DSE PR: Announce Now, Not Next Week

February 19, 2013 by Dave Haynes

If form holds, there will be all kinds of product and deal announcements timed next week to coincide with the Digital Signage Expo trade show. All those announcements are aimed at people like me who do what amounts to coverage of the sector.

That’s exactly the wrong time to make announcements, and here’s why: I’m too busy to even read them all, never mind convert them into blog posts.

And the targeted reader audience is too busy at the show, at client breakfasts and dinners, and late night cocktails, to read anywhere near as much as they normally do.

So the logical notion of releasing big news timed with the show is actually illogical. It’s arguably the worst timing, as well, because so many companies are flapping their arms trying to get noticed in press, in signage, in parties and whatever other tactics they can devise.

If you want to make noise about a cool new product or service you will be showing at DSE, do it now! While people have time to read your news and absorb it. When they are still in planning mode for their trip and sorting out what and who they want to see on the trade show floor. Before people are buried next week covering for people who are at DSE while they stay back at the office, happily or unhappily.

If you are issuing news just because, then fine. Wait. Tick that box.

If you are issuing press releases to drive awareness and booth traffic, think about how and when your target audience — press and readers — will consume that stuff. I have time this week (well, not really, but …). I definitely have little to none next week, so if you are assuming your big news next week will find its way into this blog, it better be BIG news.

It’s the same for the other folks who cover this stuff, and pretty much for the people who read it.