Museums at Night 2010 - Making the most of the media toolkit
Content:
1. Overview
2. Culture24 contacts
3. Outline of campaign
4. Your event listing in Culture24 is crucial
5. General media tips
6. Features
7. Listings, press releases and tips on making them a success
8. Making the most of pictures
9. Photocall or broadcasting opportunities
10. Standard paragraph and notes to editors
11. Social media
1. Overview
Museums at Night is a national campaign for late night opening which captures people’s imaginations and encourages audiences to do something different with their evening.
The campaign is an opportunity for the sector to come together around a single, simple campaign that is clear and attractive to both audiences and the media.
The success of Museums at Night relies on all participants contributing to the overall campaign, helping us to achieve greater awareness across the media. This PR toolkit has been designed to help you get the most out of Museums at Night 2010.
2. Culture24 contacts
Culture24 organises Museums at Night with a small central team:
Ruth Cobb is leading the project and is responsible for the national marketing and PR campaign. She can be contacted at ruth@mosaicmc.co.uk or 01273 623269. Once you have decided on your event, please contact her to ensure your event is included in possible highlights, features or other national media opportunities.
Rosie Clarke is the central co-ordinator for the campaign and is the first point of call for further information, queries about putting on events and details of how to list them on the Culture24 database. Contact her on rosie@culture24.org.uk or 01273 623336.
Richard Moss is Culture24’s editor. Send your press releases to richard@culture24.org.uk for possible coverage on the main website. The editorial team phone number is 01273 623278.
3. Outline of campaign
Museums at Night was a great success in 2009, thanks in no small part to the creativity and enthusiasm of the sector. The PR campaign depends directly on the participating museums and events, so the more events we have, the better the coverage we can get.
The PR campaign will work across offline media (magazines, guides, newspapers) and online media (websites, blogs, events/listings data sharing).
Although Culture24 will be organising a national PR campaign, we know that you will have stronger links with your local press, so it is crucial that we work together to ensure we maximise coverage. Once you have planned an event, please make sure you let us know the details, upload it to the Culture24 DDE system (see below) and send us your press releases. In turn we will keep you updated with any media requests we get and other promotional opportunities as they arise.
Culture24 will be publishing news stories throughout the build up and launch of Museums at Night. We will produce a range of themed highlights (such as family, spooky, romantic, musical events etc) - again, these will depend on the events themselves. We will also produce regional and city roundups and listings.
During the Museums at Night weekend we will send journalists to cover events around the country and film public responses to the evening.
Further information on this year’s marketing plan can be found at www.culture24.org.uk/museumsatnight
4. Your event listing in Culture24 is crucial
As the PR campaign is based on the events themselves it is crucial that you upload your event details as soon as possible onto the Culture24 DDE system. This is the listing that will appear in the media, so make sure it sounds exciting and does your event justice! If you need any help with this, contact rosie@culture24.org.uk.
Once your event is listed it will automatically appear on our Museums at Night Google map, be fed into our listings system and appear on any site we share our data with (tourist sites etc). We will compile listings to send to national, regional and local media, and your events on Culture24 will form the basis of this.
5. General media tips
Here are some general media tips. Even if you are an experienced media/PR professional, we hope you will find them helpful. You may have some of your own to add: please email rosie@culture24.org.uk with any suggestions!
- Ensure you have the correct contact names and up-to-date email addresses for all local press contacts - this is best done by telephone. You could also use a press directory such as Editors, or look the publication up on the internet.
- Most journalists now prefer emailed information. Make sure you follow correct email etiquette and blind copy (BCC) your list of contacts: it’s against the Data Protection Act to circulate lists of email addresses.
- If you are sending your press release by post, make sure that it is addressed to the appropriate contact name and not just to "news editor". It should be well-presented, clean and easy to read.
- Make sure you don’t email your press release with big attachments – even logos on press releases can increase the size of your email (see also Pictures later in this toolkit).
- Be persistent. Don't take no for an answer from the media - try again with a different angle. However, be careful not to pester journalists as they are notoriously busy people!
- Remember to check deadlines for information: some publications will need the information more than five weeks in advance (see Features) - some just two or three days ahead.
- Try to tailor your press information to suit particular journalists. For example, if you are targeting the parenting press, choose events which would interest a family.
- Think topical - could you hook your story to anything else going on in your area, such as an event, personality or anniversary?
- Use your own website, Culture24, and any other regional information networks such as the tourist board.
- Think pictures – for local and regional papers these should contain strong contrasts and not too many people. Moving pictures work for TV (see below).
- Be efficient – make sure someone is available on the telephone number you give for further information, and respond to media requests as quickly as possible. They are more likely to approach you in the future if you are helpful and sensitive to their deadlines.
- Be brave – Museums at Night is about trying out new things!
6. Features
- Museums at Night offers the ideal opportunity to appeal to new visitors through a dedicated feature in a specialist magazine or local newspaper.
- Have a brainstorm with your colleagues to consider ideas for features. For example, you could propose one about a gallery representative picking their favourite pieces in the collection.
- Remember, features require longer lead times than news stories. Allow enough time for the journalist to research and write the feature.
- Have a look at the publication you want to target to see what type of features they might be interested in running, and tailor your pitch accordingly.
- Ensure that you have a strong hook – whether it be a celebrity visit, anniversary, night time exhibition opening or an object on display for the first time.
- Another possibility is running a competition with a publication – the prize could be entry tickets, a meal in the gallery café or items from the shop.
- It sometimes helps to offer a feature exclusively to a particular publication – some journalists may be more enthusiastic about running a story if theirs will be the only publication to feature it.
- Look in your local paper for profile-raising opportunities for representatives from your venue – these could range from an in-depth interview to brief profile slots or Q and As. Always make sure the journalist links the interview with your event and with Museums at Night.
7. Listings, press releases and tips on making them a success
Ensuring all relevant publications have details of your events is an effective way of gaining press coverage in the correct places. We will be liaising directly with the Press Association, who compile most of the national listings, but it helps if you contact them as well. Email events@pressassociation.com.
Also make sure the information is sent to local events magazines and websites, tourist information providers, local newspapers and radio. We will be sharing all of the listings via the DDE system to online sources and to regional media – so this is just to ensure that your event is covered.
Tips for making your listings release a success:
- Ensure the listings release is sent to the Listings Editor or the person who looks after the "What’s On" pages.
- Listings releases should be short, but make sure your release mentions Museums at Night and also includes key information i.e. what, where, when and why.
- Indicate in the release that images are available (where relevant) with clear contact details of how to obtain them (see below for more information on images).
- Visitor information should be included, either in the body of the release or in a "notes to editors" section at the end of the release. This should include details such as opening times, ticket prices and a general information number.
- Include your contact details at the end of the press release (telephone number and email address) so that interested journalists can get in touch with you easily.
8. Pictures
- Some editorial departments do not accept email attachments, so copy your press release into main body of the message. Mention at the end that there are images available (you could specify what they are).
- You may also be able to make thumbnails of best images and include them in your email copy.
- Some newsdesks will ask you to send pictures directly to the picture editor at a different email address.
- Most listings pages will highlight one or two events - usually the one with the best image.
- Images for standard newsprint should be at least 300 dpi, A5 (portrait or landscape) and in colour. Magazines may request higher resolution images.
- Do not send lots of large files in one email. As a general rule, attachments should not be more than 3MB. A solution is to reduce the file size of your image or to email a selection to the journalist one by one. You could also offer to send a disc, if you can get this to them quickly.
- Include people and children in pictures, if possible and relevant, to make the image more interesting – but make sure the images are good quality and professional-looking. If you are sending images of objects, make sure they are clear and, wherever possible, photographed against a neutral background so that they can be easily used as "cut outs".
- All photographs should be captioned – emailed photographs may need a separate, longer caption with a short title and reference number embedded with the picture. Include title, gallery/museum name, name of photographer and date and any copyright restrictions.
- Don’t forget to send pictures of your events to Culture24 so that we can use them on our website, and for national media.
9. Photocall or broadcasting opportunities
Tell the editors exactly what they can expect from the photocall; if it’s for television it should be “a happening” and you should be able to provide someone for interview. Last year we had a number of local news programmes wanting to film at an event – however, in many cases the event needed to be "staged" a few days earlier in order to be slotted into a particular strand, or filming needed to happen before the start of the main event, in order for them to film "live" and cut it into the early evening news programme.
Please let us know if you are holding this kind of event, as we may also want to send a journalist to cover it. Please send us any photographs/film so that we can put them on the Culture24 site as well.
10. Standard paragraph/notes to editors
In all press information drafted, please use the following copy for your "notes to editors" section. This ensures consistency of message and gives journalists the correct generic information about Museums at Night.
Notes to Editors: Museums at Night 2010
1. Museums at Night 2010 is funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and organised by Culture24.
2. Museums at Night will take place during the weekend of Friday-Sunday 14-16 May and the Europe-wide celebration will be on Saturday May 15.
3. Culture24 is a registered charity and not-for-profit online publisher working across the arts, heritage, education, and tourism sectors.
4. The MLA is the government agency for museums, libraries and archives. Leading strategically, the MLA promotes best practice to inspire innovative, integrated and sustainable services for all.
5. VisitEngland is the strategic leadership body representing the public and private sector stakeholders of English Tourism. It works in partnership with VisitBritain, the RDAs and local authorities and the private sector, creating a national tourism strategy, optimising marketing investment and developing the visitor experience across England. VisitEngland uses Enjoy England as its consumer-facing brand in the domestic market and the VisitBritain brand in international markets.
6. La Nuit des Musées was introduced by the French Culture Department in 2005 to succeed Printemps des Musées, and takes place on the Saturday nearest to International Museums Day (May 18). This event is supported by the Council of Europe and UNESCO. In 2009, more than 2,500 museums in 41 European countries took part.
11. Social Media
The 2009 campaign made extensive use of all the popular social media spaces, including Flickr and Twitter. We will be building on this activity and increasing the social media activity for Museums at Night 2010. We hope to begin to build a community of people who will engage significantly in the campaign.
In 2009 the Twitter activity attracted support from key influencers with large followings including Eddie Izzard, Jonathan Ross, Jack Schofield and India Knight. If you are using Twitter, please follow the Culture24 Twitter feed and direct message us. If appropriate, we will re-tweet your messages. We are hoping to build up an "army" of Twitterers before the event who will tweet about where they’re going and report about it on the night.
In 2009 we ran a Flickr competition which encouraged audience participation by asking visitors to upload their photographs to a Museums at Night group, resulting in a unique archive of the evening. We intend to run this again and would urge all participating venues to encourage their visitors to take part through the Museums at Night 2010 Flickr group.
We have also created a Facebook group, a behind-the-scenes blog, and we'll be using other appropriate channels as they emerge. Please let us know if you are using any of these spaces, and link to us where relevant.
For more information on social media, contact rosie@culture24.org.uk.
If you want to talk about your PR for your event, please contact Pandora George pandora@bulletpr.co.uk.
Good luck with your event and we hope you have a successful Museums at Night experience.
