I Need PR For My Gallery Show Which Opens – Next Week

I received a call from an artist the other day who wanted to discuss launching a public relations campaign for her upcoming gallery show.

“Great,” said I, “when is it?”

“In a week,” she said cheerily. “Someone in the entertainment industry told me that if I brought on a public relations firm a week before the show that would drive people and the media to the opening.”

“A week?” I asked wearily.

“That’s what she told me,” the artist replied. “The person who told me this knows the entertainment field very well. She knows what she’s talking about.”

“A week?” I repeated.

“Yep,” she said, that cheery lilt still in her voice.

“She told you to contact a PR firm a week before your event?” I asked again, sounding like a stuck needle on an LP.

“You keep asking the same question,” she replied. “Why? Is there some problem?”

To answer her question in a word – YES!

If you contact a PR firm one week before a show, or a gallery opening, or any type of event, there is a definite problem. A film premiere with name celebrates, could maybe get away with a week’s notice, but even that would be a very poor PR approach.

Ideally you want to start a campaign at least eight weeks before any type of event, show, or opening. You want to give your PR company time to contact the media, give the press notice, and give the calendar sections ample time to publish your information.

And, speaking of calendars, if you’re hoping to have your event listed in any of the long lead, monthly publications, you need to get information to them three months in advance.

If you’re a new artist, not known to the media, or the general public, you want to give your PR representative enough time to introduce you and your work to the press. The general rule of thumb in sales and in pitching the media is that it takes five nos to get to one yes, so you need to allow enough time for not only the initial media outreach but for several follow up calls and emails.

You can seldom start too early, but you can definitely start too late.

But – and this is a big but, so to speak – if you do end up in a position where you have an event launching in one week and have not yet started your PR outreach, start it ASAP. But look at your objectives differently. View your show as the engine that initially pulls the train, but have your overall objective be to promote and establish you and your work. You still have some time to do some pre show promotion, so do as much of that as you can. Then make sure to take still photos and video at the event, which will allow you to follow up with post show media outreach. In this scenario, because of the limited timeframe your sole objective is not to drive people to the show, but to use the show as a way to generate both pre and post show media coverage. That can work.

So think ahead.

Give yourself more than enough time to promote a show, performance or opening, but if for some reason you find yourself days away and still haven’t launched a media relations campaign, modify your game plane and launch –

Now!