Planning an Event? Scrub the Date.

Lest you think we only highlight others foibles...I submit the following hard-earned public relations lesson.

From the "learn from your mistakes" files, flash back with me about 10 years…

—insert squiggly lines and harp music here—

We were planning a special event designed to build customer relationships and get media attention. Local executives were teamed up with school kids for a half day of shadowing. It culminated with a luncheon and a motivational sports figure speaking to the group. There were plenty of photo opps—from students in a professional environment to the luncheon itself.

The event took place in Tucson, Arizona. We had a local client contact we were working with and the planning went just fine. I headed to Tucson the day prior to conduct media outreach and make final preparations. It was then I realized an issue around the timing of the event.

The event was taking place on May 5th, Cinco de Mayo.

The end result? Not nearly as much media coverage as we wanted. In hindsight, the fact that we got ANY coverage at all was miraculous. Breaking through the coverage of this holiday in a southwestern market clearly shows the event was newsworthy.

In the client’s defense, they were paying us to handle the event. Even though a few client contacts were based in Tucson, it's our job to identify conflicts like this during the planning stages. In my defense, Cinco de Mayo was not as widely celebrated as it is today.

But this was a mistake that could have been avoided.

Needless to say, I've since developed a thorough date scrubbing process to make sure there are no conflicts. Start national and go local, review your client's calendar (fiscal and event), check industry events for your client and target audiences (school calendars in this case) and even look at a master calendar like Chase's. Aiming for the slowest news hour of the day and news day of the week is not enough.

Flash forward to present day. The holiday is not the same for me now. I skip the Corona’s and quesadillas. But I've never had a problem with event timing since.

Reposted from Strategic Public Relations
254/365 - 4/11/2009 uploaded by Snelly23