This week's strategy is a PR basic, but it bears repeating: Make the most of your press kit at a trade show. All too often, even seasoned PR pros underestimate the importance
of a solid press kit at industry shows. A simple kit with fresh news or a new angle on an industry issue can win the attention of key media browsing the press room. An overly
complicated kit with fancy carriers or several pounds of collateral material can obscure your news and keep irritable reporters from even glancing at your headlines.
Richard Herzfeld, a veteran trade show attendee, has been contributing editor to various publications in the computer and manufacturing arenas for nearly 30 years. He also is a
principal of TechComm Public Relations. He shares with PR NEWS some simple but important insights on the subject, gleaned during a recent trip to the International Manufacturing
Technology Show in Chicago.
Packaging
You're the reporter. Why would anyone make it this hard for you to see their news? I found three sealed envelopes and many more unsealed envelopes containing literature folders
with press information. Forget the envelopes! They make it difficult or impossible for an editor loaded with press materials to peek at your headlines and decide whether to grab
your kit.
Booth Numbers
Your news may pique an editor's attention, but if there isn't a booth number readily accessible in the press kit, you make it that much harder for the editor to get in touch
with you during the show. It's simple for editors to look in the show directory, but why waste their time and possibly irritate them?
Layout and Content
Common sense dictates that press kit layout and content are important. Is the news immediately identifiable? Do you always place the news on the top sheet? At IMTS, perhaps 30
percent of the 120 surveyed press kits had their primary news release(s) buried beneath company backgrounders, article reprints, reprinted ads or other fluff.
CD Kits
Here's the latest common sense lapse made possible by technology: the CD press kit. Several companies provided only a stack of CDs, marked "IMTS Press Kit." No one was carrying
their laptop in the press room.
Other exhibitors accompanied their CDs with a memo listing the press releases with a brief title. Helpful? Certainly, unless the title reads something like this: "1 TCA_901
SSSN Solid State Switch."
Sales Literature
Sales literature has little place in a trade show press kit. Editors and reporters are looking for news. Technical data sheets that support news release content can be
appropriate.
Company Background Info
Backgrounders containing company information can be appropriate in many circumstances. For a major industry player, or for a company that has attended a trade show for many
years, they add little value. If it is a company's first appearance in America, or at a particular industry show, or significant company information has changed, a brief company
background page is quite appropriate.
To access more of Herzfeld's commentary on press kits, see http://www.great-pr.com/downloads/IMTS%20Survey.doc. (Herzfeld, great-
[email protected], 414/445-2670)