PR - The Brit Awards

Prior to the event, the awards had their first newspaper piece in The Sun, the paper produced an 8 page spread on the Brit Awards, The Sun also has the same target audience as the Brits which is why it is an effective paper to promote in as it would increase the chances of viewers and ticket sales as well as making readers more aware of the event as well as providing more information and the aim would be to persuade people to watch the show on television or to go on line and purchase tickets.

The event also offers a competition through Twitter and offers winners a chance to go back stage with access to the press areas as well as accommodation and spending money. By doing this competition a person has to be following The Brits on their Twitter page, this promotes people to follow them and keeps people aware of updates of the event.

The awards have also teamed up with Capital Fm which is a London based radio station (the awards is held in the London o2 arena) The radio station promoted the event and kept listeners up to date with information and even had a page on their website about the Brits after the event took place.

An album is also produced of the songs that were performed at the awards and artists that won this year as well as previous years. Every year the Brits produce an album, entering on the music scene which is another different section of the media for them to promote in.

When comparing it to The National Wedding Show, I feel like the Brits used more sections of the media to promote in, this could be due to the awards needing to appeal to a wider variety of people not just the public to buy tickets or to gain viewers but to the media and to sponsors.

Sponsorship - The Brit Awards

There are several reasons why events have sponsorships with companies, some of these reasons are:
- to increase sales or market share
- develop or reinforce an image
- develop product awareness

Mastercard has been the main sponsor of the Brits for 14 years now and from this offers fans of the Brits competitions with chances to win celebrities who have performed at the awards. As well as this, MasterCard has run promotions with Tesco and Oasis to enable MasterCard cardholders shopping at these retailers to win tickets for the event. All together, that means that two thirds of MasterCard's tickets will be used to give consumers an opportunity to attend The Brits.  



"The strategic development of sponsorship programmes is a way in which events can be more efficiently managed. Sponsors that are achieving their objectives, for example, are more likely to renew their association with an event and renewal is a less expensive option than replacement" G. Masterman, E. Wood (2006)

When comparing the two events in terms of sponsorships, the obvious difference is that The Brits has a sponsor whilst The National Wedding show doesn't, this is because one is a sponsor and the other is being sponsored.

Website - The Brit Awards

The website for the Brit Awards is set out quite basic and easy with non bright colours and a lot of links with pictures of celebrities on them. The Brit Awards logo is clear at the top left hand corner with the Mastercard logo with in the awards logo and by itself separate next to it. This is because Mastercard are the main sponsor of the Brits so would have paid a lot of money to have their logo put there.

The main picture is of Adele who is a award winner of the Brits, alongside this are adverts for Santander and iTunes, its also got links to their social media websites.

The website states where the event is being held, and has information on the artists performing, along side videos and photos of the event. It also has information of all the previous events throughout the years and offers links to download songs which have been performed at the event. It does not however have any information on the target audience or any PR information. This differs to the National Wedding Show because they provide that information, this is because they need to provide it for exhibitors. The Brits website also has more advertisement on its page and the wedding show is more visually appealing with pastel colours, this could be because they are trying to attract women more than men.

Media advertising - The Brit Awards

The Brit Awards this year had 47 ads and 40 featured brands (excluding radio commercials and movie trailers) only 16 used any form of music.

The first newspaper to advertise the Brits was The Sun, who published an 8 page spread of the awards. After researching the Sun's main readers, TGI reports showed me that the majority of readers who quite often read the Sun, were aged 15-24 then a close following with 25-34, this enables more publicity to their target audience in hope for more ticket sales and viewers.

TGI report

The Sun advert

As well as TV adverts and news paper adverts, the Brit awards have also used social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Bebo and Myspace. By doing this they keep people up to date on the event and competitions in a modern way.

Twitter

Another form of advertising the Brits used is radio, Capital FM promoted The Brits and even have a section on their website dedicated to the event, Capital FMs usual music play list is Top 40 music, yet again choosing the right media in order to attract their desired audience.

When comparing this to The National Wedding Show, the two events have similarities when choosing the right media to advertise in, in order to attract their desired audience, even though both audiences are completely different. However, The Brits used more forms of advertising such as producing a television advert and using more social networking sites, this could be because the event itself, is on a much larger scale and needs media advertising more, in order to promote the event.

Target Audience - The Brit Awards

With the Brit Awards you could buy tickets via a link on the website as well as through well known ticket sites like ticketmaster.co.uk. Alongside this would be invitation only invites for the celebrities and sponsors of the event.
When looking at what music the event is promoting and awarding, is how we can judge what the target audience is. As the majority of music that was nominated, and performed throughout the night was Top 40, which tells me that they were aiming at a younger audience which would be between 16- 30. There is little to no evidence provided which can tell me what the target audience.




I can however look at other aspects which could lead me to the target audience such as the adverts aired on ITV1 during the Brits. Some of the adverts include Virgin Media who talk about internet speed and connection, Carling lager and Coke Zone, from this I can then see who purchases these products.
TGI shows me that the most popular age range to drink Carling lager is between the ages of 15 - 24 then closely followed by 25-34. This shows that the ad was targeted at a younger audience.

TGI also shows me that the most popular age group that drinks Coca Cola is between the ages of 15- 24 then again closely followed by 25-34 year olds. This again shows that this is the main target they would try and attract.

When comparing this to the National Wedding Show, it is clear that the show has a more specific target audience and uses information provided to get statistics of the attendees in order to help promotion and sales for the next event. The Brit Awards however is on a much larger scale so is probably harder to quantify and less needed.

PR- The National Wedding Show

"PR has two key roles. On the one hand it supports marketing activity in the form of promotions and is indeed a key promotional tool for the event marketing mix and the creation of an environment in which it is easier to conduct marketing" (Jobber 1998)

Objectives of PR:

•Promote understanding

•Overcome misunderstanding or apathy

•Create awareness

•Inform

•Develop knowledge

•Displace prejudice

•Encourage belief

•Confirm or realign a perception

In the coming weeks, the show will be holding a press release and through this they must be aware of negative journalism, so therefore at the release only positive things will be said about the event. They need to pursuade people who are in their main target audience and to express how the event will be and the facts about it.

There are many stake holders involved in The National Wedding Show, a stakeholder is a person, group or organisation that has direct or indirect stake in an organisation because it can affect or be affected by the organisation's actions, objectives and policies. Examples of the different types of stakeholders interested are
Public - local community
Internal - employees, management and company unions
Media- newspapers, magazine journalists, tv and radio
Government - local council
Financial - shareholders who have invested time or money into the event
These stakeholders, however, will all have different levels of interest and power within the event.


Prior to the event the show has featured in broadsheet news papers such as the times, this is significant when looking at the target audience. TGI shows us that the most people who read the Times earn between £43,000 and £46,999 a year and are of social class ABC1.



The National Wedding Show was also featured on the TV show 'How To Look Good Naked' This is great as it targets the female market, who are most likely to attend and be encouraged to go from the program.

Sponsorship - The National Wedding Show

The National Wedding Show does not have sponsorship. This is because they are simply providing and venue, date and organisation for all the other exhibitors to place their stands. They do not need the sponsorship and the exhibitors provide the revenue when they pay for the space.
However, the National Wedding Show ARE sponsors for another event, the best bridal retailer award. This gives them  the extra media coverage, as their name and logo are mentioned amongst the press coverage for the national wedding awards.