Media Event – Meet the Stars of Once Upon A Time

Hello everyone,

Sorry that it’s been a while due to the busy working life. As I mentioned in my last post, I would like to share the experience of my first media event in KSL City with you all. The media event called “Meet the Stars of Once Upon A Time” was held on 06^th of January 2013 at 12pm in KSL City. It was a fantastic experience for me and I was glad to have the opportunity to get involved in this event.

“Once Upon A Time” is the most anticipated Malaysia Chinese New Year movie in 2013 since they have achieved the big success of their previous Chinese New Year movie “Ah Beng the Movie: 3 Wishes” in 2012. It has broken the box office record of Chinese movies in Malaysia with more than 7 million ringgits and become the box office champion among all the Chinese New Year Movies from foreign countries. Then, the same production team has decided to produce a new Chinese New Year movie called “Once Upon A Time”, with the collaboration of the most popular Malaysia’s Chinese broadcasting station “MyFM” and the well-known Malaysian satellite TV station “Astro”. So, the majority of the main characters in the movie are the DJs from MyFM and the production crews are the production team from Astro.

In fact, KSL City would always like to involve in those media events in order to bring crowds to come to their shopping mall. On the other side, those media companies would also like to have a place with crowds for them to promote their products. Therefore, most of the media events which held in KSL City are the collaboration between the shopping mall and the relevant media companies. In business, this is what we called a win-win situation for both of the company. Besides, the KSL Hotel & Resort will be another advantage for KSL City since it is the only shopping mall which has integrated with a hotel in Johor Bahru. So, there are not only the tourists who come to Johor Bahru will stay in the hotel but lots of companies will also request for accommodation package from KSL Hotel & Resort if they want to stay overnight in Johor Bahru. After the discussions and meetings with the relevant companies, the package can be dealt flexibly. 

Then, KSL City has their own event team which under our department to handle various events or activities that will be held in the shopping mall and it is leaded by our event team leader – Mr Sam Chern. I was glad to have an opportunity to experience the first media event of KSL City in 2013. Before the media event started, there were lots of preparations had to be done and 2 persons which were my senior – Ms Agnes Lee and me had been assigned to help with this media event. Firstly, Mr Sam Chern had conducted a “phone meeting” with the person in charge of the media event – Ms Carine Yang from “RAM Entertainment” Kuala Lumpur in order to clearly know the demand and objectives of both side.  After the decision had been made, we had begun to take action on our responsibilities which had been promised during the meeting. Thus, as a PR person, I had been assigned to spread out the news of the media event through the KSL City’s official website, Facebook page, TV walls in the shopping mall and the façade poster in order to create awareness and promote the media event. RAM Entertainment had also promoted the media event through MyFM, Astro, Once Upon A Time’s Facebook page and the mainstream Chinese print media (newspapers) for getting more fans to support them.

The poster of the media event "Meet the Stars of Once Upon A Time"

Clearly, those communication tools were useful and it had successfully created the gimmicks before the media event started. Some of their fans had made a call to KSL City and asked for the information about the media event. Then, Mr Sam Chern had leaded us to decorate and set up the venue by putting up the backdrop poster, fixing up the stage and PA system as well as placing the chairs and tables at the day before event started. Other than that, my senior who are  playing the role as a PR officer of KSL City - Mr. Rey Ling had also made a call to invite all the mainstream Chinese print media such as Sin Chew Daily, Guang Ming Daily, Nanyang Business Daily, China Press and Oriental Daily to attend the media event. At the actual day of the media event, all the journalists had well-prepared under the stage before the artists arrived. Those artists had reached KSL City on 12:15pm and the media event “Meet the Stars of Once Upon A Time” had finally started on 12:30pm at the atrium of KSL City lower ground floor! There were 5 artists – Jack Lim, Jeff Chin, Phoebe Yap, Bernard Hiew and Jym Chong with the director Silver had attended the media event. Since most of them were the DJs from MyFM, they had become the hosts by themselves in this media event and lots of humorous topics had been brought out by them for making more laughter.

Firstly, a brief introduction about themselves and the characters in the movie had been given by the artists at the very beginning. Then, a Rubik’s Cube Competition had been conducted by using the props – the magical Rubik’s Cube which used in the movie had been given to the 4 chosen lucky fans for competing the speed of rotate the Rubik's Cube and the voucher of certain products as well as the free movie ticket of “Once Upon A Time” had been given to the winner of the competition. Next, the artists had performed the theme song of the movie “Wind and Frost” for their fans. After that, a group photo had been taken with the fans and the artists. Ultimately, all the fans can buy the merchandise which relevant to the movie at the reception counter and get the autograph from the artists by signing on the certain merchandises such as the magical Rubik's Cube, print-T which the collaboration  between the movie and Giordano and so on. Most of the fans had requested to take photo with the artists during the autographing session and they also willing to coordinate with their fans. Then, the media event had been ended successfully after the autographing session and the ending announcement had been given by the host.

The photo of the artists and the 4 chosen lucky fans who have participated in the Rubik's Cube Competition 

        

The group photo of the artists with fans

The photo of the artists with fans during autographing session

The group photo of the artists with the persons in charge from KSL City

Last but not least, I know it’s quite a long post but I would still like to share with you all about what I have experienced and learned from such a successful media event. In fact, the media event has been attended by more than 500 supporters and it has also successfully obtained the media coverage from the mainstream Chinese print media which is the news about the media event had been published on Sin Chew Daily (the Chinese print media who has the widest readership in Malaysia) at the next day. Hence, what we can see is KSL City has successfully obtained what they want from the media event which is the crowds and the media coverage by increasing more shoppers and building image of the shopping mall. And RAM Entertainment has also successfully promoted the movie to the public and gets more people to support their movie during Chinese New Year 2013. 

The news about the media event "Meet the Stars of Once Upon A Time" which published on Sin Chew Daily

Finally, PR have actually played an important role in a media event instead of event planner. PR persons have to take the responsibility to create awareness and inform the public to get them involved to the event. In business, the statistic represent everything and this is also the only thing which will be concerned by most of the boss. The number of attendees will be the final result to define the success of an event. Therefore, PR persons have played the role as a key person who can increase the number of attendees by using the effective tools in the right way to reach the target audiences specifically. To conclude, the keys of success of a media event are to plan well, communicate well, prepare well, execute well and end well. Then you will definitely obtain what you want from the media event in order to achieve your goals and objectives. These are what I have really experienced and learned from this media event in real life.

Next post I will talk about my first exhibition - Chinese New Year Promotional Fair 2013. It is another amazing experience for me to learn and gain the experience of how to make a successful exhibition. If you want to know more, please don't miss my next post. See you!

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Cheong Wei Chung (Quan)

Curtin Sarawak Campus, Miri