lot of pressure if there is no news for that client or journalists aren't responding to your pitches. This is where this seminar helps with the 'dos and don'ts' of pitching to the media.
When I arrived, we were greeted by the MediaConnect CEO Phil Sims (former tech journalist). At the end of the conference I personally applauded him on founding MediaConnect - a database with all the Australian journalist's contact information similar to Cision in the U.S. It really makes PR easier when you don't have to go hunting for emails and phone numbers. Like freshman on the first day of school, we looked around the room judging each other while we each gave an mini introduction.
'Hi, I'm Shadiyah. I'm from Taurus Marketing. I just moved to Australia from the U.S. Being new to the Australian market, I'm here to learn more on how to effectively communicate with journalists.'
I wasn't afraid to be there with all the young Aussies. There were even some guys! - the PR world is known to be mostly made up of girls. There were actually a few UK professionals from very prestigious agencies that kind of intimidated me. Spread out amongst 7 tables were 20 novice PR professionals either new to their job or have been in the industry less than a year. Being out of the game since I decided to move to Korea and teach English after graduating university, I felt a little old. Most people were fresh out of uni. I expected this room to be eager sponges. Unfortunately, very few questions were asked. It's disappointing because we paid hundreds of dollars to go and most people didn't prepare questions or mock pitches. There was one obnoxious girl who asked 90% of the questions followed up by hardcore brown-nosing.
'I constantly need to review new products because I have 2 talk-back radio shows. I don't have anything to talk about on my radio show tonight. I'm still working on it.' - broadcast tech journalist
'I actually sent you three emails. Did you get them? If you don't have anything to talk about tonight, I'll have my agency send you a product. It will be at your office by mid-day.' - annoying girl
I did make friends with two girls who sat on either side of me, one being my client's competitor! We found common ground based on our hatred of said girl.
Throughout the day we listened to tech journos ranging from consumer, lifestyle and trade magazines, broadcast, online, blogs and even The Australian (US' New York Times). We also listened to a panel of PR professionals who have been in the business over 20 years or have just started their own consultancy. The day was broken up into 8 panel discussions, 2 being new and produtct pitching sessions where the journalists moved from table to table in frames of 10 minutes. Sounds like speed dating huh? We were all kind of nervous because these were the very same people that we email and call on a daily basis to get our client's products or services in the news. Now we are face to face with them. Fortunately, my group of girls devised an introduction of 'We're quite new to pitching and would rather chat with you about what you like and don't like about pitches.' Thankfully, the journos were totally cool and chatted with us as if we were friends. They gave us helpful pointers about what to include in an email, whether or not they like being phoned or emailed, or what they want in terms of participating in media launches for products. One journalist said, 'If you want to get in with the tech journalists, just come hang out with us. If you are the person that stayed at the pool when everyone else left, we'll be more likely to remember you when you call us about your client.' Eek, sounds like greek life!
All in all, the day was really helpful and taught me a lot of tactics and organisational planning that I can bring back to my PR team at Taurus. I even got some business cards! My one complaint is that there was no happy hour to end the day where we could have done some real networking. I wonder what kind of training days are ahead of me now.
