Advice on creating your Aircraft Interiors Expo media pack/press release for our paperless media centre
Aircraft Interiors Expo successfully trialled a paperless/electronic media centre for the first time last year. This consisted of a USB stick – available for all media to pick up from the Media Centre – which contained electronic versions of press releases and product images. We also printed out one copy of each press release and put these out on press racks so that media could still see ‘at a glance’ what stories interested them. They were delighted to know that all these were already pre-loaded on to their USB sticks – helping to speed up their story writing time.
We’ll be repeating this environmentally friendly strategy again for the 2012 event and have compiled some basic advice on what to consider and how to submit information to us for inclusion on the USB sticks.
Creating your media pack/press release stories
Your media pack/press release will be one of many in the Aircraft Interiors Expo Media Centre so here are some tips on how to make yours as attention grabbing and relevant to journalists as possible:
1. Keep it short and concise
Make sure that you have summed up your company’s news story in the first paragraph of your press release and try to stick to no more than two sides of A4. If journalists are interested, and require more information, they will contact you via the contact details (either at the top or bottom of your press release). They will not have time to read lots of pages.
2. Keep it relevant
The information in your press release/media pack needs to be relevant to what you are promoting at Aircraft Interiors Expo!
Aviation journalists, national and local media visiting Aircraft Interiors Expo are interested in stories about new cabin interior products and designs and innovations that airlines are testing or have recently ordered. Ensure that you explain why airline buyers would benefit from new products – eg they are 10% lighter than previous models, they include innovative new composite materials, provide airlines with more choice for passenger entertainment etc.
Company history, personnel bios and company brochures can all be obtained by the journalist at a later date and therefore should not form part of your media pack – this information can be held on your exhibition stand in case anyone requests it.
3. Provide easy access to pictures
A relevant picture can often make the difference in a story. It’s worth including a picture within the first page of your press release as this can help to attract attention to the story.
Alternatively use the media section of your website to allow journalists to download high resolution pictures directly from there. If you are unable to include images on your website, remember to include the contact name for someone who can supply images within your press release.
4. Don’t forget to include clear contact details
Always have your company name and stand number clearly visible within the press release – preferably at the top of the document.
Remember to also include full contact details of your media spokesman including, name, job title, email address and telephone number so that journalists can contact them for further details. Ensure that this person is briefed and ready to take calls and emails to answer questions promptly.
5. Press release/media pack file format and size
We need to receive your words and pictures in the best format to enable us to fit all exhibitor news within the capacity of the USB stick.
File names:
Please save the file name for any text or image/picture file with your company name first – eg Airbus_media pack.pdf OR Airbus_new interior A380.jpg – followed by a short description to make it as easy as possible for journalists to identify it on the USB stick
Text/words:
Please submit your press releases as PDF files rather than Word documents. Do not embed hi resolution pictures in a Word file without converting it to PDF or the file size will be too large.
Pictures:
For print versions of magazines, journalists need images that are high resolution (at least 300dpi). In practice this means that images are best as either JPG or TIFF format – and are around 1MB to 2MB in size.
Formats we will NOT accept:
- Word documents that are more than 1MB in size due to either company logos or embedded pictures – please convert them to PDFs to reduce the file size
- Powerpoint files – journalists do not expect press releases to be in this format and may think it is a company presentation and will be deterred from looking at your news.
- Multiple files – each exhibitor should submit only one file.
Total file size:
Please ensure that whatever you choose to submit is no more than 4MB in size (both text and images). If you want to give journalists access to several images to choose from – please include a link to download hi-resolution images from your website.
Submit your press release to the Aircraft Interiors Expo’s Media Centre Team
Submit your press release to the Aircraft Interiors Expo’s Media Centre Team by Wednesday 21st March 2012. Media Centre contact carol.seath@cmsstrategic.com
Each journalist who visits Aircraft Interiors Expo 2012 will be able to pick up a USB stick from the media centre – this will contain relevant press releases and hi-resolution images that have been submitted by exhibitors by Wednesday 21st March.
Please note that the Aircraft Interiors Expo Media Team reserves the right not to include your information on the show’s USB stick if we feel it is not newsworthy for media – and also if it does not conform to the format requirements listed above.
Any material submitted after Wednesday 21st March will be available for media to download themselves from the computers in the media centre but we cannot guarantee that it will be included on the USB sticks.
Don’t forget to upload your Aircraft Interiors Expo press release onto the news section of your company’s website – just before the show opens if it is an embargoed release – or earlier if the timing is not a sensitive issue.
Using your exhibitor portal login details you can also submit press releases onto the Aircraft Interiors Expo website – please note that these will NOT be automatically submitted to the Media Centre Team for inclusion on the USB stick though.
If you need any further help please contact Victoria or Carol at CMS Strategic
Tel +44 (0) 208 748 9797
Email: victoria.bailey@cmsstrategic.com
Email: carol.seath@cmsstrategic.com