Data analysis, research and surveys  are the power driving thousands of media relations campaigns around the world every day.

Data from research, surveys and analysis creates great interest and engagement. The media and its audiences love facts that quantify and provide insight into industry trends, data that enable everyone to benchmark their own organisations or markets against others.

Data helps media relations

A superb example of this comes from meetings and events PR. The Global Economic Significance of Business Events is a report commissioned by the Events Industry Council (EIC) featuring research by Oxford Economics. This revealed that $1.03 trillion was the worldwide direct spend generated by the industry in 2017, the first time this has been quantified on a global basis.

To put the number in perspective, $1.03 trillion direct spend matches the consumer electronics sector in size.

After the launch of the findings at a packed press conference at IMEX America, a news release and report revealing the data were distributed worldwide and generated vast editorial coverage in the meetings and events media, on and offline, in news and comment.

Stretch data usage

But the potential usage of this data, its influence, are likely to stretch well beyond the meetings industry media.

Ray Bloom, chairman of the IMEX Group, which was one of the sponsors of the research, said the figure puts the economic contribution of the meeting industry in “clear perspective and places it among the world’s leading business markets. It is a secret that needs to get out.”

The data can be a very powerful asset for the meetings and events industry in educating and persuading national and regional governments about the economic impact of the sector and the value to be gained by support and investing in it.

The next media relations challenge is to ‘get it out’, into business and national media, into the hands of economic influencers.  This has created an exciting opportunity and challenge for the industry.