Violet PR President April Mason and Senior Account Director Nicole Marshall recently led a webinar focused on foreign direct investment (FDI), with tips for how economic development organizations looking to secure more FDI deals can earn media coverage to create more awareness for businesses selecting an international location. In case you missed it, here is quick recap of the material covered in the session, or you can watch the full recording in the video above.

Understanding the Relevant Media Landscape

When it comes to FDI, there are two broad media groups that are relevant when pitching your story. First, are U.S. based national media outlets that have international reach. While these outlets are headquartered in the United States, many have reporters located in bureaus abroad, and cover international news stories. Some examples of these publications include Bloomberg, CNN, The Associated Press, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Second, are internationally based media outlets with “stringers” based in the United States. These stringers cover stories that tie into the international media landscape. They are always looking for stories that feature their own country’s ties to international markets, so country-aligned FDI deals are a perfect candidate! They are also often easily accessed with the help of the Foreign Press Centers, located in several major U.S. urban markets under the operation of the Department of State. Some popular international outlets that the Violet PR team frequently works with include Le Monde, Handelsblatt, Financial Times, The Telegraph, Die Welt and Nikkei.

The Key Elements of a Newsworthy FDI Story

As is applicable to most proactive earned media stories, there are a few key elements that create a newsworthy FDI story. First, there must be an international hook. While this may seem self-explanatory, its key to ensure that your story has ties that extend beyond the United States, and includes global markets.

Second, its key that your story it timely. It’s important that organizations capitalize on opportunities as soon as possible. For example, our client the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC) had less than 24 hours to take action when they heard Toyota planned to invest $8 billion into an EV battery plant in their state. The Violet PR team issued a press release and conducted proactive media outreach on behalf of the EDPNC in a tight turn-around time with the Toyota press release, and was able to secure a ton of organic media interest!

Third, in order for your FDI announcement to extend beyond local to national level news, it is important that your story features some sort of “first, biggest, best” or uniqueness element. This means your story has to contain some type of “wow” factor, whether it be the first, biggest or best of its kind, or tapping into a new industry, etc. There are FDI deals happening around the country day in and day out, and national reporters can’t write about all of them, so you need one of these elements to make it stand out.

Recently, our client the Oklahoma Department of Commerce announced that the Norwegian solar manufacturer NorSun plans to build a multimillion-dollar factory in Tulsa. Given the large scale of this announcement, and its unique “first Norwegian company to land in Oklahoma” element, it garnered a ton of press attention.

Finally, a newsworthy FDI story that achieves economic development messaging goals should contain some level of deeper insight. This means that as an economic development organization, digging beyond the obvious transactional news and being able to offer more perspective is key to the success of the story.

Understand the Value of Relationships

Relationship building is a powerful tool for securing top-tier and quality stories with national and international reporters. In the digital age, it’s tempting to set up an interview via Zoom or another web platform because of the mere convenience. However, offering to host a reporter for an in-person interview can go a long way. Not only does it allow for more face time between the organization and the reporter, but it also helps to build a long-term relationship for the individual reporter with your market. By establishing an increased level of personal connections, reporters are more likely to run stories well into the future tied to your location.

Leveraging Your Press Coverage Once You Land It

Once your organization secures press coverage, it’s helpful to repurpose that coverage to achieve your economic development goals. This can take the form of a turning the article into a social media post, a blog, an email blast, or just general website content. It can also be valuable to follow up on business development leads with this relevant positive press coverage, using them to build on ongoing connections with international companies.

We Are FDI Storytelling Experts

The Violet PR team has a wealth of experience in navigating the international media landscape and telling stories, big and small, around foreign direct investment. If your economic development organization is looking to increase your FDI deals with the help of positive media coverage for your city or state, we are here to help. Reach us at hello@violetpr.com.

We hope to catch you at our next webinar soon!