ALERT THE MEDIA!

Editor's Note: In his four years with Island Sun Times, head writer John P. Ribner has developed an in-depth understanding of the indoor tanning industry, and built some solid relationships with many tanning professionals. The following is another installment of an occasional opinion column by John, known affectionately as "Ribby" to many industry veterans.

by John P. Ribner

Today, more and more tanning manufacturers are alerting the media, and this is great.

It seems like almost every month, Island Sun Times is being invited to a media event being held by one of the industry’s manufacturers. They ask us out to their headquarters to preview the latest lotions, equipment and/or accessories. The sudden popularity of these media events is good for indoor tanning – its shows that this industry, while still a relative “teenager” in America, continues to mature, evolve and become more professional.

As many of you loyal readers are keenly aware, indoor tanning is a new-product-oriented industry. Each year, the manufacturers work hard to create lotions, sunlamps, equipment and accessories that they hope will not only help people develop a tan, but will also be the next big craze to revolutionize the industry. Because so much research, development and marketing goes into all the manufacturers’ products, salon professionals and the tanning media alike eagerly await their introduction. It used to be that we of the dead trees and ink crowd got to see the new stuff at the same time as everyone else – at the industry trade events. Thanks to a few forward-thinking manufacturers, that was all about to change.

A couple of years ago, some of the industry’s leading manufacturers had a great idea – hold a press conference to introduce the media to their latest offerings. Needless to say, this innovative approach (at least for this industry at that time) was a complete success. The manufacturers wisely held their event before the Indoor Tanning Association’s World Expo, which allowed IST plenty of time to publish a story about the event and the products in our November issue, which coincided with the pre-eminent industry tradeshow. This provided the industry with a double-whammy introduction to the company’s latest creations.

Those early press conferences were a bold step, both for the companies that hosted them and the industry itself, and it’s certainly caught on. This year, many manufacturers – from lotions to accessories and equipment – hosted some type of media event. It’s about time, too. It’s a real treat to cover these because it’s great to see old friends, and getting the skinny on the latest developments is equally exciting. And, the benefit to the companies that host these prestigious events should be obvious: it allows us, the tanning media, to present the scoop on all the new stuff to our readership, which in IST’s case represents more than 21,000 tanning salons!

I wouldn’t be surprised to see more companies in this exciting industry utilizing the power of the press by hosting their own media events. It’s like my Uncle Glenn always used to say, “Good news travels fast!”