Don’t Miss the Upcoming Webinar “The Business of Sports”

Webinar moderator Jake Toplitt

The pressure is on. You have been put in charge of getting coverage for a top sports brand.  You begin your press campaign by writing a compelling release which you promptly distribute, patiently waiting for signs of interest.  You want a journalist that will sing praises about your brand or maybe a mere mention. But instead you find silence. What went wrong? Wouldn’t it be great to learn from someone on the inside who can share insights on the business side of a major sports outlet?

Danny Ecker, Reporter/Producer (Sports Business), Crain’s Chicago Business

On June 12, Business Wire is giving PR professionals the opportunity to learn everything from sports-oriented product pitches and endorsements to coverage of the biggest news in professional and collegiate athletics with a webinar titled “The Business of Sports.” The webinar will feature a panel of leading journalists from the world of broadcast and print.

“So many story pitches that show up in my inbox are generic. I am constantly deleting emails from PR people that are so obviously casting a wide net and trying to get a reporter to bite,” said Danny Ecker, who writes for Crain’s Chicago Business and will be speaking on the panel. “Covering sports business often requires looking at the world of sports the way most people don’t and highlighting everything except what’s happening on the main stage.”

Hugo Balta, Coordinating Producer, ESPN

Another speaker is Hugo Balta, a coordinating producer for ESPN. Balta has mentioned on many occasions the importance of doing your homework when pursuing a journalist or outlet. His philosophy is to research the outlet so you can begin to understand what they’re trying to achieve. Then you can tailor your client to what specifically meets the needs of the journalist.

Kristi A. Dosh, Esq., Sports Business Analyst, Public Relations Exec.& College Sports Consultant

The panel also includes Kristi Dosh, who is a Sports Business Analyst, Public Relations Exec. & College Sports Consultant. Moderating the event is sports marketing professional Jake Toplitt, Account Supervisor for Matter Inc. All of the panelists bring years of experience working for sports outlets and will effectively reveal powerful pitching tips and advice for reaching sports journalists and influential outlets.

Sign up and be prepared to learn about unexplored opportunities for coverage from leading professionals working in the field.

Register Now

Recap: Media & Public Relations Best Practices

Business Wire and Black PR Wire recently launched their joint Minority Leadership Series, in honor of Black History Month, with a webinar entitled Media & Public Relations Best Practices.

This 90-minute event, co-moderated by Bernadette Morris, President and CEO of Black PR Wire; and Raschanda Hall, Global Media Relations Manager for Business Wire, highlighted the communications and targeting strategies of professionals at three different types of organizations:

• The Corporate View: Racquel White, Communications Director, The Coca-Cola Company Eurasia and Africa Group
• The Small Business/Agency View: David Rudd, Vice President, The Axis Agency
• The Government View: Althea Harris, Esq., Assistant District Director for Marketing and Outreach, Area 1, U.S. Small Business Administration

After an introduction in which reasons to target minority markets worldwide were discussed, each speaker discussed his or her own programs and successes in outreach and communications.

Among the highlights:

• Coca-Cola takes a local approach to most of its campaigns, and encourages its consumers to engage with the brand or their own communities and talents via contests, challenges and other approaches.

• The Axis Agency, a multicultural PR firm, recently completed a successful campaign for Disney Interactive Studios by using a multi-channel strategy developed over several months.

• The Small Business Agency works with cities, chambers of commerce and other organizations to help leverage local expertise for their programs.  A recent partnership with the City of Miami resulted in a 350% increase in loans to underserved communities over five years.

For in-depth details on these and other strategies discussed by the panelists, please listen to the archived webinar (you will need Windows Media Player 9 or higher); and follow the #bwevents hashtag on Twitter to keep up with future Business Wire events.

Business Wire at PRSA

The PRSA 2009 International Conference begins this Saturday, Nov. 7 in San Diego, and as always, Business Wire will be there, showing you our latest innovations in press release delivery and demonstrating how our high-tech platform beats the competitors with simultaneous delivery, integrated multimedia, superior social media capabilities and more.  Here are some of the highlights of our participation in PRSA:

• Laura Sturaitis, SVP, Media Services and Product Strategy, will once again join forces with Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR to update their popular “What’s the ROI of Your Press Release?” session to be presented on Tuesday, Nov 10th. “Greg and I are going to share  some of the new trends we are seeing in global search, social media engagement and using multimedia to tell your story and how you can determine what is working for you,” says Laura.
• Malcolm Atherton, account executive from our Phoenix office, will be handling our Twitter duties live from PRSA — make sure to follow @BusinessWire to get on-the-ground reports from our booth, sessions, workshops and more.  Malcolm, who is heavily involved in the PR and social media communities in Arizona, has his own very informative Twitter feed as well; get to know him before the show at @MalcolmAtherton.
• We’ll be at Booth #73 with our “Business Wire is HD” presentation, showing you that distributing your press release over Business Wire is, well, just better.  A more attractive press release with embedded hyperlinks, optimized keywords, wider earnings tables, easily downloadable video and pictures, social media sharing . . . come see for yourself why Business Wire is the one to use.  While you’re there, enter your name in a daily drawing for a chance to win a Blu-Ray player, and pick up a special gift, too!

We look forward to seeing you all in San Diego!

Free Webinar Tomorrow On Press Release Optimization

Tomorrow Business Wire is offering the latest in our free webinar series, “Press Release Optimization: Build Your Press Release Like a Pro .”  In this one hour webinar, Maria Van Wambeke and Michael Toner will dig deeper into the relationship between your company’s overall Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy and its Press Release Optimization (PRO) strategy.

We’ll examine the concept of Press Release Optimization (PRO)–an effective combination of coding and craft–and provide tips on selecting keywords using Business Wire’s Press Release Builder. The goal? Increased online traction.

Register here for this event, which starts at 1 pm ET/10 am PT.