This week we were set our media releases assignment after a seminar of identifying key techniques ensuring that media releases are effective and attract the intended audience. Media releases can be used to inform the public of a new campaign, product or launch that an organisation is involved with, it is almost like a fake news article that is designed to inform an audience of something. However, media releases don't just target an organisations publics such as consumers, they also target journalists who are interested in what the organisation is up to. These media releases provide the journalists with initial information and then often after the end of the release in the editors notes there's further details such as contact details that the journalist can read and use when writing their article or when investigating the subject of the media release further. Media releases aren't about being clever, they're about informing an organisations publics about something and therefore, clear and simple titles that get straight to the point and include relevant information about the story, are very important. Also, a tip in order to achieve a well structured press release is to aim to include Who, What, When, Where, Why and How within the title and the first paragraph. So the reader is instantly informed and has a clear understanding about what you're writing about and is therefore more likely to continue reading if it is something they are interested in. It is a good guideline to stick to usually one page, 2 pages maximum so nobody is bored by your release and therefore writing concisely is vital. I enjoyed learning about the most successful techniques used by PR practitioners when tasked with creating media releases for organisations and clients. After learning about these simple tips and going and researching different pre-existing media releases, it was clear to identify which ones had followed the general structure and were successful in informing their publics effectively of all the key information, and which had not followed the structure and were unclear and therefore less effective.
Our assignment involves creating our own media release for a local cafe, the cafe is relaunching and has a new interior and new menu but the same chef. The cafe also has a new special of cream teas. I've named the local cafe "Cream T Cafe" and have started to write a simple media release explaining about the brands relaunch and informing the local publics of this, whilst also bearing in mind that journalists could potentially read the release and use information from it in their own writing, and therefore the information has to be 100% clear and accurate, whilst conveying key brand messages and clearly portraying the brand in the way they wish to be portrayed (considering the audience they want to target). So far my title includes 3 of the key W's (who, what etc) and my first paragraph goes on to include more information and cover more W's. I have chosen to include basic information in the title and then use the first paragraph to explain it in more detail. The second paragraph goes on to explain the relaunch further and the third paragraph includes a quote from the head chef. This quote makes the release even more identifiable to the brand. I have specifically chosen a quote from the chef because they have worked at the cafe for 5 years and therefore will understand exactly what the brand is about and exactly the type of audience the organisation seeks to target, also for the pre-existing customers, the chef will be identifiable and trustworthy. So far this is all I have completed for my media release and I know I will need to analyse media releases further and edit a lot of what I have done. My next step is to finish the paragraphs and make sure I write the word "ENDS" so that the end of the release is clearly obvious and people will stop reading. Below this I will include information about when the cafe opened and the cafe's contact details. This extra information will be aimed at any journalists reading the release, the contact details are for if they require any further information about the relaunch or the company itself, these aren't included in the main text as this information isn't relevant to the majority of readers and doesn't directly link to the purpose of the media release which is to inform of the cafe relaunch and generate interest/hype about this.
In the second half of the week we learned about Image Banks. Image Banks are a reserve of photographs stored by a company. These are generally stored online under the "Media Centre" section of a website and can be used by the public or by journalists when they are wanting to use company images. Image Banks are useful as the company can control them and therefore chose the way they want to represent themselves. For example, they can display their products and services through photographs that they think are appealing or display their key messages in an effective way. Journalists for example are far more likely to use an image provided by the organisations image bank, than go and take primary photographs for themselves, therefore this allows the organisation slight control over the images they provide their publics with. Effective image banks offer a variety of well postioned photos all with key brand messages being shown and are easy to navigate around/locate. Often the most effective images show human flesh as many people identify with these images more e.g. a picture of the CEO of a company.
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