Last week, I covered a large press conference staged by a federal political party inside a big factory. The party’s media flacks told photographers where to stand, what to shoot and what not to shoot. As one of them said, “It’s our press conference. We tell you what to do.”
When reporters asked questions that the party didn’t want to answer, the reply was, “We don’t want to talk about that today” or “We’ve answered that in the past.”
The political party could’ve just sent out a press release but it wanted the photo-op showing its leader standing next to its new slogan-covered sign and mingling with the blue-collar workers at the factory.
Here’s the deal with any press conference:
1) If you want to control everything then buy an advertisement. (But you’ll lose credibility with the public.)
2) If your company, organization or business message can’t stand up to reporters’ scrutiny then you’re not ready for a press conference.
Trying to control what people think is impossible. Trying to force people to accept your message is foolish.
Press conferences are a form of marketing. An effective and successful press conference happens when you do the following three things in this order:
1) Inform reporters about your (business) message.
2) Convince reporters that your message is better.
3) Persuade reporters to act on your message (i.e. write about it).
Since photography is the best way to get attention and create interest, a good press conference will allow photographers to do what they do best – make pictures.
It’s impossible for a PR person to know what a photographer is thinking or what they might be seeing through their camera viewfinder. If a PR person or media flack is worried that a picture might be unflattering or embarrassing then the press conference wasn’t organized properly.
