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This blog forms the latest in our Comms Bootcamp series, giving you the tools, insights and techniques you need to get your marketing communications in shape and build a lean, mean, PR machine! For more posts in this series, visit our Comms Bootcamp page.
For more than 20 years, Wildfire has helped consumer tech brands build their media presence at IFA Berlin — THE trade show for European consumer electronics.
What started life as a radio exhibition nearly a century ago, IFA has grown into the world’s largest consumer electronics and home appliances show, attracting almost 250,000 tech professionals from around the globe over just five days.
In this post, our consumer tech expert Jay Cox shares his experiences of IFA — providing insider tips on securing interviews, launching products, and maximising your PR efforts at Europe’s largest consumer technology show.
This year’s IFA Berlin marks the show’s 100th anniversary and will be held at the Messe Berlin Convention Centre from 6th to 10th September, 2024.
IFA is a magnet for a journalists, analysts and tech influencers, both from Europe and around the world. If you’ve secured a booth, you can request the attendee press list directly from the organisers. But remember, these lists often aren’t complete — or even available — until much nearer the time.
Over our many years of attending the show with various tech clients, we’ve built a database of contacts who attend IFA year-on-year without fail. If you don’t yet have those contacts, or this is your first time at the show, then some good old-fashioned media research can help you get started. Check out your key publications and see who’s been writing about IFA in recent years. But don’t forget to dig into each journalist’s profile and what topics they cover.
If you have access to tools like Meltwater and TechNews.io you can do some extra due diligence to make sure you’ve got everyone covered, to know which journalists and influencers covered or attended last year’s show. But remember, it’s not just about who’s gone before. Every year a whole host of new journos attend IFA, so it’s important to reach out directly and ask journalists if they’re attending and want to meet up at the show.
IFA is a busy time for tech journalists. Each year they produce around 9,000 articles about the show, with 350+ coming from UK media. While that gives you plenty of opportunities to get covered, it also risks your products and announcements being drowned out by the noise.
The best advice to get cut through is do your research. Every journalist is looking for something a little bit different, depending on their beat and their publication’s focus.
So, don’t just think in terms of selling your product or promoting your spokesperson. You need to think like a journo. Consider what their story is and what their readers will care about. You need to tell them:
Most important of all, you need to tell them why they should find out about your product or story at IFA. If all of the above can be answered over a Zoom call, then why bother with an interview at the show? Make sure you’re answering that question by giving journalists real hands on experiences, world-firsts and physical demos that they couldn’t get outside of the show.
Before reaching out to any journalists or influencers, it’s also important to remember the basics. IFA is all about consumer electronics and appliances, so journalists will want to see tangible products that consumers will love to use (and read about). They’re not flying to Germany to hear about concepts or broad trends! So before you do anything, think carefully about your targeting, and never bother a journalist or influencer unless you’re 100% sure you’ve got a story they’d be interested in.
On-stand interviews are a big part of IFA and can make all the difference for securing coverage and building long-term relationships.
IFA can be challenging for PR and comms teams due to when it takes place. A lot of journalists disappear in August for their summer holidays, making outreach particularly tricky. As such, it’s vital to get your timings right. Start your outreach at least 3-4 weeks before the show and work with a concise pitch, giving clear details of what makes your product unique and worth seeing in person.
And don’t forget. While brands always want to get interviews with their spokespeople, the real reason journalists come to IFA is to get hands on with the latest tech. With that in mind, focus less on interviews and more on offering demos — that’s where the real cut-through lies.
Lastly, make sure you get the absolute most out of the press days. Typically, IFA includes 1-2 press days allowing journalists to see what’s on offer before the show opens to the general public. These are your best chance to get noticed so plan to have your booth/demos set up early on the first morning.
Typically journalists will have the main press conference in the morning and then move onto their packed schedule of briefings. It’s unlikely they will have much spare time, so booking ahead is essential. The show is massive, so don’t be surprised if people are slightly behind schedule.
And be aware, as the show is still in set-up mode on the press days, there’s often a lot of noise and machinery as people build stages and booths. So speak up and bring a directional microphone if you’re recording any video!
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Alongside the press days, ShowStoppers is a great way to get your products in front of a huge number of journalists very quickly.
Essentially, think of it as speed dating for brands. It’s a large hall full of tables each providing quick-fire demos of their tech. Typically, you get a couple of hours to set up after IFA closes, with a stampede of journalists dashing from table to table before they hit the bar. Once they’ved passed and seen your quick fire demos stick around. There’s always a few more passers-by who will come back and take a second look.
Even if you’ve landed interviews, it’s no guarantee you’ll get coverage write-ups. To maximise your changes, ensure your spokespeople are media trained and well briefed on the key messages you want to get across. The more compelling you can make these interviews the more likely it is that they’ll convert into coverage. Remember, journalists have a huge amount to see at IFA so won’t want to spend hours hearing about your company history. Stick to the facts, show them the tech and give them plenty of opportunity to take photos. Great visuals are a must for consumer press.
Short answer. Yes. While Comms people are often under pressure to deliver on-stand interviews, often far better results can be achieved by planning interviews — and even launches, in the weeks leading up to the show.
During IFA, journalists bombarded with hundreds launches over a few short days. The more you can give them in advance, including high-res product photos, interviews and exclusive commentary, the more breathing space you give them to write something truly in-depth.
Also, don’t forget to have a team on the ground back home as well as those at the show. Having someone on email ready to ping journalists with more info is always useful, particularly when the show’s internet connection isn’t always reliable.
Plenty, but why cram it into a blog post when we could set up a call?
If you’re going to IFA 2024 and are looking for a strategic, creative PR agency to boost your results, set up a call with us today.
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