Press conferences, taking place virtually, in a location or a combination of both, provide an excellent opportunity to address multiple journalists and media outlets simultaneously. They allow for direct engagement and interaction with your audience.
A well-prepared and well-executed press conference can be a powerful tool for getting your message out.
Concrete planning and preparation are critical. By following the essential elements of planning, crafting an attention-grabbing statement, ensuring the right people are in place, managing the environment and answering questions professionally, you can create a successful event that leaves a lasting impact.
However, it is crucial to remember that the ultimate goal of a press conference is to communicate your message effectively. Therefore, it is essential to plan and execute the event in a way that ensures your message is clear, concise and memorable.
If you plan a virtual press conference, please ensure that everyone who can be seen in the livestream must be informed and agree to it. This should happen with each online registration. This is because all persons who can be seen or could be seen must be informed about what happens to their data – in this case, the video recordings. This includes information on how long the recordings will be stored and how the recordings will be used.
Get to know your audience.
Prepare yourself and know your audience. Journalists would appreciate it if you knew their faces, their names, the medium they are writing for and their latest publications.
A well-prepared press kit can be a door opener.
Journalists also appreciate a well-prepared briefing and a digital press kit with downloadable details. Please do not send double-digit-megabyte files to the journalist. The document might end up in their spam folder because of firewalls. The digital press kit can be provided as a PDF file, an HTML website, an online portal or in a cloud.
If your press conference takes place in a location, at a trade fair or an event location, printed press kits are still helpful for press events and trade fairs.
A press kit should include the following content:
- A table of contents for a quick orientation
- A summary of essential data and facts about the company, product or service (Fact sheet)
- Media release about the latest news, the information your company wants to share at the press conference
- Contact information: Contact person with name, e-mail address and telephone number for queries. And very important: This contact person should be reachable and responsive by phone and email.
- About us: a detailed description of the company, its products and services, its history, its mission and vision, etc.
- Images: high-resolution images of products, people, logos and other relevant motifs related to the press conference’s main story.
- Videos: product videos, explainer videos, interviews or other videos of an informative or promotional nature.
- Links to former reports about the company in newspapers, magazines, online media, etc.
- Easy access to the company’s social media profile, the CEO and other speakers – provide the links to the company’s social media channels.