In this Social Media era, almost everything is focused and targetted at the netizens. The multimedia news releases are a recent innovation on which companies are banking on to deliver their marketing and corporate communique to the target audience. This is where the internet comes into play when companies use it high speed and instant reach.
PR News wire says, “A Multimedia News Release (or “MNR”) is an interactive news release with video, audio, still photos, and text, as well as a growing number of other capabilities. In essence, the MNR is a “one-stop shop” for journalists, consumers, clients, investors, and anyone else who wants to get as much information as they can about a news story“. This is actually tipped as the future of what Press Releases would look like.
The advantages a Multimedia News Release has are -
(1). Contains an encoded audio and video format which can be seen for further information. (2). Registrations with websites, media outlets and jouralists help it reach a wider and better targetter audience.(3).Distribution to video portals enables the audience to watch a release which is more than a press release. (4). Contains in-depth analysis, features and information.
Mark Glaser writes here – “Press releases are nearly useless. They typically start with a tremendous amount of top-spin, they contain pat-on-the-back phrases and meaningless quotes…Press releases are created by committees, edited by lawyers, and then sent out at great expense through Business Wire or PRnewswire to reach the digital and physical trash bins of tens of thousands of journalists. This madness has to end. It is wasted time and effort by hundreds of thousands of professionals“. This in a way shows that people have now become receptive to MNRs and sooner than later, these MNRs will replace Press Releases. Examples of how a MNR is can be located here.
This is how a MNR works - The MNR is delivered across online publications, search engines, blog engines, social bookmarking tools and works nicely because it is made to be Web 2.0-compliant. Each MNR is then tagged for various blog aggregators and social bookmarking sites such as Delicious, Technorati, Digg, Google, Yahoo, Reddit and Newsvine. Also included is a ‘Forward to a friend’ e-mail option for viral marketing. This enables the MNR to feature in all the leading blog engines. “The MNR’s appeal lies in its ability to be manoeuvred. With audio and visual features, links and downloadable content, it’s a 360-degree tool. It’s completely social network-compliant. It allows you to ask more informed and intelligent questions when you’re making a decision,” says Indranil Ghosh, Sales Director – India, PR Newswire.
MNRs have been given the due importance offlate and has been well received by clients of the stature of Tatas, CNBC-TV18, Strategic Foresight Group, MCX, Singapore Mercantile Exchange and in.com. The price range for releasing an MNR in India is from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh so far, but it packs so much information that it is worth the money.
True when Samantha Proctor, Director of Marketing Communications (Europe, Middle East and Africa), PR Newswire says, “Social media has exploded and the MNR feeds into that. MNRs are a lot more commonplace in the US but we launched it in Europe just last year. It is growing to be a significant revenue stream. It is now quite small but is growing rapidly and could be the main service in the next few years“.
Social Media News Release or SMNR are also a form of multimedia press release. These are often free but do not use news wires, the purpose of a SMNR is to start online conversations, which then can be easily bookmarked or shared. One such free SMNR creation and publishing service is Pressitt.