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The Travesty of Event Invitations

  • January 20, 2017
  • naina
If you tell me why you want me, I’m in a better position to deliver exactly what you want from me.

A number of brands want me to “attend” their product launch events but very few are able to articulate why they want me there. When, on email, I ask them why they want me there, most of them perceive this as me being arrogant. I’m trying to determine what value the brand thinks I will add to their launch event. Because they clearly haven’t thought this through.

The days of inviting the “media” to a launch event to wine and dine them and to show them a “Bollywood Celebrity” up-close, are over. Regardless of how many launch events continue to employ this method of Public Relations, they’re flogging a dead horse, and they don’t know it.

The rise of smart, authentic, engaged consumers is a tide that isn’t subsiding any time soon. People like me, who pointedly ask, “But why?”, are currently in the minority, but our questions are getting more frequent and louder. Others are noticing that brands respond differently to us. Engage with us more professionally. These “others” are currently curious, but will soon start to emulate. ( Prior to that, they have to determine why they themselves do what they do. Without knowing their own motivations and agenda, it would be arrogant to expect brands and PR to answer the “But why?” )

Build a relationship by scheduling a business meeting if you believe I’m that important to your brand’s success.

“Oh, we only wanted to invite you as a guest because you’ve been so supportive of our brand in the past.” This is bullshit. Most who respond with this are people I’ve never worked with, never spoken with, never even exchanged email with – not even a generic press release. Not that I’m encouraging you to send me a generic press release. I will politely request you to remove from your mailing list twice, after which, if you continue to send emails, I will mark you as spam.

I get it. You have the budget to spend on booking a restaurant, buying food and booze for a hundred people, employing a chauffeur service to ferry some of them, hiring artists who are entertainment for the evening. But you don’t have the budget to pay me for the work you expect from me.

Build a relationship by scheduling a business meeting if you believe I’m that important to your brand’s success. Am I at all relevant to your brand’s success? Why? If the answer is that I can do a wonderful narrative-based photo story for your brand’s launch event, it would make sense to also ear-mark a budget for hiring me to do this. It would also make sense to determine what you are going to do with the images I will produce, without which, it is just another wasteful exercise. You have all these visuals documenting the launch of your brand’s shiny new product and you don’t utilize those to further engage with your audience or my audience. That’s a travesty.

The days of inviting the “media” to a launch event to wine and dine them and to show them a “Bollywood Celebrity” up-close, are over.

It isn’t even about me per se. Anyone you invite to an event, you invite for a reason. If you’re not prepared to share that reasoning with your potential guest, something is off. That’s not a nice feeling.

A majority of “bloggers” like me ( there isn’t anyone like me in India ), will probably still show up for your event because they want to establish a relationship. Attending an event, especially in a city like Delhi, is more about being seen. If I am there, I will be seen, I might even be photographed, and the brand will be grateful that I was there and those twenty other bloggers were not.

No.

The brand doesn’t care about you. They only care about their numbers. How many of the invited guest list actually showed up, on the basis of which the PR agency can declare it was a “successful” event, on the basis of which they may continue to be retained by the client brand.

If you tell me why you want me, I’m in a better position to deliver exactly what you want from me. And tell me in advance, so that I have time to prepare for the assignment.

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  • January 20, 2017
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1 comment
  1. Maneesh says:
    January 22, 2017 at 4:01 pm

    I am so glad. finally someone said this. But unfortunately most of the PR will still don’t get it. they still have not been able to understand how to utilize Bloggers, very few are able to do.

Comments are closed.





Naina Redhu is a professional photographer & visual artist.

Her career, spanning 16 years, started with an MBA in IT & Systems, to a job as an Innovation Management Consultant, to branding & graphic design work for international clients, to a full-time solo-entrepreneurship as an Experience Collector.

Naina started her blog 16 years ago and it has evolved from writing about Creativity & Innovation, to sharing case studies about Branding & Graphic Design to finally a destination for some of the leading Luxury & Lifestyle brands as Naina writes features for these brands and photographs them.

Having traveled all over India as a child ( the advantage of having a father serving in the Indian Army ), she is also well-traveled across Europe ( Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Italy and France ), Asia ( Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam ), America ( New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco ), and Canada.

Naina has her own podcast called The Naina Redhu Experience, where she talks about the business and professional aspects of photography, blogging and influencer marketing in India.

Her abstract art, under the KhaosPhilos label can be shopped on the Naina.co online store and she is available for bespoke commissions as well.

"The New Rules of Online Brand Building", Naina's on-ground workshop, recently wrapped up its 7th Edition. Launched in 2018, "Workshops By Naina" is going to be seeing more editions across the country & online.

Naina is also available for hire as a Speaker. She has been invited as a Keynote Speaker at a blogging conference and also speaks about the business of photography in India.

Always learning & evolving online, she has presence across several online spaces including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, TikTok and her podcast can be found on all podcast channels and apps.

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