BRIT Awards asking journalists to advertise Mastercard in exchange for accreditation

Telegraph writer Tim Walker has revealed that the press team (or, at least, one of the press teams) working on tonight’s BRIT Awards are asking journalists to advertise awards sponsor MasterCard in exchange for accreditation.

As well as asking for “social media support” from both the journalist’s publication and personal Twitter feed, the requirements include post-award tweets directing followers to the Brits’ Youtube channel, and to “retweet @MastercardUK tweets throughout the night where appropriate.” Walker has posted the full email, which can be read below (full story here).

The Sun‘s Tom Thorogood has said that not all journalists were accredited in this way, and that writers actually covering the event will have been accredited through DawBell rather than House PR (who Walker dealt with). However, the fact that the following list of demands includes references to post-event features and write-ups implies that they are expecting written coverage, and none of the specifics excuse such heavy-handed PR tactics.

Hope you’ve had a lovely weekend. As you know we’ve been in touch re. accreditation for the BRIT’s but just wanted to check in with you directly to confirm that you are happy with the below.

Firstly as part of our Priceless Surprise we are putting on cars to take guests directly to the awards – we will be booking your car to take both yourself and Katy from the office at 4:30pm. Are you happy with these details?

In addition – in return for this ticket we would like to ask that you agree to the following…

Social media support from both publication and personal Twitter feed

Pre event – e.g. Really excited to be heading down to @BRITAwards tonight with @MasterCardUK #PricelessSurprises

Event night – live tweeting from the event including @MasterCardUK handle and #PricelessSurprises and to retweet @MasterCardUK tweets throughout the night where appropriate

Post event – tweet directing followers to @MasterCardUK BRITs YouTube videos

Pre-event coverage of MasterCard’s Priceless Surprise video edits with either Laura Mvula, Kylie Minogue and/or Pharrell Williams – to include full credit for MasterCardUK and #PriclessSurprises

All features to be pushed on publications social feeds – to include @MasterCardUK and #PricelessSurprises

MasterCard inclusion in post event write-up (print and online) including #PriclessSurprises hashtag and somethingforthefans.co.uk URL

Post event write up presence on publication homepage (where possible)

Inclusion of MasterCard branded event night images in post event piece

Post event – coverage support for MasterCard music activity in 2014 (Beyonce & JT)