Communications Professionals Learn How to be a Better Brand Storyteller

PR Newswire held its first media coffee event in Malaysia on June 6, 2014 with the topic "Brand Storytelling: how to maximize the impact of your press releases".

HONG KONG, June 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The competition to get noticed by the press is fiercer than ever.

What can brand storytellers leverage to better communicate with the media? At PR Newswire Media Coffee in Kuala Lumpur, three expert speakers from the media industry shared their insights and views on how to maximize a brand's visibility in today's changing media landscape. The event attracted an eclectic mix of communicators from companies such as agency Hill & Knowlton, 123RF and Royal Selangor that became highly engaged with the event. An archived video of the event is available here upon registration.

Top Right: (Left to right) Speakers: Helen Zhang, Senior Manager, Audience Development of PR Newswire in Asia, Joshua Cohen, Vice President of Content Licensing & Distribution of PR Newswire based in New York and Freda Liu, Certified Professional Coach, a producer and presenter, BFM 89.9. Top Left: Q&A session, one participant asked how to make content interesting enough to get the attention of the press. Bottom Left: Participants of the event engaged with Joshua sharing how to write a better press release.

"We are delighted to have successfully organized the first media coffee event in Malaysia with BFM 89.9's support," says Helen Zhang, Senior Manager, Audience Development of PR Newswire in Asia. "Since the opening of PR Newswire's operation in Malaysia in early 2013, our Kuala Lumpur office has not only expanded our distribution network in Malaysia, but has also been supporting more than 60 clients. We are looking forward to working with more media partners and clients in Malaysia."

Press Releases Still Matter

Joshua Cohen, Vice President, Content Licensing & Distribution of PR Newswire, based in New York, opened the event on how mobile driven the world is today and shared how to optimize press releases with SEO tips in order to capture more readers. Tips included the following:

• Link strategically. Link only to provide more information for journalists and potential customers.
• Set up the story and put the most important information in the first paragraph.
• Embed a call-to-action towards the top of the press release, ideally in the first paragraph of the press release.
• Headline matters. Write a headline that grabs readers' attention and also a perfect tweet, ideally between 80-130 characters. (Use a subheading to add more detail.)
• Break up the text with bullet points and bold to make news easy to read and digest.

Amplifying = Storytelling + Distribution

With 68% of journalists checking newswire at least once a day*, the media is constantly looking for newsworthy information and story ideas. The second speaker, Helen Zhang, Senior Manager, Audience Development of PR Newswire in Asia, discussed ways to amplify branded content, including the following:

• Almost half of internet users are based in APAC. It's essential to understand targeted audiences in greater depth. Communicators can turn to white papers such as PR Newswire's Asian Media Landscape Series as a guide for navigating through print, broadcast, online, social media and search engines in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.
• Good storytelling: embed values which promote emotions and lead to engagement. PR Newswire's Beyond PR: Asia article provides three values that will resonate with an Asian audience.
• Using multimedia elements (photos, videos and logos) to increase journalists' and public engagement.
• Making content discoverable with a distribution and syndication plan to gain earned media.

Bluff Free Media

Freda Liu, Certified Professional Coach and a producer and presenter on BFM 89.9 -- the only independent business radio station in Malaysia, talked about BFM 89.9's (BFM) vision and what content a media company like them are looking for to engage their listeners. Highlights included:

• Understanding listeners and their needs. BFM conducted an online survey and 25% of their listeners represent untapped investments. BFM's target listeners are affluent and well-informed about financial and business matters.
• Accompanying radio programs with video, it's not just radio that will do all the work.
• Interacting with listeners with social networking such as Facebook and Twitter and events.
• When pitching for an interview, to angle on how it will solve a need as opposed to selling a company's product or service.
• For an interview on the radio, corporate communications and PR agencies could prepare questions and answers listed in bullet points, as it would sound more natural compared to reading scripts. It is comparatively less intimidating and notes can still be brought into the studio.

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About Media Coffee:

The goal of Media Coffee event is to enable communications professionals to hear from leading media organizations on how their respective companies work, providing insight into their specialist areas, giving advice on achieving coverage and informing them on effective targeting of journalists within their sector and how to build a mutually beneficial relationship.

About PR Newswire

PR Newswire (http://en.prnasia.com) is the premier global provider of multimedia platforms that enable marketers, corporate communicators, sustainability officers, public affairs and investor relations officers to leverage content to engage with all their key audiences. Having pioneered the commercial news distribution industry 60 years ago, PR Newswire today provides end-to-end solutions to produce, optimize and target content -- from rich media to online video to multimedia -- and then distribute content and measure results across traditional, digital, mobile and social channels. Combining the world's largest multi-channel, multi-cultural content distribution and optimization network with comprehensive workflow tools and platforms, PR Newswire enables the world's enterprises to engage opportunity everywhere it exists. PR Newswire serves tens of thousands of clients from offices in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, and is a UBM plc company.

Media Contacts:

Fern Cheng
Senior Marketing Manager, Asia-Pacific, ex-China
+852-3971-4977
fern.cheng@prnasia.com

Joanna Yip
Marketing Communications Manager
+852-3971-4989
joanna.yip@prnasia.com

*2013 Survey of PR Newswire for Journalists Members