How to make most earning session for PR
When earnings season rolls around each quarter, reporters are tied up for weeks analyzing and writing on results, especially business and financial outlets. That means pitching your own company’s report or newsjacking one of the tech giants’ can be quite lucrative in terms of media coverage. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Here are some tactics to consider that have proven successful for SHIFT clients in the past.
Add tension to the story
A glowing earnings report alone probably won’t do the trick. You’ve got to find a unique hook. That could be bringing in a new executive with a great pedigree, positioning your company as trending in a way that opposes the rest of the industry, or pivoting after a challenging recent past.
For client AspenTech, the tension was the company being previously delisted by NASDAQ but recovering to a stock price hovering around $100 and a $7 billion market cap. It landed us a great piece – Its stock rising, Aspen Tech enjoys a quiet revival after a two-year exile from Nasdaq – print and online in the Boston Globe.
Another example is with Criteo, whose positive earnings reports we pitched in direct opposition to the rest of publicly-traded advertising technology companies. Positioning Criteo as “Ad Tech’s Golden Child” while other stocks were tanking netted us features in WSJ, Business Insider and AdExchanger as well as broadcast like CNBC and Fox Business.
Prepare quotes on reports you know will be widely covered and go to beat reporters
As with all stories, media want to break news or at least be one of the first. Earnings reports are no different. Many reporters are pulling their stories together simultaneously with the call, or even as the earnings press release is issued.
Pre-drafting quotes to pitch out the days leading up to or just ahead of another company’s report can be challenging, as you don’t know exactly how results will go. But if you can find a unique thread and position your company as having unique insight into, it can work well.
Last quarter, for example, my team placed great commentary around Facebook’s report in Digiday for our advertising tech client Smartly.io, talking about what trends Smartly.io saw in its own customer base in regard to Facebook advertising spend.
Collaborate with Investor Relations to understand the reports and if timing is right
Just because there’s a rosy picture painted around topline revenue for the quarter doesn’t mean the report is all butterflies and rainbows. The company could ultimately be losing money if its spending outweighs sales. Or certain business units or products could be covering up for huge losses in others.
Work with the company’s Investor Relations team to understand if timing is right to pitch earnings, or if you should wait until another quarter. If you are pitching, IR can’t give details away on results ahead of the report itself but can provide guidance on key storylines they’ll push with analysts and any historical trends you can position to press to pique interest ahead of time.
Prepare and reach out early
Like I mentioned, earnings season is chock full of calls and announcements, which can make it difficult to vie for media attention. Coming up with a solid strategy and storyline – using the tactics above – and reaching out to press early will give reporters ample time (and reason) to consider slotting your earnings report into their busy agenda.
How to Find the Perfect Sponsor for Your Event
Whether you’re organizing a big international meeting, a fundraising event for your NGO or a startup party, finding a sponsor is one of the top promotional activities you have to consider while planning your event.
Sponsors can help you reducing the overall costs of the event, increasing the number of attendees and improving the user experience. But how can you find the right sponsors? How can you convince them that they are doing the right investment and sponsor your event will bring them outstanding results in terms of visibility?
Let’s have a look at the main steps you should follow to find the best sponsors for your next event!
Understand Who Is Your Target Audience
Figuring out your audience is the first step to choose the right sponsor for your event. Defining your target will help you finding the sponsor that want to reach that specific audience. Once defined, start searching for companies and local businesses that could be interested in reaching it. Remember that the main reasons why companies sponsor events are:
- Build/improve brand reputation
- Boost visibility
- Increase brand loyalty
- Display products/services
- Encourage trials
Identify Sponsors’ Personas
In order to identify the sponsors’ personas, you have to answer this question: “What makes a perfect sponsor for my event?” The answer depends on several factors: size and type of event, audience, benefits from sponsorship, your objectives and so on.
That said, you have to figure out how significant is the investment you want to obtain from the sponsor. Taking into account the size of your event, we recommend you to shortlist the potential candidates based on their dimension.
Large companies may be more likely to make big investment, but can also be difficult to be sponsored by them if you are not well known and relevant in your industry. On the other side, smaller companies may not allocate a big amount for event sponsorship, but they can provide gadget and visual materials (helping you reducing part of your costs) and are certainly more open to raise awareness and display their products.
Reach Out Your Prospective Sponsors
Now that you know who are the prospective sponsors to contact, get on the phone and blast emails to publicize your event as a unique marketing opportunity for them.
If you decide to call them, start with a short introduction, explaining the type of event you’re planning, the audience you want to reach and focus on how they will benefit from it. If they are interested, explain in details every single aspect and try to propose them some good fresh ideas to promote their brand. Once you’ve made all the calls, review your notes and prepare a list of companies you will solicit.
Same rule of thumb if you decide to blast email: be short, concise and focus on the benefits for the companies. Try to customize your emails and make them easy-to-understand. If you’ve already organized events with sponsors, attach a list of the sponsors and a brief description of the target audience you reached.
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