Image © Monaco Yacht Show

With just over a week to go until the 2024 Monaco Yacht Show and having attended all 33 editions, I feel slightly qualified to comment on the topic of press conferences and media opportunities.

Between now and the first morning of the show, in addition to those already in our agendas or RSVP folders, we expect another barrage of invites for press calls or media opportunities because every exhibitor feels obliged to do some sort of PR at the show. With potentially hundreds of journalists, PR people, social media influencers (affectionately named effluencers and emphasis on the word ‘social’), the vast array of videographers and iPhone film producers and other commentators on the market, it would seem like there’s a good chance of getting some coverage of your company, products or people.

However, having watched the output from Cannes and the sheer volume of copycat coverage, repetitive reels or cut-and-paste press material, I sometimes feel we can do better as an industry. After all, do the right people read all this stuff, are they just scrolling mindlessly on their screens, absorbing the bland sound track, time-lapse walk-through or obligatory selfie, or are they just too busy to care?

So I’d like to make a statement to the market about our social, editorial and content plans for the Monaco Yacht Show this year. I will apologise in advance if I cause offence or appear rude by not attending the myriad press conferences as we typically know we will get the information by e.mail within an hour or so of the event taking place. We have only three days, plus Saturday I suppose, to explore the show and uncover stories, have quick-fire interviews, discuss editorial ideas and build opportunities to create valuable content by talking to the people who may not be on stage or that everyone else is talking to.

I’ve sat through hundreds, maybe even thousands, of press conferences and I have a simple request, please, please, please, “Let’s keep it interesting”. Some people are willing to sit for 90 minutes of talking heads or presentations, just to get the goody bag and free snacks, knowing they have something they can regurgitate to create content on-line with the odd word change. Others are fixated on meeting each other in the media world to catch up face to face to giggle over their last press trip tales, and many are keen to make sure the shipyard management or marketing team have noticed that they turned up, in the hope of securing the media budget again.

With our consistent mantras of “Reports Worth Reading” and “We Don’t Do Click Bait” we will definitely attend some, but not all, for which we apologise in advance. However, if there is an interesting angle, story, announcement or opportunity, make sure the press invitation says so and try to make sure we know that there is an opportunity for a private chat with the right people for 15 minutes so we can create a more interesting story, beyond the package with the branded hat and USB stick. We want to make sure that we do not bombard our audience with duplicate content that everyone else is gushing out of their channels, but have the opportunity to create something worth reading.

If you want the right people to read what you’re doing or launching or saying, we have to work harder on creating content that is both unique, interesting and independent. We often find that the more interesting stories come from a dockside chat, a one-on-one glass of beer or a chance meeting at breakfast.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at the Monaco Yacht Show very soon and if we don’t meet at a press conference, there may be a reason, as something else came up.

https://www.monacoyachtshow.com/en

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