Media Relations
Case Study:
Local Festival Increases Awareness – and Attendance – Through Pre-event Publicity
Once a year, Polish families in one large, metropolitan community celebrate their heritage in a day-long festival, with a parade, musical entertainment, ethnic food and a traditional mass. Since 1984, the event has commemorated the long-held traditions of Kansas City’s Polish community.
While well known within the city’s older neighborhoods, the event organizers had faced challenges in trying to attract attention from the surrounding communities. To increase the public’s awareness of the event, the festival’s planning committee turned to MJB Public Relations Group for publicity assistance.
Gaining publicity for the festival presented many challenges: a limited budget, a lack of staff resources and the media’s perceived “neighborhood” nature of the event. MJB overcame these issues and maximized the event’s exposure by attracting publicity through broader, city-wide channels: newspaper articles, on-air TV and radio interviews, and community calendars of events. MJB associates compiled an extensive media list specific to the event and developed press releases, distributed press materials and pitched story ideas to reporters and producers. We also coached spokespersons and coordinated media interviews.
The results were substantial: three newspaper articles and one news story featured on a weekend TV newscast; three on-air radio interviews and one televised interview; free promotional messages aired on six area radio stations; and 10 confirmed calendar listings in various newspapers, magazines and TV/radio Web sites. While budget limitations prevented any formal measurement of the publicity results, attendance levels were strong, with a large number of first-time visitors at the event.
