Reflection Essay on media kit by Deakin Student
In this digital age it is very hard to disregard the importance of media kit, as people want’s to know about the product, an organization or an event that’s taking place around them. In general a media kit comprises of many things that are considered to be important for a company or an event that needs public attention (Lawless. B, 2017). Nowadays the promotion of any event is generally take place not through one medium but a mix of different mediums. One cannot simply rely on only social media or radio advertising, rather it has to be mix of everything. To address all mediums and be able to reach the target audience, a media kit should and must be designed creatively. The message has to be received on the other end successfully.
In task two we were required to do different aspects of media kit that consisted of press release tweets, media alert and pitch letter. And the scenario we were provided with, a lot was happening in it so everything needs to be marketed and promoted accordingly. To reflect on the approach taken for designing the media kit and the information highlighted, there are few things that need to be mentioned. The scenario provided, was one of the well known university in Melbourne Australia, is organising an event ‘Walk to Work’, in order to promote healthy life style and encourage less use of transport to have a cleaner environment for future Australians.
The event is one of its kind, where the university has organized walking buses that will depart from six different location after every 30 minutes and people who are participating in this event can catch those buses and come to the starting point. Celebrities like Usain bolt along with other DC athletes are also participating so that needs to be marketed and advertised. As such information is what the journalist want to publish in their magazines and newspaper.
For any event to get a hype, press release which is also known press release plays an important role, a media release is considered as one of the most successful ways to get media coverage for your event McCoy. J, 2015. As for a press release the main idea and purpose is to provide instant exposure, so for this specific reason, a catchy headline is what matters the most. For the press release I did, the headline I used was
‘Help the climate, help yourself – work to walk!
Through this headline, I am able to portray one of the major issue that the whole world is facing i.e. about climate change, at the same time mentioning to help yourself, later leading to the event name ‘walk to work’.
To be able to address all the important information, through twitter, press release, pitch letter, key information needed to be conveyed, while keeping in mind that the different elements of media kit has its own tone, style and language that needs to be used. For example, for twitter we only have limited word limit, so had to make sure that important information is shared using the most relevant and attention grabbing hash tags. Following is one of the tweets that was made, and it’s very clear that through this particular tweet, the main sponsor is highlighted, the charity that will be made, the university organizsing the event and the purpose of this event i.e. healthy life style, “Get a coffee, help a refugee during walk to work initiative! #101Beans #DeakinUniversity #Helpahand #Healthyinitiative”. As stated by Hutchinson. A, 2016, ‘Use Hashtags Correctly as that is the most important aspect of twitter’.
For majority of the public relation companies, a media alert is considered to be one of the most important tools of the trade, as it is an invitation designed to inform the media about an event Hamlin. K, 2017. There are few very important things that need to be included in a media alert, which I did. For example, in a media alert, a good heading is important, the date you are sending on, the key information about the event that can also be highlighted with the use of 5w. Who, when, why, where and what, as that clearly give the key information to the reader instantly.
Coming to the pitch letter, a pitch letter is comparatively easier to write as compare to press release. As for the pitch letter you are only going to address it to one single person. As for such reason, you don’t really have to think a lot about your language, as long as the main information is address that will do its job. The main reason of writing a pitch letter is to be able to get a media coverage for a specific product launch, or an event Williams. E. in order to make that with the help of a pitch letter, we will get a media coverage for our event, I addressed it to Mr. Mathew Johnstone, who is the chief editor at the Herald Sun news paper. Herald Sun is a leading newspaper with a large coverage in and around Melbourne, and if able to get the confirmation from Herald Sun, which I am sure we will, our event will definitely get a good coverage.
Reflecting on the overall work that I did while making the media kit, I must say that I got to know a lot of new things that I otherwise wouldn’t know. I realized the importance of using important words for the heading of press release, using relevant hash tags for twitter and highlighting all the important information about the event. Promoting an event is no longer can only be relied on traditional marketing, in fact nowadays a mix of traditional and digital media is very important.
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REFERENCES
Hamlin. K, 2017, How to write a media alert and when to send it’, viewed on 20th Jan 2018 < https://bizfluent.com/how-2091203-write-media-alert-send.html>
Hutchinson. A, 2016, ‘8 Tips for Creating More Effective Tweets’, viewed on 22nd Jan 2018 < https://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/8-tips-creating-more-effective-tweets-twitter>
Lawless. B, 2017, ‘How Your Press Kit Benefits Three Important Company Stakeholder Groups’, Viewed on 22nd Jan 2018 <https://www.forbes.com/sites/yec/2017/01/03/how-your-press-kit-benefits-three-important-company-stakeholder-groups/#4be4959739be>
McCoy. J, 2015, ‘10 Benefits of Press Release Writing For Your Business & Brand’, viewed on 23rd Jan 2018 < https://expresswriters.com/10-benefits-of-press-release-writing-for-your-business-brand/>
Williams. E, ‘What is a pitch letter for?’, viewed on 24th Jan 2018 < https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/pitch-letter-for-7440.html>
