Conducting Virtual Media Tours: Brought to You by Social Distancing

It’s no secret the pandemic has impacted our lives in countless ways, including many of the best practices we’ve leveraged as PR professionals for years. Good news, some of the changes haven’t been all that bad. Case in point: media tours. We used to spend days running around a city stressing about travel time between meetings, barely eating and preparing our spokesperson for their 10th meeting of the day when both of us were cross-eyed.

Enter virtual media tours (cue calming music). The days of running around with our hair on fire are gone for now, with Zoom, Hangouts and the like streamlining the experience. At Praytell, we’ve conducted a ton of virtual media tours since COVID-19 hit, and to our surprise, our media friends couldn’t be happier, finding them more useful and effective than ever before.  

A few tips and tricks we’ve picked up along the way:

HEADS UP

On the back of COVID-19, media need more lead time than ever to lock in interviews and set up coverage for launch day. When hosting a virtual media tour, be sure to kick off outreach at least three weeks out. In the same vein, practice patience. There has been a lot of job shifting in media, especially as of late, so some folks are covering multiple beats and may need a bit of time before they can get back to you. However, the upside to virtual tours is oftentimes reporters can also find last-minute availabilities and confirm attendance closer to the date than we’d typically be able to do.

BUMPY PACKAGE

It’s an old term, but you get the picture. If you’re demo-ing a physical product, share the product ahead of time so the reporter can experience it with a live demo from your spokesperson and be ready with questions. Ultimately it allows them to kill two birds with one stone: they can watch the demo and ask questions in one sitting.

INTERACTIVE SET

Zoom fatigue is real. Virtual media tours require more incentives for media to hop on a video for that precious face time. To create an engaging atmosphere, you have to pack a punch with lively spokespersons, product demos and more. A few considerations as you set yours up:

• Polished Production: One way to go is engaging a production partner to create a high-quality, polished presentation with all the props, lighting and set elements you’d ever need for those really big news moments. Lights, camera, action, you’ll look flawless and feel great!
• Home Court Advantage: However, being at home opens the doors to leverage everyday props at your fingertips. So when relevant, it’s also very possible to create your own mini set by setting up a table with related props or using your kitchen or living room or even front porch to share use cases for your product.
• Testing One, Two, Three: Nothing will make someone run off Zoom like a faulty connection or bad audio. Be sure to dedicate time for quality control through a dress rehearsal. You’ll want to have your spokesperson get in some practice reps and take the time to test audio and WiFi.

RECORD

At the start of our meetings, we ask the journalist if we can record the session, both for our spokesperson’s reference, but also to offer as a follow-up asset for our media friends to reference back to when they write a story! The response has been positive with some passing it along to other colleagues as well.

MORE THE MERRIER

One of the best parts of a video meeting is how inclusive they can be. And good news, media are loving it too. Many journalists have shared how much they’ve enjoyed being able to invite their coworkers in other offices, often across the country, to tune in for a pre-briefing or product demo at their side. When pitching pre-briefings, spread the word that colleagues are welcome to join, and in this same vein, think bigger when reaching out to media, as you’re no longer constrained by location when it comes to booking meetings.

SPECIAL SURPRISES

As more and more brands start doing virtual press tours, it will no doubt up the ante with media on what they’re willing to dedicate time to. So get creative to really drive appeal and keep things interesting by considering a special guest, such as a top chef or influencer to join in the meeting, or perhaps make the hands-on experience even more unique by building something together during the demo. At the end of the day, you’ve got to ask yourself, what are we offering to media that they couldn’t just read in the press package?

WHITE GLOVE FOLLOW-UP

As with any media conversation, white glove follow-up is key. Once you’ve concluded the demo, be sure to follow up to address any lingering questions and reshare helpful materials—such as a reviewer’s guide or install videos—so the journalist can refer back with ease.  

The reality is all signs point to “desk sides” moving from in-person to online for the foreseeable future. By continually adapting to the new, creative opportunities virtual media tours provide us, we’ve seen resounding positive feedback from our media friends (and we won’t miss those whirlwind city tours!).

Want to learn more about our offerings? Drop us a line hello@praytellagency.com

Erika Morgan is a Vice President with 10+ years of experience in public relations primarily focused on technology and consumer technology clients. She has a knack for building exceptionally strong PR programs that drive results for her clients with relationships across major business, tech, and consumer media. She was a founding member of Praytell's San Francisco office and now works from our Austin office.