You’ve logged long days and nights to produce a festival that your attendees will look forward to, but first, you have to grab their attention. One way to differentiate yourself from other festivals is to create a detailed media kit that sells your festival for you.Â
Creating a media kit makes it easy for press and media outlets to highlight your event. It will serve as an online resource to point media contacts to, as well as add legitimacy to your festival. Add a “Media/Press Kit” page to your site navigation for storage of its elements and make it easily digestible by viewers.Â
Think of a media kit as comparable to the ticket purchase process – you want to remove any obstacles to ease the goal of ticket sales. Except, in this case, bloggers, reporters, and other active community members are your target market, and the conversion you’re seeking is generated publicity.
Now, let’s go over the must-haves for a successful festival media kit:
About
Framing your story is essential. Include a two to four sentence description of your festival. Consider including who your founders are, when and how it began, where your event is based, how it’s grown, how it’s served your community, etc.
Highlights
Include interesting information about your festival. How many breweries, restaurants, wineries, or vendors are represented at your event? How many attendees did you have in previous years? Are there special attractions going on within your event?
Media Assets
Include your logo and wordmark in two file types: .eps (vector-based file, handy for designers) and .png (pixel-based file, handy for everyone else). In addition, include high-resolution photos and videos of your festival from previous years.
Past Press
Provide reporters with examples of how your event has been discussed and framed in the past. Link off to articles, blog posts, press releases, interviews, or other online features.
Internal Contact
Provide the phone number and email address of the person handling press and media inquiries for easy contact.
Sponsors and Partners
Highlight who your partners and sponsors are by displaying their logos on your press page. Reporters may choose to include this in an article.
Sponsorship Opportunities
Include any information regarding sponsorship opportunities if needed.
Media Passes
Outline requirements and processes for granting press and media passes to your festival.
If you do not currently have all of the above elements for your media kit – don’t fret! Compile what you do have, and keep a list of what you’ll need to develop for next year.