Preparing for a media launch
By Jill Pyle
Launch day is always busy, usually requiring us to spend all morning, if not the entire day, contacting the media. On launch day, the news release is sent out, follow up calls are made and pitching for coverage begins. On this day we start mining for both immediate and future opportunities. We begin investigating the potential to secure coverage in our most important media outlets, enquiring about upcoming opportunities and what is required to deliver on them.
On launch day, we need to be on top of our game, ready to rhyme off endless facts about the company or product we are representing. Our knowledge of the client and its technology must stretch far beyond the information included in the news release. We need to know exactly whom we are calling, why we are calling and how to make the pitch relevant to them. Before we can pick up the phone, send out the news release, or schedule a single interview, there is a great deal of work that needs to be done.
Launch preparations often consume the weeks leading up to the launch and are in some ways are more intensive than the launch day itself. During the ramp up period of an initial client engagement, we attend briefings and learn everything there is to know about the client and its technology. In an ideal world, we then have some time to digest the information before developing the required media materials, although often, due to tight deadlines, we need to dive into this process immediately.
The rigorous process of researching, drafting, editing and finally gaining approvals on the materials gives us the requisite level of knowledge we need to hit the phones. It is only after finding the right words to communicate the story coherently to the relevant media audience that we can show up to work on the morning of a launch with all of the information we need to make that first call.
