Tight budgets and tough travel have PR pros pricing a variety of high-tech alternatives to the traditional media tour. Straight numbers are hard to come by, and the best
solution to your "media tour" (whether virtual or in-person) will be dictated not only by budget, but by the immediacy or time-sensitivity of your news and by your target
audiences. Nevertheless, Mike Smith, president of Upstart Vision in Reston, Va., takes a closer look at how incorporating the Web into any media tour can save serious PR dollars
and deliver serious PR results.
Webcasts are one important option to consider. Today's Webcasts are less expensive; while they can vary in cost depending on the time and technology involved, most will run you
several thousand dollars "where they used to cost you $50,000," says Jason Teitler, EVP for Porter Novelli's global interactive practice. They also provide more interactivity than
Webcasts of the past. "Webcasting is now a two-way street," says Mark Maxey, VP of marketing for TV Worldwide.com, a streaming video ASP. "It used to be passive. Today,
interactive [Webcasts] permit real-time discussion."
But a simple Web-based demonstration or presentation in combination with a phone interview could be all you need to make a connection with valuable reporters. April Harned, a
practitioner with Articulate Communications in New York, represents Made2Manage, an Indianapolis-based software provider. For a recent product launch, Made2Manage execs bounced
around the idea of a media tour to introduce trade reporters in Boston, New York and San Francisco to the new software. Instead, Harned suggested the company's top execs make
themselves available for phone interviews accompanied by a Web-based product demo. The cost comparison: Assuming three or four meetings a day and three participants (reporter, CEO
and PR practitioner) per meeting, at a cost of about $81 an hour, the daily total would be $243-$324 a day. Total cost for all three markets would come in around $1,000. Air
travel for one executive alone could have been upwards of $500, plus $250 per night in hotel stay for one market. Estimated cost for even a bare-bones in-person tour of three
markets would be between $2,500 and $3,000.
Plus, using the Web would require no time away from the office for senior execs, and reporters would still get their one-on-one time with senior spokespeople. (Smith: 703/742-
6482; Teitler, 212/601-8000; Maxey, 703/961-9250)
Editor's Note: Check out our Nov. 4 issue for Smith's analysis of other methods for conducting media tours on a shoestring PR budget.