Steal the SXSW Spotlight: PR Hacks for Maximum Buzz

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I’m Eric Chemi and this is Politely Pushy welcome to Politely Pushy I’m your host is always Eric Chemi today we are talking about the ramp up to South by Southwest it’s coming very soon we’re going to have a couple of our colleagues here Jess and Caroline will be on the

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ground there and so many of our clients so many of their competitors they will also be there it’s it’s a crazy situation talk about for both of you just what gets you excited about what you’re about to see here in a few days yeah I think for me it’s just the

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vast amount of industries that are attending South by Southwest you have tech you have music you have film there’s so much happening it’s probably one of the most exciting conferences you can go to and have your company at so just the scale of the event is is really

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exciting and I can’t wait to be there in a few weeks I think for me too it’s just the Cadence of how conversations around AI have evolved particularly for the consumer uh you know we work with a lot of deep Tech clients and you know for many of our friends and family it’s like

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oh you know you work with ChatGPT there’s a limited understanding but I think just how much those conversation have advanced in the last year to people are asking questions about things like DeepSeek you know they’re wondering about uh sustainability use related to

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the AI tools they’re using and I think it’ll be really interesting to see the advances that are being made in those cultural conversations around the use of AI you know both for clients and on the music and even film making side how are you going to measure success when it’s

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all done how how are you going to measure success from the client’s perspective of we accomplished this particular goal like what was the goal and and how do we know we did it I think it’s Unique to each client we’ve worked you know with some of them are host

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co-hosting panels on specific topics uh last year with one client um actually hosted with the creator of ChatGPT so a lot of that was getting them some in FaceTime interactions with local Austin media of course Austin has become a huge tech hub from you know what it was just

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a few years ago so I think getting in front of audiences you know beyond just Silicon Valley Beyond New York um and you know getting on the radar of some of those I think for our clients success really is reaching new audiences Making Connections that they wouldn’t have had

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previously and you know having some good old Austin fun um and hot chicken along the way how much how much I’ll ask you this Jess how much does the other audiences right we’re talking about you know music and film and all these other things does that get in the way of hey

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I’ve got my B2B tech platform over here trying to compete for attention with cooler consumer things or or like Caroline said do you think that helps because you’re getting in front of different audiences but those audiences might not care I can’t figure out if the

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different audiences are a good or a bad thing yeah I think the music and film side of it is definitely the more flashy side so it’s important if you are a B2B brand to be thinking outside the box of what you want to do when you’re at the event and how you can get people to your

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booth or if you’re having some sort of popup or activation how you can break through that noise because realistically people are going to go there they’re going to want to see a musician they might go to one of the film premieres and the tech stuff might fall um on the

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back burner for them so really starting to plan ahead what are those goals like we were just talking about is it getting new customers is it talking to a specific media Outlet is it talking to a certain number of reporters really making sure you start planning early and

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nail down those KPIs so you have months in advance to figure out how you’re gonna make a road map so you can get there so you’re breaking through that noise so you’re appearing exciting alongside some of these celebrities who are there and making sure that you really make a

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splash you mentioned KPIs what are the examples that you’re seeing or you know helping helping companies craft those KPIs yeah I know specifically for clients that we’re working with one of the biggest things is just being able to talk to as many reporters as possible

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even if it’s seven a day that come by their booth that is considered a good number again it depends on the company but really making those face-to-face connections with journalists that are relevant to their beat who are then going to remember them and then

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eventually talk to them or put them in a story or even perhaps put them in a story about South by Southwest in some form of a recap could be really great so a lot of the focus we’re seeing is making really meaningful connections with reporters that are going to turn

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into meaningful stories down the line >> I’m glad you mentioned that how how do you think the focus is in terms of balancing media interviews media connections versus networking versus product demos where are you seeing companies prioritize that group and and Caroline can jump to you two

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should just start debating with each other disagreeing don’t don’t like you have to you know just answer one at a time on my questions I’m happy to take a sit back I mean I think this is a conference that shows like handing out a brochure isn’t going to cut it anymore

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if you want to you know carve out some landscape for yourself at the conference so I think companies should you know have some fun with it they want to do something that’s creative but the goal of being there you know isn’t necessarily to get you know links back

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to the website or hand out a number of business cards but really ensuring that you’re telling um your brand story reaching people that you haven’t before I think there’s also a much larger time crunch what we’re seeing more and more is that you know media are sending

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reporters maybe for one or two days of the conference and so getting you know a booked briefing can be tough so on the flip side I think it’s also equally important to have your virtual assets on hand if you’re doing a panel you want to have that reporting ready to go you want

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to have some of those key takeaways uh because at the end of the day you might might not get FaceTime with as many media as you anticipate so I think equally important is to make sure you’re able to disseminate those visual assets for stories and get included in those

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namesake roundups about the conference >> yeah I agree with that Caroline I think one of the biggest mistakes that a lot of companies may make when pitching media for a big event like this is just simply not starting early enough there’s always that mad dash before the event where these

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reporters inboxes are going to be completely full of different companies trying to get a meeting starting earlier you might get a response that says hey I don’t know my schedule yet and I can’t commit to a time and place just yet but at least you open the door with that

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conversation and you started a thread with that reporter so you can go back on it and start to nail down a time to meet up with them and again don’t be afraid to invite a reporter to the new trendy restaurant in Austin for dinner or for a drink make it more personal it

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doesn’t always have to be on the show floor at the booth but anything that can really just again build that personal connection and like I said starting early is really key >> so we’re already too late for that basically right by the time someone’s hearing the podcast

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starting early was was uh yesterday last week last month last year >> yeah but that’s not to discourage anyone from those last minute pitches I’ve secured great on-side conference meetings from the last minute hey I know the conference is a 3 days away but if

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you’re still setting up time let me know and you’ll get that last rush of people who finally have a better sense of their schedule and you’re going to get emails from reporters while you’re on the show floor who just happen to get back to you and say hey can you meet at the

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booth in an hour and it’s being on your phone during that time and making sure you’re staying on top of your inbox as well >> how much is the shift to influencers now rather than traditional media because you’re going to get so many of them floating around this

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conference how much of the conversation with your clients is hey you know journalist networking journalist KPIs are great but I I really want to get those those TikTokers and the Instagram influencers >> I think it’s undeniable at this point you know what many people

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considered to be a passing fad of the era of the social influencer there is very much here to stay I know in recent years like for example Alex Earl um who hosts you know has a famous TikTok with get ready with me is Alexander Cooper both who are on the Forbes 30 under 30 are

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carving out their own unique businesses adjacent to what they’re doing on social media and their brand buying power is bigger than ever I mean these are people who one TikTok can sell out an entire company’s worth of stock in seconds and I think that’s something investors are

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much more paying attention to now more than ever I think in the era of Gen Z particularly there is this desire for more authentic content right people don’t necessarily want to buy you know what a NBA players buying they want to see someone that looks like them has

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similar experiences are giving them raw content of their experiences with the brand beyond just kind of the marketing jargon that may have worked you know in years past >> I agree and there are a lot of panels this year focused on the Creator economy and how Brands especially B2B Brands

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can work with creators we’re seeing that more and more it’s a topic of discussion onsite it’s very relevant it’s going to continue being relevant so it’s always important when you’re set setting those goals early for your companies to figure out where influencers may fit into the

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strategy >> you know based on your experience in the past obviously we haven’t done this year’s conference yet and you know other conferences are similar enough where do companies go wrong in terms of their whole conference strategy was a debacle they like where

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have you seen at the end of a conference you thought wow you know they really missed the ball on on on trying to accomplish what they were trying to do >> I think one that comes to mind for me is just putting all of their eggs into the basket of having a ton of just

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back-to-back briefings secured with the media beforehand to Jess’s point I think some of our most successful you know top tier media has been from us just having eagle eyes at the booth knowing hey you know that’s someone from The New York Times and being able to put that PR

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relationship and media relationship to value in real life by being able to say Hey you know check it out out no pressure for coverage I mean at CES this past year for example we had a R&D client that was debing an AI badminton trainer and while the concept itself was

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somewhat tough to pitch we were able to wrangle a Fast Company reporter to hey actually check it out at the booth and do a demo in real time which led to a really solid media placement so and schedules also change all the time you know you might have back to back

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reporters but things might run long there’s a hot trending topic of the moment that their editors directing them to too so I think putting as much attention to you know the day of and live uh as much as the you know early awareness building and securing media is equally

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important >> I agree with that and I think you know a lot of companies just simply don’t do their homework it’s a matter of looking at past years what might have worked for another company and what might be new that they could bring to the show this year something new in

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their booth a new activation just anything that’s different that’s outside the box hasn’t been done before just kind of peeking to see what has worked in the past and how they can curate that to their brand and their audience that they want to reach while they’re on site >> and then what

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do what do you two typically do in terms of like all right we’re on the ground are you literally just twisting elbows and and getting people to come to the booth or are you staying at the booth are you trying to get these dinners organized what what’s the glue piece

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that that you’re there to help get media in in front of the clients that you’re working for yeah I think it’s a little bit of both sides of that on one hand it’s facilitating the meetings that we set up ahead of time and making sure that everything runs on schedule but

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then oftentimes media will have a separate color badge so it’s about having awareness what their badges look like and keeping your eyes out for those people so that you can be the wringler and say hey this tech reporter from The New York Times is here I’m going to go

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over there and make an introduction and pull him in to talk with you guys so it’s really being that um person in the middle the middle man to make sure that you’re getting foot traffic and people into the booth that maybe they would have just walked by but you were there

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to say hi how are you and start up a conversation and be able to make that introduction to the client >> you mentioned obviously starting early having certain kinds of content ready to go so that when you’re on site this is ready what about afterwards though like how do you work with the

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momentum that you got there instead of just oh pack it up shut it down zero afterwards >> so I would say something a lot of clients aren’t aware of is that only a select number of panels on the main stage are uploaded in real time to the South by Southwest YouTube channel

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uh and they don’t really give full clarity on which ones will be available live for streaming and via video clips so on our side on the virtual side people are you know taking screen grabs live of their phone to capture it we’re making sure someone in the audience with

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a voice memo on because that can be really the make or break to getting reporter coverage and they’re not necessarily going to go off of you know what you the PR person thought was great about the panel but they want to hear the raw transcript you know any

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reactions from the audience uh and what happens so I think being able to share that and as close to real time as possible is key and I think that’s just another element too of like it’s a live conference things are not going to go according to plan uh so being able to

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have a PR person there that’s kind of agile and able to problem solve in real time whether that’s hey the CEO’s you know plane is running an hour behind or our demo tech is not working right now or you know top tier reporter is asking you know technical questions that uh the

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team needs to answer I think that’s really the value also of having a PR person on site because putting that all onto your C-Suite team that’s you know wanting to focus on briefings making sure their panel’s great that’s kind of the leg work we can do in real time

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to just take one layer of stress uh away from our clients >> like oh hey CEO can can you just get your voice memo out and try to record this while you’re doing a whole bunch of other things >> yes so uh that’s key too and you know being able to know what’s trending

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at the time also and being able to capture that so if maybe your full C-Suite isn’t there if someone else is able to comment on what the latest introduction technology development is being announced that can be another way just to maintain that cadence of

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coverage because I think the biggest mistake clients make is just attaching their name to this and thinking oh it’s a one and done we’re going to be in variety um we’re associated with celebrities that are going to be there that in itself uh is coverage meriting

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but I think you know it requires some level of like to Jess’s point standing out uh but also being able to get the attention of audiences in an authentic way and I think whether that’s who you’re deciding to partner with on a panel if you’re a company and you’re

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doing kind of a live interaction it’s thinking about too um those kind of brand experiences and what you want people to walk away knowing about your brand >> you you were nodding Jess you were nodding when she said watching the trends what were you thinking about at

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that moment >> yeah the trends obviously it’s important to always be in the no um I was also nodding my head at the follow-up part that you asked Eric because I think that the follow-up is one of the places where companies get it wrong they don’t have a strong enough followup and that’s

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one of the places where the PR rep comes in handy one of the best things you can do when you’re in the booth on the ground with clients is to have your notes app out on your phone >> so voice memos now it’s the notes app this is the whole thing >> it saved me many of times

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on the show floor at a conference because yes you’re going to get business cards you might lose one they might get mixed up you can’t remember who was who but if you jot just quick little notes in your phone okay so and so from The Wall Street Journal just came by so and

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so from TechCrunch was here you mark that down you maybe make a note of what you all talked about it really makes your follow-up emails to those individuals really strong and just continue that relationship with those specific reporters it’s just so important to be organized amidst the

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chaos of of these conferences and of South by Southwest since it’s so huge so I think a lot of companies just don’t they they underestimate the follow-up work that goes into it they think okay the event’s done it was great we met with these people but then it’s about

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the follow through and what’s next and building those relationships >> it’s almost like you got to think of the conference as the beginning of something rather than the end achievement result of of doing the conference >> yes 100%. >> What are some disagreements that

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both of you are having with clients already right now in terms of the prep of like oh they want to do this and you’re saying maybe not >> I think clients tend to make a mistake to just carve out a very nuance niche lane of what they specifically want to speak to and you

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know I think that can miss out on a lot of great connections with reporters you know maybe it’s not the new AI workplace product you’re launching that’s not going to be you know the theme of the conversation but being able to speak about what’s happening overall in your

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industry what trends are you seeing among customers you know how is economic policies and what’s going on in the world impacting your day-to-day because media are looking for those larger stories in most cases it’s not going to be a straight pay-per-play of what your

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newest product is but how you fit into the larger landscape what you’re doing differently how you’re reacting to market trends uh and how you’ve created solutions that essentially help with all of the above >> I agree with all of that >> what are the three go to moves in terms of if if

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you do everything else wrong but you get these three things right you can save your conference like what what are the just three most important things that like just do these things if you remember nothing else >> I’m gonna put the follow-ups on that list yeah I will keep preaching

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that I think it’s just so important so you know again like you were saying Eric the conference is like the beginning of something rather than the end so make sure that’s on your top three list of things to do um thinking of a few others Caroline if you have any >> I think a big one is

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that every team member on site should be prepped to at least give a basic rundown to media uh because things happen quickly I you know GTC last year Jensen just happened to walk by our booth so did Gavin Newsome and that’s you know that one in a million moment that you can’t

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necessarily prepare for but you want to make sure someone there can tell Gavin hey this is what we’re doing to make energy efficient data storage happen uh so I think it’s really important to not just feel like whoever’s handing out the business cards is doing all the leg work

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but also that they’re able to give that to media because you know those moments can happen quickly and be fleeting if not everyone on site is prepared for it >> yep and that includes your PR rep I can’t tell you how many times all our executives were tied up in other

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meetings when I was at the booth and a huge journalist came by and I was the only person available at the time for them to talk to to run through the product line etc. so obviously as a PR person you already know your stuff but making sure you’re super buttoned up about what

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you want to talk about on site so you are prepared to handle some of those briefings because it’s inevitably going to happen with the amount of foot traffic that’s going on >> will your will your badge look like you’re working for the company or will it look like you’re

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working as a Bospar PR person or does it just look like you’re just part of the the the client company >> it typically looks like you’re part of the client company usually if you’re going on behalf of a client you’ll have a badge with their name on it so it’s very easy

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for uh individuals who are walking up to recognize you’re part of that group and then typically it will say PR on it somewhere as they can recognize again that you’re part of the PR team >> I see so it looks like from an outsider it almost looks like you’re the in-house PR person

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yes okay okay yes well Jensen Wong coming by Gavin Newsome’s coming by you gotta be ready for that >> yeah I mean I would say to a trend I’ve noticed at conferences is you know the media badge used to be you know highlighter yellow and then giant letters say media and

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that’s not happening anymore I mean conferences I’ve been to as of late most reporters will have their badge turned around so you can’t even you know see what type of badge they have and I think those are the clutch moments where it’s like you have a PR person that knows Don

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Clark wears a backwards black cap from The New York Times and you’re on your fifth coffee break filling up on sugar to jump in while you have you know a second of his time to tell him about your client and I think those are like the make or break moments where it’s you

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want to know what their faces look like you want to have someone that’s interacting with the media regular uh and Staffing those interviews and can anticipate what they’ll be interested in and you know monitoring in real time Twitter/X is a huge tool just to see

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where they’re at in the conference what they’re planning on if they have a cancellation if they’re following a trending story so a lot of our FBI investigation skills come in handy there and just honestly using social media uh to our advantage of being able to get

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reporters in real time which is you know this day and age becoming more difficult than ever >> I always flip my badge around I never want to know I don’t want you to know who I am I don’t want you to try to scan the QR code blast me with emails >> no more QR codes that’s another client I

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think thing that needs to go the era of the QR code is not what it once was >> well the conference should just make the badges two-sided so it’s like well if you flip it then I just like put some like just slide it under my shirt or my jacket or put a tie on it you just do I

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always do something to obscure it >> yeah I like the double-sided it’s like you can’t hide from us that way we’re gonna find you and make you talk to our clients before we go from each of you one big celebrity musician somebody famous that you’re excited to try to run

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into when you’re there >> oh I’m a big Shark Tank fan and Mark Cuban is doing a panel and he’s also being honored this year since he’s been involved with Austin Community and South by Southwest so I would love to hear him speak I just think he’s great so that’s a big one for

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me >> that’s tough I would say on the celebrity side uh Ben Affleck is debuting a film and that’s purely for market research purposes that we’ll be sliding into that afterparty uninvited and then on the company side uh Rare Beauty, Selena Gomez’s brand their

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chief marketing officer speaking and that’s you know quickly becoming a rival to the Estée Lauder’s of the world so I’m really excited to hear her speak you know celebrity Brands are a dime a dozen these days so being able to makes such a strong market entrance

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you know using social media as fuel for a lot of it has been something I’ve really enjoyed following and I’m eager to hear uh her thoughts on the industry >> Jessica, Caroline this is super interesting I appreciate the way you’re thinking about it and some of the real

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time tactics that you have to have ready to go right that that you can’t just walk in and and think it’s going to work out well if you’re a company right there’s so many things that that someone like you like a real Pro is like oh these are things you got to do and if

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you don’t do it you probably end up wasting the conference in which case all that spend and all that effort wasn’t worth it so thank you for taking the time uh today to to explain this to me good luck good luck going down there and and fighting with everyone else to try

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to get all that coverage appreciate it thanks Eric aw thank you [Music] [Applause] Eric thank you to my guest and thanks for listening subscribe to get the latest episodes each week and we’ll see you next time.