Making the Most of Media and Entertainment to Promote Your Business

Entertainment industry companies let you market your business to a wide audience
By A Antonow Making the most of media and entertainment means using creative ways to promote your business in this industry without spending a great deal of money. Luckily, there are many free or inexpensive ways to do this. If you want the media and entertainment industries to offer you more than just a movie or a television show to entertain you in your spare time, focus on the marketing and public relations opportunities these industries can afford you.
 

Using the film, television and media fields to promote your product can be less expensive than you think. While the media and entertainment industries may look very glamorous to outsiders, these industries actually rely on business owners for financing and for other important contributions. Journalists need business owners to interview, for example, while movie and television shows need props, products and services for their sets and shows. You can use this to your advantage by:

1. Visiting trade shows to develop contacts in the media and entertainment business.

2. Hiring product placement services to gain recognition in the media and entertainment industry.

3. Working with journalists and other professionals in the field as an expert.

Visit entertainment media trade shows to develop contacts and forge business relationships

Whether you want to sell to the media and entertainment industries or hope to leverage these industries for promotion of your company, you need to find the specific professionals who can help you. One great way to learn about media and entertainment companies in your area is to visit local trade shows. Trade shows allow you to make the most of media and entertainment contacts while feeling out the local industry players.
Try: BizTradeShows helps you find media trade shows in your area. You can search shows by organizer, date or location as well. EventsEye lets you find entertainment industry and media industry trade shows in your area.

Use product placement services to get your company into the entertainment media spotlight

Having entertainment personalities recommend your product or having your company mentioned on the radio, in a television show or in a movie is a great way to market your business. Usually, a company pays a fee for this service, but the results are well worth the cost. Although this form of marketing in the entertainment and the media industries is often quite subtle, it's almost always effective.
Try: Mediaplacement, which has been in business since 1998, offers product placement services for both feature films and television. New Age Media Concepts offers product placement services in television shows, films and music videos.

Offer your expertise to professionals in the media industry to build your brand

Nothing gives you and your business more authority than being seen as an "expert," and few things give you more credibility as an expert than having your words quoted in the media. When media professionals quote you in their pieces, they often mention your business name, offering you free publicity and promoting you as an authority in your field.
Try: ProfNet is a simple directory that connects you with media professionals. Simply fill out a form and media professionals looking for experts in your field will contact you. The Absolute Write forum is a very active online professional writing community. Professional writers looking for sources for their next article often post interview requests here.

• Making the most of media and entertainment means making the most of your media entertainment industry contacts. Offer to serve as an expert on something specific when contacting a journalist, for example, rather than starting your communication by outlining the details of your company or requesting publicity. Get the relationship off on the right foot by offering something to the media or entertainment professional needs before asking for something in return.