vestment for the campaign. Nevertheless, he or she must never for-
get that establishing and maximizing relationships with the media
implies considerate and continuing interaction with people.Per-
sonal and peer recognition, whether it is a professional letter or a
birthday card, is priceless.
Public Relations Opportunities
The value and practice of effective public relations in marketing
corporate events has been discussed extensively throughout this
text. The principles do not change substantially among the pro-
motional strategies for corporate, association, labor, social, or com-
munity events. The key point is that the value of public relations
is based on what people say about your corporation,rather than
what the corporation says about itself.The gain in credibility
among the customer universe is obvious. The financial value of ef-
fective public relations is equally important. The Public Relations
Society of America, the largest organization of public relations
professionals in the United States, estimates that the positive fi-
nancial impact of editorial coverage of an event is three times that
of an advertisement by the sponsoring company.
Like its association event counterparts, the corporate public re-
lations strategies should employ quantitative and qualitative re-
search, focus groups, interviews, attitude surveys, and lifestyle/de-
mographic analysis in planning and implementing the campaign.
Cause-Related Events
As a public relations tool, these events have become a staple in
positioning corporations as community-oriented entities, sensitive
to their role in assisting efforts to promote the common cause.
Whether employed as an ancillary feature of a corporate sales
meeting or product introduction event, or as a stand-alone pro-
duction, corporate sponsorship of an activity designed to call at-
tention to a public need helps to establish the sponsoring com-
pany as a sensitive contributor within the country or the
community. Raising money for a charity or an educational foun-
dation for a target market association positions that corporation
Cause-Related Events 147