I know that public relations for clients’ events entails writing media releases, lobbying to get coverage, escorting clients to media studios, inviting media to the event, organising and scheduling interviews, as well as media management at the event.
What I didn’t know, but quickly found out at the recent Soweto Festival Expo, is that public relations actually goes way beyond this.
The Soweto Festival Expo ran from Friday 26 to Sunday 28 September 2014 at the Expo Centre Johannesburg in Nasrec, and it was a weekend filled with business talk, selling and buying, sheer entertainment, and great things for the whole family to do.
The Soweto Festival Expo is an annual event that draws together businesses, SMMEs, consumers and the community of Soweto at large to celebrate the richness and diversity of Soweto.
“The Soweto Festival Expo is a fantastic platform for all Gauteng local businesses to meet and promote their brands, and this year was no different,” says Rehaad James, the managing director of Adele Lucas Promotions and the expo’s organiser.
“The community of Soweto and southern Johannesburg attended the expo to learn more about what products and services are available, and they also enjoyed the entertainment line-up offered by Soweto TV, e.tv, Jozi FM and the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation.”
The Friday line-up was organised by Soweto TV and included TV presenter auditions, a dance competition to appear on Siya Shezi’s music video, as well as Miss Teen Soweto auditions on the main stage.
e.tv took over the main stage on Saturday, with celebrities from Craz-e, Cool Catz, Scandal!, Rhythm City and Club 808 entertaining the crowd. Saturday also saw a traditional dance festival hosted by the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation in the main hall.
Jozi FM wrapped up the festival on a high note on Sunday with its Gospel Festival, which proved very popular with the excited crowd. The festival featured the likes of Rebecca Malope, Sfiso Ncwane, Lundi, Thinah Zungu, Sphumelele Mbambo, Sipho Makhabane, Fikile Mlomo and others.
While all these activities were on the go, Flow PR was hard at work, among other things fetching journalists from the gate as they arrived and taking them to the media room for interviews; tracking down the client and partners for the interviews; scheduling available celebrities to talk to the media; sometimes handling access at the exhibitors’ gate (yes, I even played security lady); handling artists’ access to the event; and looking after the VIP lounge.
Going the extra mile for our clients is what keeps us flowing at Flow; it represents our reliability, leadership and innovation values. It also pleases me to see our plans falling into place, although there are always unforeseen “extras” that pop up during the execution phase that keep us on our toes.
“The Soweto Festival Expo was a great success and a great experience for me; all the hard work we put in was really worth it,” says Flow PR’s Apaphia Lefatle, who assisted me prior to and during the event. “The client is happy with our service and all the coverage the Soweto Festival Expo received.”
The AVE (advertising value equivalent) received for the Soweto Festival Expo amounted to a very impressive R1 639 660 – the hard work put into the expo both before and during the event really paid off.
“Offering effective and strategic public relations services to our clients is my number one priority, and I believe we delivered on this account,” says Caroline Smith, head of Flow PR.
