You may have noticed, if you live in Toronto, that the city, or at least its politicians, suffer from extreme New York City envy. Toronto copies New York’s tourism campaigns and slogans, follows all NYC trends, and constantly compares itself to the Big Apple.
Toronto, in 2002, unveiled its newest slab of concrete called “The Yonge-Dundas Square”, which was modelled after New York’s Time Square.
The “ydsquare” web site states: “A unique aspect of the Square is that it is not operated like other Civic Squares … City Council decided to … operate Yonge-Dundas Square as a business venture.”
The Yonge-Dundas Square has become a magnet for public relations events.
Why hold a press conference or other PR event at the Yonge-Dundas Square? Do you get your money’s worth after renting the venue and paying all the associated costs? Media coverage almost never depends on location.
The Message is the Message
The location should never take precedence over, or distract from, your business message.
It may be cool to have your media event at the newest place in town. Lots of bragging rights to be had. But there’s no PR value if your business message gets lost or overshadowed.
Example one: A Toronto newspaper just ran a photo from a PR event at the Square. The published picture was about the nice weather during “an event.” Not a single word was mentioned about the business or product behind the event. The newspaper got a nice summer sunshine photo and the company footing the bill got nothing.
Example two: A Toronto newspaper photographer, who was at the Square to cover another PR event, also took a few pictures of kids playing in the fountains. The following day’s paper had a “wet kids” photo but nothing from the actual media event.
A bride should be the star at her wedding. Similarly your product/service/business must be the star at your media event. Design your public relations event around your product/service/business and not around the venue. If you can make your product/service/business the star then it will be newsworthy enough to get media coverage.
