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Holidays + Shows + The Internet + Publicists = Lethal Mixture

Guest post by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: Every trade show, conference, convention we get the feeling that we're still about as low as ambulance chasing lawyers -- about. Don't believe us? Hey we've been doing CES (consumer electronics show) for 20 years and the quality of the pitches, hustles has deteriorated because kids don't know enough to be creative!!!!!

Holidays + Shows + The Internet + Publicists = Lethal Mixture

For a whole bunch of publicists, the holidays - Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, you name it - are the starting gun to perform, deliver for bosses and clients at what is arguably the largest trade show in the world ... CES (Consumer Electronics Show).

Here are the players:

The Client/Boss

More than 3,000 companies preen themselves, get pumped up and spend a whole lotta' money to descend on Las Vegas. Their goal:

- show new products they expect/hope will take them to the next level

- develop a lot of buzz about the company/products

- at the very least, enable them to survive another year or be bought

They work through the weekends, nights finalizing product ideas and finishing up the first run of product or polish prototypes.

They direct their publicity folks to ensure that they get to meet with/be interviewed by all of the "big" members of the media. (Yes, Virginia despite all of the social media discussion, press people are still held in high regard.)

They throw last- minute specifications and applications information to the publicists; and as they leave for the holidays, tell them to produce elegant releases that get their messages across loud and clear.

They continually ask which media people will they meet with; and with a voice that questions your professionalism, relationships ask why Bill, Joan, Jane, Walt, David, Deborah aren't on the list.

The Media

This year, more than 4,000 members of the media - print, web, radio, TV - signed up to hit Las Vegas and get a first-hand view of what's hot, what's not.

They plan to meet with senior executives of companies in their interest areas to get insight into what's new, trends, what's going on in the marketplace, what's going on this coming year.

Most plan to cover the show - sessions, press conferences, parties, booth visits - and survive the week as best they can.

Some like to schedule their booth visits/company meetings to ensure the right person is there to give them the information they need and can use.

Some schedule a few meetings and keep the rest of their time open so they can stumble across those hidden gems that come to the show with something totally unique, totally special that will knock their socks off and mark a new chapter in innovation.

Some schedule meetings and hope to gawd they can get from one hall to another in time to keep their appointed rounds; but know in the back of their minds, it just won't happen.

Some schedule meetings with companies and PR people they know and work with regularly because it's a good time to renew face-to-face contact and strengthen the human bond.

The PR Person/Publicist

Some were just hired for the show to get the company ... coverage!

Some have spent the year working their Facebook, Twitter followers, sending out releases and occasionally talking with members of the media.

Some have kept in contact with editors, writers, reviewers, bloggers and others on a regular basis providing information, getting them product/information, assisting them.

But ... the holiday season is just the warm-up for the big show. They don't want to disappoint anyone!

With registered media lists in hand (actually on their systems) the pressure begins.

The Electronic Contact

The work to score the meetings and fill the calendar begins ... sorta' like carpet bombing.

We wouldn't want to call it real 1:1 hustling because the subject of the email won't get you excited (names deleted):

- re: please visit us booth (number)

- Book Your Appointment to Experience the 'ABC' @ CES 2012!

- Media Alert// Famous Person to Launch Something at CES

- Media Alert: Company at CES 2012

- Company At CES

- Register for Company Press Briefing at CES 2012

- Meet with Us Inc. at CES 2012

- Invitation: Our CES Drinks Reception @ Hotel

- Discover A New Era of Consumer Electronics at CES 2012

- Company Available for Interview at CES

- Big # opportunities for press meetings at CES with one email...

- Press conference invitation: Introducing Product - World's First

- At CES, see, touch & feel the technology that will change...

- CES Invitation from Small Company

- PLEASE SCHEDULE: Company In-Person Interview and Demo Invitation at CES

- CES DEMO - New Something Uses Bluetooth

- At Las Vegas CES 2012, discover how cute productcan disrupt all of your preconceptions about social media!

- URGENT!!!

Yes, true warm, personalized messages that are alive, intriguing.

Then there are Subject lines that may not excite you but the opening discussion will really grip you:

- I hope you're having a great day

- I'm sure you're getting a lot of calls for CES meetings

- I have something really exciting you'll want to see at CES

- I saw that you will be at CES in January and I wanted to reach out on behalf of ABC

- I'm sure you've received countless emails asking for CES appointments, but I was hoping you might be interested in

- Hope you are well. I was wondering whether you might be interested in scheduling a CES meeting

- Hello! You're probably buried in CES-related messaging and I know how difficult it is to sift through to what's important to you

One of our editorial friends sent us a copy of a DIY meeting invite:

Just got an email from a PR firm telling about THE most exciting thing to see at CES. It actually looked interesting so I read the whole email (something I'm not famous for). At the bottom it closed with (let me rephrase that - it went for a close) - click on the url to make an appointment - no booth number, no person.

I may have broken my own record for how fast I hit the delete button.

Except for the fact that our list of contacts was actually only a small subset of the registered media list (people we know and wanted to meet on specific products/subjects) we worked hard as well to fill the schedules with meetings we hoped would be meaningful for both parties.

Still, the email contact is efficient for both parties because the recipient can respond yes/no and suggest times that are convenient for him/her. Or not!

Smile/Dial Still Lives

Some will tell us that we live in a totally electronic age; but obviously, that isn't the case because more than a few still use the POT (plain old telephone).

An analyst friend sent us a note about a publicist's call he had just received:

Normally I don't get the call, (individuals names) usually answer the phone. When it's a PR person calling to ask for an appointment at some upcoming show, our folks are polite and explain that no, we don't write about flatostrates and phren modulators, we chase (technology name).

Alone today I answered the phone and Tiffney said, "I see you are registered for CES are still going?" Since all PR girls are named Tiffney or Jenifer and since I had just gotten off a plane from (country) and since I can't remember my kid's names, I answered her thinking it might be someone I had once met, and said, "yes, why?"

She said, "We'd like to invite you meet with Gazilfraze"

"What does Gazelfraze do?" I asked, an looked at the clock.

"They make social networking software for B2B analytics to keep track of zingbats and dildos."

"And you thought we'd be interested in that?" I asked - I'd been on the phone with this girl for 3 minutes and could feel my fingernails growing.

"Yes," she replied in her sugar sweet, PR trained voice.

"Have you looked at our web page?" I asked.

"Absolutely," she answered as perky as when we started, which was four minutes ago and I was fighting my ADD thinking about the coffee I was going to make as soon as I could hang up the phone.

"And what is it you think we do?" I asked

"Well,.." then her cheerful 20s something voice dropped and she mumbled, "you do content and communications..."

"No we don't," I said, "we follow (technology name), and we'd have no interest at all in social software, why did you think we would?"

"OK then," she came back up to her super-charged over hydrated self, "I guess we don't have a fit then."

"No," I said, "I guess we don't".

"Well," she said, with snarkyness creeping into her voice, "You just have a great day." Click.

I'm sure she wanted to say, go to hell you AHole, but didn't know what a crappy jet-lagged memory I have and knew she had identified the company and her firm. (I wish now I had remembered it, I would have cc'ed them).

We get a dozen calls a day from PR girls who have no clue who we are or what we do. They don't have the common sense to look at web page and just go dialing for dollars in a spray and pray mode hoping to bring traffic to their clients booth. Is this what client companies are paying for? Air headed girls to be telephone solicitors? Or am I just a grumpy old fart who should take a nap?

In the name of our long friendship with him, we didn't bother responding because...

Bottom Line

Not every member of the media is interested in every company at the show.

This is especially true of CES which increasingly covers everything from phones to cars, TVs to computers and flash drives to SMART technology.

As the technologies become broader and more sophisticated, media people focus on their interest areas.

PR people shouldn't focus on filling senior executive show hours with the most meetings possible ... it isn't about earning a scout badge for quantity.

Every analyst/media person who wants to meet with the executive is important and he/she should be given the most assistance, attention possible, receive prompt follow-up, be contacted/supported throughout the rest of the year...not just at show time.

The PR industry is now busy trying to identify itself as a sophisticated field of experts in the optimum use of communications technology across the full range of subjects that more open, increasingly visible organizations must deal with.

That's a little difficult to accomplish when folks are focusing on delivering bodies to the booth.

All we know is CES is such a big show and important to companies - maybe even yours - it sure takes a lot of fun outta' the holidays ... for a lotta' people!!!

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Article Tags: Consumer Electronics, Consumer Electronics Show br, Las Vegas, schedule meetings, social media



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