Mark Nusca is managing director at Porter Novelli.
The Pan Am Games are poised for the starting gun and like any elite international athletic competition, the victories will be joyous, the defeats shattering. If your game is pitching media, summer 2015 is also sure to create relieved winners and distraught losers.
Do you have an ‘A’ game in your media relations playbook? Now is the time to bring it on.
The Games – and the fact they coincide with several other big summer events you might not have considered yet – will demand exceptionally sharp, innovative planning to get your event, launch or announcement into the winner’s circle. Here are a few thoughts to help you call the right plays on planning, timing, logistics and execution.
Scout the competition
Determine exactly who is hitting the media relations playing field this summer to avoid conflicts and disappointment. The Games are a big deal, with nearly 8,000 elite athletes from the Americas and Caribbean visiting July 10-26 (Pan Am Games) and August 7-15 (Parapan Am Games) to compete at more than 30 venues in 16 Ontario municipalities. Games organizers expect 250,000 or more visitors to the region to take in the action. Beyond athletics, the Games include a cultural/arts program dubbed Panamania — a 35-day festival featuring more than 250 performances and exhibitions. So beyond the typical news and sports media players, arts, entertainment, culture and lifestyle media will also be in on the act.
The competition for media coverage grows even more intense thanks to other international events that overlap or bump up against the Games. This includes the hugely popular Caribana / Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival – “North America’s largest cultural festival” — featuring three weeks of parties and an estimated one million visitors expected for the Aug. 1 weekend parade and finale. Let’s not forget Toronto’s Fringe Theatre Festival, featuring 150 shows at 30 venues and more than 1,100 performances. Also worth noting, on the business front, is the Toronto Global Forum: Pan American Edition, staged ahead of the Games during the first week of July.
Confirm your roster of target media players now
With so much action unfolding on various fronts, find out exactly who will be doing what among your target media, key influencers and bloggers. Media outlets will be hard pressed to cover all the bases this summer and you do not want to be left on the sidelines with an unhappy client.
Will your target media be doing business as usual and have time for your pitch or event? Or will they be focusing on Games-themed coverage for several days or even weeks at a time? Find out now how the Games could impact potential coverage you are seeking and avoid the risk of discovering too late that your target media had no intention of covering your newsworthy event or announcement simply due to a lack of space, air time or staff. One option to consider is pitching days or even weeks earlier than usual to gain attention.
It’s a coast-to-coast playing field
While it might be easy to dismiss the media relations challenges as primarily Toronto-centric, keep in mind if you are pitching media in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal or Halifax, there is a good chance your target media could be attending the action in Ontario, or covering news at home for others being assigned to the Games. All the more reason to do a full scouting report now of who plans to be where.
Making it to the finish line
Travel schedules, traffic issues, venue availability, hotel bookings – all could pose serious logistical challenges leading up to and during the Games and coinciding summer events.
Transportation officials are already warning about the negative impact on regional road travel and predicting delays unless normal traffic volumes can be reduced by 20%. Urban planning experts and critics are questioning that strategy as a leap of faith, noting that traffic during the London Olympic Games dropped barely 5% despite that city’s more-extensive transit system. Plan accordingly to avoid disastrous delays – particularly if working with celebrities or spokespersons doing media tours.
We all have preferred restaurants, hotels and other event venues we rely on and the competition for bookings could be extraordinary this summer. Planning ahead is critical if you absolutely must execute a campaign or host an event. The same goes for other suppliers, from caterers and photographers to limos and graphic designers.
Finally, to ensure you’re covered in the event of a client communications crisis, consider revisiting your crisis plan now to ensure success in the face of the summer calendar and its media access challenges.
What you do today can spell the difference between winning and losing once the starting gun goes off this summer. Good luck!
