media material
Length: 2000 words.
You will lodge this assignment on EASE or in hard copy – do not send by email. Please refer to Essential information for further details.
- Read the Horse 360 Campaign Plan.
- Read the following.
- Read the MARKING CRITERIA.
You are to prepare a suite of materials for the Australian launch of the product, to which you will invite a range of media (newspaper, television, radio, web). This launch will be held at Equitana, a big equestrian tradeshow held in Melbourne or Sydney in November.
Because Animal 360 is a small and new company and does not have a news factor, you should suggest ONE special guest who can help launch the product and attract media attendance. The key feature of this guest is that he or she can help you attract media that is read or consumed by the target public that you have selected in Australia.
Remember that the launch of the app and the company Animal 360 are not news – but this launch and your writing needs to make it news.
Any launch is simply an attempt to:
- Gain media coverage – media are your key stakeholders for this event.
- Provide an event that allows you to talk in other media (e.g. social media, newsletters to the clients on the database) about something new, in this case the official launch of the app. The launch is not for the general public to attend.
You have some scope to be creative here, but make sure you don’t go overboard with the adjectives – it must still be easy and compelling to read.
You are to prepare:
- A list of media that will be key to reaching Australia horse owners or lovers.
- Read this carefully – the media must be relevant to the target public that you have selected and should include at least two influential horse bloggers.
- If you suggest general media, such as The Australian or a capital city newspaper or radio station, you MUST have found a journalist who would be interested in the story, name this person and tell why he or she is on the list. There are at least 10 horse sport magazines in Australia and even more racing magazines. The list needs to be comprehensive and not confined to the purely horsey publications. You need to be thinking about where else horse people get information. See the Margaret Gee’s Guide in the Library databases AND do a web search.
- a media alert/advisory that invites local and other relevant media to the launch – this invitation IS NOT written for the general public. It is a MEDIA alert and will be sent ONLY TO MEDIA.
- I repeat that – it will be sent only to media – your job is to sell the idea to the chief of staff of sending a journalist who can get a range of photo and video opportunities for the outlet and its website. This journalist will lose perhaps two hours out of their day, so you need to make this worthwhile!
- Pay particular attention to the style of dates, times and locations in this piece. Use the examples in the course materials rather than the American text book for this assignment.
- a media release about the Horse 360 app and its launch. This is not a media release about the launch function or the company, as it will be given out AT the launch. It must therefore report on the launch as if it has happened. The only mention of the launch will be that the app “was launched yesterday”. It will be aimed first at chiefs of staff, and if it gets past them, it will be aimed at horse owners and lovers.
- a feature story using whatever you like as a topic, but it must relate to horses and health/welfare of horses. The feature will not push the company or the app, but may make an oblique reference to it – this is a reputation building article, not a sales tool. It will also be aimed at horse owners and lovers. READ FEATURES IN HARD COPY MAGAZINES BEFORE YOU TACKLE THIS SECTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT.
You must provide a list of the media (mainstream and social) that you would invite to the launch. You must look carefully at the media outlets to ensure their readership matches the target audiences of the campaign, so consider all horse magazines listed in the Margaret Gee’s Media Guide that is available through the USQ Library catalogue AND do a web search. A good web research will make sure you capture all of the media. Make sure you identify at least two influential bloggers in horses, riding or horse health.
Remember that the purpose of getting media to the launch is to spread the word about the app via mainstream media and make it so interesting that each of the journalists attending the launch will drive people to the app or the Horse 360 website. Ensure that you provide links in your materials to make this easy. You re trying to get the journalists excited about the app so they will go back to the office and submit a story. A launch is the staging of an event to allow the story to be more newsworthy.
Use the campaign document and the Horse 360 website to get current information and also some ideas for the feature article.
The items must be structured according to the guidelines that your materials and Marsh, Guth and Short provide, and should demonstrate a strong sense of news value.
For those of you unfamiliar with the horse world, the Equitana website is a good place to start. The headline acts might make a good media guest, and there are many media listed as media partners to get you started: http://www.equitana.com.au/
The materials must be lodged in ONE word document file. You MUST include a cover sheet and this can be part of your word document OR generated from USQ and submitted with your assignment as a separate document.
Please remember that cutting and pasting from a website into an assignment is considered plagiarism and will be seriously penalised.
