On opening morning, a trade press reporter walks into the press room and asks an organizer's staff: "How many exhibitors this year, how many countries are taking part, who is the keynote speaker?" If each question needs a call to a different person, the article will come out late and often with wrong numbers. If there is a single sheet that answers all three, the article will run on the right day with the right figures.
What is an exhibition media kit
Booth sales training material for exhibition management describes a media kit as a document set with basic information about the event, used both for promotion and for detail. This set, together with the booth invitation package, should be professionally designed and exist in both print and electronic versions.
The electronic version should be posted on the event website so exhibitors and interested parties, including public relations firms in the industry, can download it at any time. Many exhibitions also set aside a press room on site, where the media kit is always available.
A media kit is more than a stack of flyers sent to journalists. It is the single source of information that lets everyone talk about the exhibition with the same figures.
The four required parts
According to the same material, a media kit has four main groups of content.
- The visitor profile, such as job titles, company types and geographic areas.
- The event's statistics, such as the number of exhibitors, the floor area and the number of participating countries.
- News and information journalists need to write with.
- Sponsorship and advertising opportunities, which may include prices, technical specifications and deadlines.
The fourth part has an important note. It advises putting detailed sponsorship content in the Exhibitor Prospectus, a longer and fuller document, and keeping the media kit at the overview level. The article on the Exhibitor Prospectus explains this difference.
Audited data makes the media kit stronger
One thing that creates a difference is bringing data from outside sources into the set. Industry materials observe that information supplied by a third party increases the strength and credibility of both the exhibition and the sales team. If the exhibition has had a visitor audit, put the result here.
If you have no audit yet, don't leave the figures section empty. State the source and method clearly: the number of registered visitors, the number who actually scanned a badge, which edition. A figure with a note on how it was counted is more credible than a nice figure with an unknown origin.
How a media kit differs from the booth invitation package
These two documents are often confused. The booth invitation package aims to sell booths to the marketing director or other decision-maker at a company. It must contain everything to help them decide: benefits, price, position, time milestones. The media kit aims at press and media partners, so it emphasizes the information needed to tell the story of the event.
One thing to do: make the two documents match on every figure. If the booth invitation package says 300 exhibitors and the media kit says 280, journalists will ask which number is right.
Helping exhibitors work with the press
Exhibitors wanting to promote a new product usually need the press. The booth sales material lists the tools in an integrated marketing program so exhibitors can reach that goal: advertising in the product preview sent to visitors before the exhibition, banners on the organizer's website, advertising in the show daily distributed on site, and renting the press list before the exhibition date.
The organizer can suggest these options when talking to exhibitors, as part of a brand-building sponsorship package. The article on brand-building sponsorship at exhibitions presents how to combine these items.
Rules for communicating figures to the press
A small rule in operations materials: information on visitor numbers for the public and press should be reviewed and confirmed only by designated staff. Don't let registration staff answer on their own when a journalist asks. A simple approach is to have one spokesperson and a figures sheet updated each morning, kept in the press room.
Start with a single sheet of paper
If the exhibition has no media kit yet, don't wait for a beautiful design. One page with the four parts above, every figure checked twice, is enough for a journalist to write the right story. When you have time, build the full version with images and charts.
If you need someone to help draft the document set for your coming exhibition, you can contact us through the quote page.
Journalists remember the organizer who gave them the right numbers, and that is why they come back the next year.