How Not To Run A Travel Media Lunch
It may be that I’m hypercritical, but I don’t think so.
After the umpteenth Travel Media/Press lunch, I declined the last few simply because they promised to be photostatic copies of most every other press lunch held.
In spite of some web sites that offer advice most PR-driven media lunches still mirror those held for travel content providers for years.
PR and Marketing firms who are members of SATW, arguably the most important (or self-important) association of professional travel writers, should be getting advice from the organization on how to manage this important tool in today's content world.
Besides, they should change their name from “Travel Writers” to “Travel Content Providers.”
Typically Press/Media luncheons are held in a classy hotel.
The lunch is served on the kind of long table that makes real cross-conversation impossible.
The hosts from the presenting countries are always up front, at the head of the table, with the predictable power point presentation, or some other variation on the "show and tell" approach.
We listen to enthusiastic presentation about new hotels, attractions, museums.
We look at expensively prepared slides of people having fun; sleek new buildings or charming old streets with look-alike cafes or museums.
We're treated to a fine meal, then more presentations from various partners like a hotel chain.
Worse, we’re given take-away bags jammed with obscenely expensive, glossy brochures and booklets highlighting every aspect of the destination's attractions and appeal.
Sadly, if the presenters followed the media guests out, or to their homes, they'd find the bags and the costly brochures in the trash bins.
And no one’s the wiser.
May I suggest:
* Invite the travel media to sit at conversations areas where they can catch up with each other and compare notes, literally and figuratively.
* Skip the power point or slide show presentation! Instead ask the group what new travel trends they're following.
Ask what's new in the niches they cover.
Ask what new thoughts they have about the destination being presented.
In other words, engage the content people.
Find out what's of interest, to them. What matters, to them; what's on their minds relative to the industry they cover?
Also forget the show and tell.
Use the event to gain information and insight.
Have a dialogue, not speeches or slides.
Skip the big lunch served by waitstaff. Sandwiches and fruit will do nicely.
Please ditch the expensive bags and brochures. Save the money and the trees.
Send information that the journalist or blogger is specifically interested in, or curious about. Target it.
The media lunch will be cheaper and more eco-friendly. The event will produce ideas and partnerships, conversation and dialogue, that will more directly help the destination and media.
Off and online journalists are seeking a richer give and take, hoping to break barriers, looking to inject life into an increasingly static travel event that should be bristling with new ideas.
Comments
Thanks, Allan. Haven't heard your voice either. Again, in my opinion, it's thinking outside the box. Being less protective, less defensive about roles and functions.
If I recall, didn't you leave SATW for reasons having to do with their being particularly narrow minded about some issues? If I'm wrong, I apologize.
I continue to reject the "Hi There" or "Good Morning" press release or a media lunch where the host asks. "Tell me what you do again? Who (whom) do you write for?"
If you don't know who I am or how I hope to partner with you, don't feed me
Cheers
Susan Breslow..I see via email you commented on this post. I can't find your comment, though. I have mentioned this to Jose
Hope I can soon read what you took the time to write
Thanks
Long time, Steve. Good to hear your voice. Missed you.
What can I say? You should have written the piece.
All we're doing here is recognizing that travel lags behind retail and most all other sectors in embracing change. Very little leadership..a lot of biz as usual.Same roles, same issues as years ago: convention behavior; membership qualifications in organizations; same hand outs. No new ground broken.
Maybe you'll find my other article, Why Public Relations Must Change worthy of your comments http://ow.ly/4pVuQ
Until then, dearly hope to see you!
Why Travel Public Relations Has to Change
In his very successful book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, social media guru David Meerman Scott sounds the death knell for public relations as we have known it in the last hundred or so years.
In fact, until the advent of social media, public relations hasn’t changed much since the 18th century when its use was first recorded. The term actually appeared in 1897 in the Year Book of Railway Literature.
Then and mostly now, PR professionals simply “shouted” their message. Or to use Meerman-Scott’s term, they still use the “Spray and Pray” approach: spraying a message by sending out random, untargeted press or news releases, and praying some journalist somewhere will take notice and publish the material.
Unfortunately, the “spray and pray” approach no longer works in today’s New Media marketing and public relations campaigns.
Unfortunately travel PR professionals are among the slowest to realize that, as are the schools that train the travel PR professionals.
The “new rules” unequivocally state that untargeted press releases are spam. Period. That’s revolutionary, by current travel PR standards.
On any given day, I receive a huge number of text-heavy, word-dense releases addressing me as, “Hi There” or “Hello” or “Hey,” or “Good Morning.” Often they come with several images and a PDF file attached, and I don’t even know who the sender it. Nor do they know me.
My name is not “Hi There.” And why send a press release about a destination, property or piece of travel news without knowing who I am or, worse, the kinds of travel content I write about?
Merman Scott asks how difficult is it for the PR specialist to read and comment on a blog or article a journalists or blogger has written, or at least to know the name of the author, and pitch an idea based specifically on knowledge of that blogger or journalist’s work.
Some travel publicists get it like Missy Farren Associates in New York. They only send relevant, specific, brief and to the point queries, inviting dialogue and further discussion.
Granted, PR professionals are at the mercy of their clients who often dictate what should be in a release. But in travel PR (or any PR) it’s not about getting the boss’ face on TV, or a post about the boss published.
It’s about identifying and getting to know those specific media people who can get the boss’ destination or property on TV or in a post or in a mainstream media article.
The new rules of travel PR are about engaging the media, having a conversation with them and creating a content partnership. Call them by their names and discuss ideas that will excite the public, the actual customer for travel. Create a lasting relationship.
Please leave the “Hi There” to the spammers.
I'm a throw back, I actually have a file room for brochures. I know a SF writer who also has a room full of them. I don't keep everything I'm given. I've learned to cull, but keep those ones which actually contain hard details, like room sizes (I write a lot for the meetings market, this is pertinent) and distances. And maps! Gawd, whatever happened to destinations supplying maps?
As for the USB drives, I give them a quick scan, download some of the hard details to the destination file and then wipe them clean and use them to send photos (mine) to a couple of editors.
I think it would be more productive for destinations if they broke up their day. Host a few writers who are early risers to breakfast. Then those who like the wine-and-dine can come to lunch and others can gather for cocktails and conversation. I know destinations which do it already and find it much more effective.
Oh yeah, if a destination is going to give a gift: make sure it's actually from your destination!
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