Hello All,

Just though I’d stop by for a quick post about media monitoring. From reading everyone’s blogs I’ve noticed a lot of you know this task all too well.

It’s festival season and there is a lot of hype surrounding the many up and coming events Sunsets has in store for us all which is frequently being publicised in local print media and street press. The One Movement Music Festival has just passed and The Northbridge Festival, Stereosonic and Southbound are just around the corner, keeping the communication staff busy with media relations activities.

We are constantly being inundated with piles of print media such as newspapers and music related magazines which need to be sifted through to identify any content relating to Sunset Events as an organisation or any of the events in which it is involved in. The clippings are cut from the print media and the publication it is from, the date and the page number is recorded for the hard copy which is kept on file. The information is then scanned into the computer and compiled into a publicity report where it is sorted into categories of advertisements, magazine articles, newspaper articles and editorials.

Although it is a very time consuming task, and I often end up with black marks all over my face from the ink of the newspapers, I understand why this process is so important. The information attained from these clippings provides Sunsets with critical information relevant to the organisation and its communication strategy. You can gain insight into how much coverage is being received, what is being said about the organisation/ its events and the nature of the publicity (whether it is positive or negative). From this information Sunsets can assess how successful they have been in their campaigns and identify areas of improvement.

Zoe.