Five Event Wreckers

Make sure you’ve covered every possible detail long before the big day arrives or you’ll be

facing poor attendance. Here are 5 problems that can wreck your event before it begins.

1.  Not leaving enough time for national publicity.

If you want to advertise your event make sure you start early enough. Some magazines are seasonal, monthly, bi-monthly, or weekly. A seasonal magazine would require at least 6 months notice for an ad. A monthly magazine would only require 3 months. If you plan on airing a commercial, radio or TV, you need to factor in rehearsal and recording time, and then approvals.

2. Relying on press releases as the primary way to publicize your event.

Press releases and media alerts rarely result in big stories in newspapers, magazines, or television. They’re a miniscule part of a publicity campaign and need to be part of a strategic PR program that merges with traditional and social media.

3. Not checking all the local event calendars before you choose the date of your event.

If you’re holding or sponsoring an event, check with your state’s Tourism Office, your local Chamber of Commerce, or your competitors calendars to see what other events are planned on your day. Also, consider the weather and have a back-up date planned.

4. Not allowing people to register online.

The internet has become the most prominent way to communicate. Now, people do not like face-to-face confrontation, or even if the confrontation involves speaking over the phone! Most people prefer to communicate through instant messaging, text messaging, or email. If you make registration for your event available only by phone, you will lose a large amount of attendees.

5. Not being aware of religious and secular holidays.

If you plan your event on All Saints Day, Yom Kippur, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Kwanza, Cinco de Mayo, or Presidents Day, you will have a smaller attendance either because many people are out of town over the long weekend, or the region you are in has a large population of people who practice the specific religion related to the holiday and many may respectfully decline to attend your event because they are observing their holiday.

Crisis Communication

The success of any business is based on its reputation. That's why most businesses hire public relations professionals to portray them as beneficial, trustworthy, and concerned members of the community. However, the positive creation of image can be destroyed by one poorly handled negative crisis. A "crisis," in public relations terms, is any event that draws intense, negative media coverage to a company. Crises can cost organizations millions of dollars to repair or can potentially put them out of business for good. A crisis communication plan is a type of “insurance policy” for the long-term health of an organization. Failure to address and contain a crisis can have lasting consequences for the company. Creating a plan before a crisis happens will help to avoid chaos and more danger.

A crisis communication plan is designed by upper-level management, publicity, and public relations professionals to reduce the potential damage caused by a crisis. Crisis communication refers to the flow of information during a crisis among an organization, its employees, the media, and the general public. The work of crisis communication is based on preparation and response. To prepare for a crisis, an organization must assign a crisis communication team to execute the plan. With a plan in place, an organization is more likely to respond to a crisis quickly, take immediate steps to control the message and successfully regain their customers, stakeholders, and the public's trust.

The job of the crisis communication team is to create and execute the overall crisis communication plan. Team members are assigned specific roles, such as gathering contact information from all employees or establishing relationships with members of the local media. The first job of the crisis communication team is to select an official spokesperson. The spokesperson will be the primary contact for all media inquiries. They will run all press conferences and give most interviews during a crisis. They should be very experienced in working with both print and broadcast media. A member of the crisis communications team needs to establish and maintain relationships with the local media before a crisis occurs. Media relations are one of the chief responsibilities of public relations.

Black Public Relations

Also called negative public relations, is “a process of destroying the target's reputation and/or corporate identity.” The objective is to discredit your client’s competitors, usually a business rival. The building of a Black PR campaign, also known as a Smear Campaign, is by definition “to undermine the individual’s or group’s reputation and their social credibility.” This is done by taking advantage of absolute deception and extensive stretching of the truth. Traditionally it starts with an extensive information gathering and follows the other needs of a competitive research. The gathered information is being used after that as a part of a greater strategical planning, aiming to destroy the relationship between the company and its stakeholders. Most of the cases are because of information security related problems, all of which aiming to steal or to permanently monitor the sensitive information of the target organization. If the media will not cover the negative information on their own, then the company has to promote the negative information about their rival, which most companies do not want to waste their time, effort, or money on, unless the destroyed image of their rival will benefit them financially.

However, in the celebrity world, pop stars have in fact gained their fame from what we would consider negative public relations exposure. Black PR differs significantly from the broader definition of manipulation, where the core of persuasion is based on false statements and paid publications. Actually, some of the best case studies in Black PR are focused on the inconvenient truth and secrets of the target and how they were turned against them. That is why sometimes the ability to investigate is of a greater value for Black PR practitioners than the possession of any special deception skills.

The worst situation is when a company does not have a clue about what happened, when a random journalist happens to write something or reveal something about the company out of the blue. No matter how much the public or the media pressure you for an immediate response, don't give it to them. Try to remain calm, get all the facts of the story that they have so far, and then give an answer on behalf of the company. It is not a very good idea for more than one person to answer on behalf of the company because usually stories get mixed up.

So when things don't go to plan don't bury your head in the sand and don't try and cover things up unnecessarily. Use your crisis communication plan and remain calm. Never say, "no comment,” and make statements clear and short.

Publicity vs. Advertising

Don’t expect publicity to work like advertising.  Advertising content is something you pay for such as: radio/TV commercials, newspaper ads, banner/billboard ads, etc. However, publicity can basically be obtained with absolutely no cost to you. Publicity is free content through a third party that appears in the media. It is what others say about your company or product. Publicity content can be found in an article that some journalist just happened to write after one of your company’s big promotional events, or when you release new information, for example, through a media alert, about your company or about a new sales promotion to an editor and he decides to do a feature piece in his publication. The worth of this publicity clearly depends on the amount of circulation a particular publication receives.  The key objectives are to keep releasing press releases with new information about your company or product that will be interesting to your consumers, and to have promotional events throughout the year to keep your company’s name stirring through the media. The media will pick up on the press releases and events, and consumers will view your company through their story and believe that the information is purely from their third-party point of view. Obviously, most consumers who look at a newspaper or billboard ad automatically know that they are being sold something, but if they hear or see it from a third party about your company, they will be more “attracted” to the information and over time the impression of your company will remain positive in the consumer’s eye.

Below is a link to an article by Apryl Duncan, who writes for About.com. The article “10 Differences Between Advertising and Public Relations” gives a concise understanding of what I am trying to convey in this post. The article is focused on “public relations” rather than “publicity,” but since they are so close in the way they work together I figured the points that Duncan makes are valid and relevant to my blog.

http://advertising.about.com/od/careersource/a/10advpr.htm