There are key events throughout the year that everyone wants to use to get their name in the spotlight. Here in the UK, we’ve recently had one of the biggest of the year – the Spring Budget.
The Spring Budget is an opportunity for many organisations to give media commentary about issues that matter to them. With all kinds of eyes on the subject matter, it can be a fantastic opportunity to land coverage in national publications.
However, with these events being so widely covered, it can often lead to a race to get comments over the line. Every PR agency and client is fighting to have their say to a limited number of journalists, so you need to be prepared and offer worthwhile commentary at record speed.
You can decide whether you want to go early, with pre-budget comments, on the day with reactive comments, or after with reflective comments. You could do a mixture of all three – so long as you have enough to say and aren’t repeating yourselves.
PR NEWS ROOM
A common approach for big events like a budget is to undertake a PR news room, sometimes referred to as a war room. A traditional PR news room for a budget announcement would be gathering in a meeting room, watching it unfold on the TV as the teams draft and approve together. Nowadays, it’s much more common to host a news room online, with a live chat and video call listen-in. However, to make a virtual news room successful, you need clearly defined roles in managing, commenting and approving. It’s not a phone in for everyone to have their say! Structure and live chat is the best way to make these kinds of rooms successful.
PR news rooms are great if you have lots of people and lots of things to say, as you can divide and conquer to ensure the right comments get to the right journalists in a good time frame. They are quite time intensive however, so be sure to set aside a solid afternoon or more to give the event the full attention it needs.
COMMENTARY AHEAD OF TIME
Drafting and sharing comments ahead of time is a great move if you:
- Have pre approved embargoed commentary from your in-house experts. You can keep the comments as they are or include them within a press release. This can be issued to key media ahead of time as an exclusive.
- Are reiterating a previous call to action that your organisation has championed for focus in the budget or other financial commentary
- Can offer projected insights or forecasts (such as economic projections) to show what could happen in the event of certain announcements (such as tax cuts/raises)
COMMENTARY ON THE DAY
Commenting on the day allows you to respond to the most accurate and up to date information. However, you are up against the toughest media conditions and journalists will be at their busiest.
Choose commenting on the day if:
- You have a solid, swift approvals system in place to ensure comments are drafted and approved in real time with the announcement
- You have a strong stance (positive or negative) in response to the announcement and are willing to back it up
- You already have an established media presence (this helps when trying to reach journalists on a very busy day)
COMMENTARY AFTER
Commenting after the announcement gives everyone time to read and digest the information. However, the news agenda moves fast, so your reflective commentary needs to be out within a day or two ideally to take advantage of the media interest.
Choose commenting after if:
- You have a niche subject area that isn’t covered in the budget announcement but is featured in the main document
- You are able to come out with a strong response on the announcement – a bold statement here will be key to grabbing media attention.
- You want to collate some data and statistics to back up your response and make the story stronger before going to the media
Whatever approach you choose, make sure you have something to say that offers value to the media. A wishy-washy statement won’t cut it when the media agenda is bursting at the seams!
STORY has a great track record of securing superb coverage for clients in busy times such as budget announcements, regional crises and more. Find out how our team of PR punks can put your business on the map: https://www.wearestorycomms.com/get-in-touch/