Minicams and your charity run/walk/ride

More on events from me today. I have a  speaking gig about charity event PR coming up, so I need to hash things out – blogs are good for that.

If you handle PR for charity walks, runs or rides you really need video to be part of the media relations process.

Why? Your event is full of emotional moments that drive people to donate and get behind your cause. People participate in charity walks/runs/rides because, among a myriad of other reasons, they may have lost loved ones to a disease, have suffered from it themselves, or are just nice folks who care. All of these reasons can be tailored to pique media interest. The all in one powers of site, sound and motion that video provides can turn initial interest into favourable coverage outcomes.

In short, video helps you tell a story. Why deny yourself the chance to do that – especially when a Flip cam costs $200-300 bucks.

The zeitgeist is with you dear friend. Here is why:

• Youtube and the internet have taught us that video need not be perfect. In fact what once was “shitty, shaky” material is now called “authentic.”
• Old media’s capacity to produce content is waning. However, they still need to feed the beast. Now that they don’t have a zillion cameras, reporters and cameramen to chase down every cat stuck in a tree, they need your help telling stories. Why not serve up video on a platter?
• New media tends to have little to no content producing capacity. That blogger you so desperately want to cover you – she doesn’t have the time, equipment or desire to come film your event. But if you send her a Youtube link she’ll run your video.
• In an era of “do it fast” real time communication, Flip videos can be produced and delivered with speed. In my firm, our events often begin at 8 am, by 10 am journalists have received a press release (a quasi SMR) that has embedded video from that morning’s activities.

“But I am not Roman Polanski,” you say, “I have never made a movie.” No you aren’t Polanski (which is a damn good thing in more ways than one). FBut Flip video is easy to produce.There are a tonne of great resources on line and my friends at Ragan do webinars on Flip all the time (sometimes I even speak at these)

Nonetheless, here are a few very simple tips:

• Plan the elements of your video (i.e. storyboard them) before the main event
• Practice various camera shots, with and without a stabilizer (tripod)
• I work with iMovie – it is super simple. You can learn it in a few hours.
• If, before the main event you never uploaded a video to Youtube, do so.

Pretty obvious stuff right? More obvious is the fact that though your video may not run on the evening news or be embedded in a blog, it helps you tell a story to target media. Why in the world would you deny yourself that ability when trying to get coverage for an event as visually and emotionally appealing as your charity run/walk/ride?