PR for the People Spotlight: Edward Gunawan

This is a series of interviews with participants in PapaLoDown’s ‘PR for the People workshop’. Hear firsthand from amazing people and organizations, who are learning how to amplify their stories in the news, grow their visibility and attract new opportunities.

 

Meet Edward Gunawan

(goo-NAH-one), an interdisciplinary writer and filmmaker.

 
 

1. What is your background and experience?

I’m an interdisciplinary storyteller from Indonesia. In addition to writing and filmmaking, I curate and host creative community gatherings where I now live — Ohlone land in Oakland, CA. 

My background, I have to say, is rather eclectic. I started out in the theater before transitioning into film. More recently, I’ve been exploring and experimenting with both less-conventional digital arts projects as well as more-traditional literary publishing. Which led me to a variety of genre-melding work such as: comics, video games, cine-poems, exhibitions, and chapbooks.

Oh, I also have an MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, with a couple years of corporate experience in PR and advertising. 

2. What PR campaigns were you able to work with during your apprenticeship?

I worked with Paloma on the PR campaign of PRESS PLAY: Exhibition that took place in Oct 2022 at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, where the comic panels of “Press Play” were presented in its entirety for the first time. 

My brother, Elbert Lim, is the illustrator and I’m the writer of the project. And the exhibition is designed to raise mental health awareness in our AAPI and immigrant/refugee communities during October’s Mental Illness Awareness Week (Oct 3-9) & World Mental Health Day (Oct 10). To increase engagement, we also organized additional special events such as panel discussions and a collaborative mural painting activity. 

Paloma and I met for three consulting/coaching sessions — the first one just about a month before the event, which was a little tight. But since I had some experience in PR and Marketing, I had gathered quite a lot of the materials already. Paloma then made so many wonderful and helpful suggestions after reviewing them. Her feedback and guidance (and unceasingly positive energy!) were instrumental in the sharpening of our campaign’s message and approach — and the project’s overall PR success. 

3. What goals did you accomplish through this PR campaign?

I set out some very specific measurable PR/Marketing objectives for this campaign, and I’m proud to say that we met and, in some cases, exceeded them: 

  • 8 local media coverage across radio, TV, online, and print (our goal was 5). 

  • Met our fundraising goal of $4,000 to cover the Exhibition’s expenses. 

  • Increased 7,000 unique visitors to the project’s main site (our aim was 5,000). 

  • Turnout could be better though… It’s a challenge to come up with actual numbers of visitors to the exhibition and the accompanying events as they are not ticketed, but the community organization partners and I are satisfied overall. 

I feel we also contributed in our own way to the less tangible but most important goal of raising overall mental health awareness. 

4. How has the experience of pitching and working with media to amplify the stories in your PR campaigns been like so far?

It’s been really fun! Which is a complete surprise, especially to myself. 

Look, I’m a total introvert even though I may not seem like one at times. So trust me when I say I know how daunting and vulnerable it can feel to put your projects or ideas and, by extension, yourself out there.

Then there’s the ickiness of coming off as too self-promoting. But marketing and especially PR campaigns are really about stories. Yours AND the communities you’re serving or trying to reach. 

Seen in this way, I was able to sidestep a lot of my own internal ambivalences and approached the campaign like I would for any of my creative projects. Which meant, I fully geeked-out on how to best utilize and employ all of my craft elements to tell the story most effectively. And that made it that much more enjoyable. 

5. What are a few things you know now about PR that you didn't know before you started?

Be really, really clear on your intentions for the project. 

Because they will determine all of the other considerations such as: what information to share and prioritize, how to share them and where/when, as well as what the measurements of “success” or marketing goals will be. It helps me to get really specific and narrow my focus. And I found this to be critical in not feeling so overwhelmed in trying to do everything possible with a high likelihood of not achieving anything at all. 

Also, start early! 

I feel like the campaign would benefit even more if I had finalized all of my materials and began pitching earlier. I don’t know whether they were just being polite, but a few editors did respond with, “I’d love to cover this but my program is already booked solid through the end of the month” kinda thing. 

On this note, I’d also recommend having your media kit in one place (a web page or google folder), ready to be sent out. This is especially helpful for time-sensitive opportunities. As an example, I secured an important TV interview that took place on World Mental Health Day itself, with just one working day of advance notice. 

6. What other projects are you working on that we should have on our radar?

Even though I had hosted screenwriting/filmmaking/storytelling workshops before, I’m happy to share that I’m now facilitating a year-long series that’s specifically geared for folks who want to share their mental health experiences. 

I’m also excited about my forthcoming hybrid collection of poetry and prose The Way Back (winner of the 2022 Start a Riot! Chapbook Prize, and to be published by Foglifter Press). We will have a Launch Celebration on Nov 10th in El Rio, San Francisco with an amazing line-up of poet-friends sharing their work too. Come join us! 

For more info, visit addword.com. 

Where Edward Gunawan has been featured:

Client NewsGuest UserPR for the People