From the Editor’s Desk: July 2021 Press Release Highlights

In July 2021, PR Newswire’s overall press release volume showed a 27% year-on-year increase. Riding on the buzz over the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which was held from 23 July to 8 August, official partners of the games like Alibaba Group tapped on this opportunity to expand their global brand mileage by associating their products and services with the international sporting event.

Besides the Olympics, other main press release topics are AI, Carbon Neutrality & ESG, Trade Show News and Travel.

1. Olympics: A couple of brands, which are official Olympic partners and sponsors, made announcements on brand marketing collaborations during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Examples include P&G, Official Worldwide Sponsor of Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Teams Up with Lazada for Regional Campaign #GoForGold. The online shopping campaign features a short film, “Your Goodness is Your Greatness”, which celebrates athletes who show their dedication to sports and aims to encourage people to keep their spirits up, to go for gold and reach for their dreams, even when the going gets tough.

Alibaba Group, the Worldwide TOP Partner of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has unveiled the Alibaba Cloud Pin, a cloud-based digital pin, for the broadcasting and media professionals at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The pin enabled media professionals to engage with each other and exchange social media contact information in a safe and interactive manner during the games.

Chinese Sportswear Brand Anta Released Olympic Award Uniform of China with High Sportswear Technology, from specially designed shoes to the unique waist support system of the weightlifting competition suit.

2. AI: July saw a minor increase of 3% in AI-related press releases volume, compared to June. (Examples: CICC Publishes Thematic Research on How AI Empowers Achievement of Carbon Neutrality; Infosys launched a series of solutions and suites to help companies build Live Enterprise, accelerate digital transformation).

Nathan Brown, PR Newswire’s Senior Editor, shares three tips on how to write better tech releases.

• You don’t need to put the background information of the industry up front. It defeats the purpose of the press release if readers who are probably already familiar with the industry have to filter through unnecessary information. Focus on your news, not the industry at large. If a backgrounder is needed, keep it short and towards the end of the release.
• Show how your news changes the industry. The tech industry is hyper-competitive. Showing how your company lead innovation in the industry gives it an edge and helps readers see you as a thought-leader, disruptor, or trend-setter.
• Multimedia is essential. Tech goes hand-in-hand with visuals, so having photos or videos is key to demonstrating how your news is relevant to an industry geared towards user-interaction.

3. Carbon Neutrality & ESG: This emerging topic also saw a slight month-on-month increase of 2%. (Examples: Johnson Controls Helps Customers in Asia Pacific Meet Decarbonization and Sustainability Goals; GWM Plans to Invest RMB 100 billion in R&D Targeting New Energy and Intelligent Fields in the Coming Five Years).

4. Trade Show News: Press release volume saw a 23% dip compared to June. Trending trade shows in the region included World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2021 in Shanghai and CommunicAsia 2021, an infocomm media and technology event in Singapore. (Example: Meituan Unveils Self-Developed Drone Model, Plans for Drone Logistics Network at 2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference; Gitple will participate in the largest information and communication exhibition in Southeast Asia and introduce its chatbot and chat services which are gaining popularity in Korea).

 5. Travel: July saw a big drop of 31% compared with June due to the evolving pandemic situation in APAC, with a resurgence of cases in countries like mainland China and Vietnam. (Examples: Fairfield by Marriott Celebrates its Brand Debut in Vietnam with the opening of Fairfield by Marriott South Binh Duong; Agoda backs Thai tourism ‘Phuket Sandbox’ campaign).

READ MORE: From the Editor’s Desk: June 2021 Press Release Highlights

Note-worthy Press Releases in July

• Casio’s release combined the excitement of launching a new product with the iconic PAC-MAN arcade game to generate interest through nostalgia. With ample details and multiple multimedia assets for journalists and bloggers to choose from, the release was picked up directly by 134 news sites, and the news was reported by tech media outlets such as HYPEBEAST, engadget, and TimeOut.

• High-tech yeast company Angel Yeast’s announcement of its new purpose-built yeast and biotechnology R&D centre in Hubei provided the main points of the news, including the facility’s key features and how they would help the company to drive innovation. The release was posted directly to 192 news sites. The quotes, details, and multimedia assets in the release also enabled journalists to report the news on Food Business News, FoodBev Media and Food & Drink International.

• The SenseTime release on the opening SenseTime International AI Innovation Hub in Singapore provided key content elements to help guide readers through this development. They include multimedia assets, quotes from relevant individuals that provide further insight into the news, and sub-headings to guide readers to the key information in this release. It was picked up by hundreds of sites throughout Southeast Asia. The quotes, details, and multimedia were featured in reports by FutureIoT, Business Times, and iTNews Asia.