Electronic press kits: getting your story across to the media.

An integral facet of your company's marketing and new business push during a convention or trade show will be public relations (please see accompanying article on page 2). What you may not realize, however, is that the traditional written press kit is by no means the only method of conveying your company's newsworthy activities to the attending press.

Another highly viable means of relaying your company's latest activities is an electronic press kit, or a video presentation designed mainly for television broadcast, but also as as a visual adjunct to the written material offered to the print press.

If, for example, your company is one dealing with a unique new computer software program or other visually-oriented product, an electronic press kit (EPK) may well help you generate television coverage and added interest from the print media by virtue of its compelling images and graphics. As such, offering a ready-to-air EPK to those reporters attending your convention or trade show might soon yield exciting televised coverage that can directly help benefit your product and business both on the short and long-term levels.

Most likely, you have fantasized what the ideal television news story about your company/product would be, perhaps with an on-air reporter opening the segment with a comment like this:

"In California this week, XXX Corporation unveiled a revolutionary new communications product which will facilitate instant computerized language-conversion during international conference calls or in-person meetings between persons of varying worldwide cultures..."

Obviously, a piece like that on either a local television station or, ideally, a national news program, would catapult your company into an entirely new stratosphere of success and prominence. Unfortunately, life doesn't generally work that way, and getting reporters to embrace your story is often a difficult proposition.

Nevertheless, an effective EPK can provide the next best thing: a piece which TV news directors across the country will view and consider for their broadcasts. And while they will likely dub in their own newscaster's voice over the narrator's voice you have provided on your EPK, they will utilize the footage and hopefully some of the narrative you have given them, meaning they get a solid news story without having to spend the time and money on filming the visuals for that story, and you - of course - get a public relations home run.

Preparing a quality EPK - especially one which strikes news directors as being newsworthy and not merely an exercise in PR hype - requires a great deal of skill and planning. According to Sally Jewett, founder of On The Scene Productions in Los Angeles and New York, the best EPKs:

* Must never play like a commercial for your company. Your EPK, or video news release, must be newsworthy for a TV station to consider. This might even mean giving some of the spotlight to a competitor, since, Sally says, "to make your project interesting and useable, you may need to consider including your product with other similar products in order to create the always-desirable "trend" piece, a la "Hot New Sports Equipment." After all, being included in a news piece that features other competing products is certainly better than not being on the air at all;

* Cut costs and increase the chance of usage by providing high-quality B-roll (background footage) or visuals with slates that tell the story.

* Also, Sally notes, be sure any narration is on a separate audio track, since - as mentioned - it's all but certain that each station will place in their own narrator on top of the footage supplied.

Adds David Nemer, founder of Los Angeles' J-Nex Television, "Very often a client over-internalizes the importance of what they want to promote. Because what they are promoting is extremely important within the confines of their company, they get caught up in the excitement without realizing that outside of the company, the media and public may not share their enthusiasm. This often happens with the release of a new product, product line or with a significant corporate announcement. Therefore, we ask our clients to 'externalize' the importance of their announcement, or step outside the company to see if, frankly, their announcement is truly newsworthy."

Nemer continues by suggesting that clients never underestimate the intelligence of television news producers and therefore consider the EPK being planned from that producer's perspective, and not their own. As Nemer wisely notes, "Television stations are looking for news and for material that is time sensitive - that they can use TODAY," not hold indefinitely.

Nemer also stresses the vital importance of quality visuals, noting that news producers/directors are seeking attractive images and tight sound bites, B-roll or video highlights, that can quickly and effectively be edited into a particular program's format. In this regard, he suggests offering stations an idealized version of what they would get if they had sent their own reporter out to cover the story in question. "The more work they have to do with your video, the less they will be inclined to use it," he logically says.

Finally, both Jewett and Nemer emphasize the importance of attentive follow-up to all news directors who have been given your video press material. As in all public relations efforts, they say, it's not nearly enough to just provide the material; the real key is in ensuring that the material in question has been received, and helping those who have received it understand its news value to the fullest extent possible.