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PR Question: How Long Before You See Results?

PR (actually all marketing) takes time. Even in today's ultra-quick Instagram world, it usually takes time to see traction from your public relations campaign.

One of the biggest issues we’re seeing with brands that need marketing help, outside of properly budgeting for outside PR and marketing support, is poor budgeting when it comes to time.

Many times, the Remedy team has turned down potential work because the client came to us at the last minute with a project we feel they didn’t allow enough time to be successful.

We’re not the only ones who feel this way.

Take Axia PR in Jacksonville, who has worked with some very impressive brands, or Michael Shane, of www.freide.co, a "hybrid creative agency fusing media consulting and creative strategy," based in Bill's old stomping grounds of NYC. Now we don’t know Michael at all, but we’re a member of the same networking group on Facebook and he recently made this post lamenting a recent client that is just now seeing momentum right away.

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This is only a small part of the discussion that occurred on Michael's post. And this happens all the time.

We’ve worked with brands under tight time constraints and had them on national media programs and major market daily newspapers overnight… but many times, it can take weeks, often months, to start seeing momentum, let alone an impact on measurable awareness or sales (assuming you're able to track this, to begin with).

So what’s the magic number for how long you should experiment with a good PR firm?

Tough to say, especially since the first month of the program should be spent outlining the full plan and you won’t be seeing media results during that period of time. Many will tell you six months is a good timeframe to consider, but that could scale up or down depending on if you’re working on a very timely event or working with a brand that has news coming out a few seasons after this one.

Regardless, with media relations, remember that reporters are simply not sitting around waiting for your (or our) phone call. It doesn't matter how strong the relationship is.

Please keep in mind that we're not saying that PR firms (consultants, marketing firms, ad agencies, etc.) don't fail to deliver. They do. It could be because they weren't clear about potential results, promised too much and in some cases, failed to manage expectations.

However, many times when a PR program fails, it's because there wasn't enough time allotted to see results or it's being compared to the 'guaranteed impressions' that come with buying an ad (which still don't guarantee sales though).

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Again, special thanks to Michael Shane of http://www.freide.co/ for giving us permission to share his Facebook post.

Three Public Relations Lessons From Tax Season

It’s tax time and as our collective team prepares their own personal taxes, we wanted to share some strong similarities between planning for tax time and launching a public relations or social media campaign.

1. Choose the right tax provider based on your budget and situation.

Some people have straightforward taxes that can easily be prepared through one of the tax software tools available for purchase.

Perhaps you don’t need an outside PR resource. You may be fine purchasing a media list online, distributing it through one of the available free or paid newswires and then having your internal marketing team make follow-up calls on their own.

Or, you may need a team of two… or 20, to help you.

Look at your brand's individual needs and choose support accordingly. Don’t get hung-up on who a brand has worked with before so much as the results they’ve delivered for brands with a similar cache’ or budget close to yours.

Bill was interviewed on this topic recently, but in essence, ask yourself ‘is your brand the iPhone of your industry?’

Look for the firms that have worked with brands that have less media appeal than yours or have done more with fewer resources. Ask for examples of unique placements and executions that also fit within your budget.

You can see the entire interview on Malakye’s website at here.

2. Get organized early.

If you show up at your accountant’s office on April 14 with a box of receipts and statements, well…

Your accountant may know you’ll be coming in that day, but without knowing all of your financial details from the last year, you’re leaving them in a very difficult situation. Things may get missed.

The same thing happens all the time to PR firms when being approached by potential clients. Public relations firms frequently receive requests for meetings or for custom proposals within a week’s time, usually without adequate documentation as to what it is they’re really looking for, an accurate timeline and estimated budget.

Providing details well in advance allows the PR firms you’re looking at will have ample time to put their best foot forward and you’ll have a chance to kick the tires on them as well.

Last minute requests tend to receive work that is often rushed and often flawed. If you tell a PR firm today you need a proposal for a six-month plan next week, what does that say about your own team’s internal planning?

Similarly, the sooner you start a project, the more time you have to adjust if things don’t go as expected.

Remember, timing is a huge part of securing editorial coverage for your brand.

3. You hired experts for a reason.

If you think you can do your taxes better than a professional tax preparer, then why did you hire them in the first place?

Similarly, treat your public relations firm, consultant or that ‘marketing ninja’ you found on LinkedIn,as a part of your team and trust in their opinion. It’s their job to create programs and strategies that work for editorial coverage.

Would you like to chat about this more? Feel free to drop us a line or take our PR Check-up to gauge the health of your own brand’s marketing efforts.

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Content Is King, But Community Is Queen

Content Is King, But Community Is Queen

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Ever wonder why certain brands have a rabid social media following? Or why their content goes viral and their consumers love to share the latest?

Does it seem weird to you that people promote, for free, something they already pay to be a part of? It doesn't happen very often, but it is possible for almost any brand, and a fairly easy process to replicate if you have the time and are willing to put in the effort.

The answer lies in creating a community through your content. By creating a community, and incorporating it into your social media content, you're fostering good will that almost certainly will come back to you.

Take CrossFit and the fitness industry in general as an example. The strive towards health, has become a pretty polarizing force in society. People post pictures of their #mealprep to Instagram religiously, and while the fitness world continues to pick up steam, it's also received its share of knocks in the mainstream media. And if you’re on Facebook, chances are you have more than a few friends posting about their personal records (AKA PR’s) or having their CrossFit gym tag them in photos. But it's not just gyms making these posts. Personal trainers and coaches are posting pictures of their clients in action, and their clients are more than happy to post their own photos as their body transforms.

Regardless of if you love CrossFit or hate their brand of fitness, there are some basic social media lessons all brands can learn from these gyms. The most important one is something which we discuss all the time.

TAKE THE 'ME' OUT OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Above all, CrossFit and similar facilities they have built a community through social media, intentionally or not, where their members strive to help the gym become a success. This translates to the offline world where their members help continue the conversation. To get your members to share and engage with you doesn't require a personal transformation though. It just requires personal benefit for the consumer.

Engagement is also critical here too. If you want to grow your community, you need to be an active participant and also work to connect with those you want to recruit. You can't just wait for them to come to you. You need to find potential brand fans and make sure they know you're here. 

One of our agency directors has been quoted on this before (we also blogged about it here), but it's so basic. If more brands promoted the real world benefits their consumers got from them, they may see a lot more engagement.

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The Five Easy Steps Our Clients Took To Win 10 Major Trade Show Awards

The Five Easy Steps Our Clients Took To Win 10 Major Trade Show AwardsOutdoor Retailer OR PR Tips

The next Outdoor Retailer trade show(OR Show for short) is right around the corner. If you’ve never been, the OR Show is it’s the near trillion dollar outdoor industry’s version of CES or the New York Auto Show. It’s a business-to-business show where retailers preview potential products to carry in the future and features the biggest names in industries surrounding backpacking, adventure travel, trail running, climbing, mountain biking, outdoor wellness and more. The OR Show is typically a who’s who for the industry. Brands such as Yeti coolers, K2, The North Face, Oakley, GoPro, Sorel, Patagonia are usually there.

At the Outdoor Retailer January event, two of our clients took home more than 10 major media awards. Not bad, considering there were more than 1,000 brands in attendance.

In January, for the first time ever, the OR show combined with the snowboard and ski-focused Snow Sports Industry’s Snow Show. It was the equivalent of CES combining with Apples WWDC, or MacWorld if that was still in existence.

It was a crowded event for sure and competition for media was high.

The steps we took to win these awards on behalf of our clients will work for any brand looking for PR exposure, at the OR Show, CES, or throughout the year. You just need to follow them.

OR Show PR - Outdoor Retailer

Those that know what our clients were offering may think it was fairly easy. Some of the products being highlighted were definitely innovative, but perspective here is important.

The playing field isn’t level in the PR world, especially when it comes to outdoor product launches. At this show we were competing against brands that fly journalists to overseas to go skiing and check out a new fabric. Or to Panama to experience the fit of a new sandal. That doesn’t necessarily guarantee media coverage, but it can definitely help give journalists a useful, in-depth understanding of what a brand has to offer.

While we’d have loved to fly some of our journalist friends to meet us to go snowboarding, a large-scale trip like that was not in the budget. In addition, while our clients did have truly-media worthy innovations to showcase, we were dealing with other issues and legacy baggage to overcome.

Our team has a pretty deep history in handling PR for outdoor brands, going back to one of us working with Burton Snowboards back in the late 90’s. And most of us are avid skiers and snowboarders. Because of this, for one client, our professional and personal authenticity in the industry had us wondering out loud if their product would actually work as promised. For another client, we knew that a rival of theirs had introduced a similar technology, which also won awards. And in that instance, we had heard rumors of another brand trying to do the same.

But collectively, we still crushed it. How? Here are five easy steps.

Screen Shot 2018-07-09 at 1.14.18 PM

1. We planned ahead.

Sounds simple, but unfortunately, we’re often called to help promote something under such a tight deadline that we don’t think it will be of interest to the media. Of course, we can meet the client’s deadline in terms of materials creation and outreach, but PR this isn’t advertising and journalists need time (sometimes days, sometimes weeks) to consider story ideas.

The ability to plan ahead do this is a huge factor in helping your PR program achieve success and something we constantly remind our clients about. And thankfully, both of our brands at the show gave us plenty of time to get the wheels moving… one did so two years out. The ability to plan well in advance gives your PR team the chance to anticipate issues and roadblocks that could arise, and map out course corrections to help when they do occur.

2. Relationships matter in public relations, but not always how you think.

How often a PR person doesn’t call a reporter can matter just as much as how often they do.

We try to impress upon all our clients that journalists smothered by bad PR pitches every day. Hundreds of them, and there are websites, blogs, and social media accounts dedicated to them. Just ask a journalist if you want to see some. With that in mind, we never pitch what isn’t appropriate and are realistic in how we position something to the media.

We’ll never say saying something really is groundbreaking when it’s not. That way our journalist friends know that when we do make major media-worthy claims they know we’re not coming to them with a new shade of grey.

3. Timing is everything (point #1 above).

Because our clients gave us time to plan, we were able to give journalists the time they needed as well. Despite a popular belief some brand managers have, journalists aren’t sitting around waiting for PR people to contact them with story ideas.

Through creative mailings and other tactics, we gave journalists an early, albeit veiled, heads-up on what we’d be showing at the Outdoor Retailer + Snow Show. When they received all the details, this allowed them to ask questions, and later, follow-up questions, with plenty of time to meet their deadlines before the big event.

4. We made it easy for the journalists to experience the product.

While flashy events and trips can really give a journalist a feel for the product being launched, those typically take a massive amount of time and budget to execute. Also, we needed to show the products in a tight window before the show, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Journalists are just like the rest of us, with vacations booked, families, and personal obligations to attend to. Even if we had the budget to produce an event that’d result in an award-winning case study, there were slim chances they’d even have the time to attend.

To make it easy for journalists to experience the products being launched, we went to them. For both clients, we executed separate three-city media tours, each taking less than 48 hours total, where we met at their offices, coffee shops, restaurants, and breweries, based on the preference of each media contact. Wherever they wanted to meet, we went to. The meetings were fairly quick, about an hour each, and our days typically ran from 7 am until two hours before evening flights out of town.

We followed up the meetings with product for the reporters to review on their own, along with technical details, answers to hard questions, images and more. We were able to plan for almost every question, which takes us to our final step.

5. We anticipated the hard questions and answered them in advance. This one was crucial.

Remember, media relations (aka PR) is not advertising. You can’t just put out your message and hope a reporter will take your word for granted.

PR doesn’t happen in a bubble. We knew what similar technologies had been announced in year’s past for our clients’ categories and we were candid in mentioning that during our meetings.

But we followed up with examples of why what we had to share was not just different, but better. And we were honest in terms of when these products weren’t appropriate, spelling out why you wouldn’t want to use them in certain situations. Journalists appreciated that. Sometimes you need a Jeep, sometimes you need a helicopter. Both can get you places, but neither is appropriate for all situations.

At the end, even with all this advanced work, there was no guarantee we’d be successful.

Media interest in what was being shown was very high. We had an uncomfortable amount of meetings booked during the show to ensure that journalists we couldn’t meet with during our three-city tours would get intimate previews and the attention they deserved.

And almost as soon as they show started, we knew that our hard work did pay off.

Journalists started coming by our clients’ booths early in the morning to drop off award after award. It was almost comical. We had multiple team members on site for the show, but it almost seemed that the journalists were waiting for someone’s back being turned so they could discretely drop off another award.

Collectively, this was a career high for many of us and an agency, a major coup. We exceeded client expectations, as well as those of the internal team here. Will we win 10+ awards at the next Outdoor Retailer trade show for these two clients? Probably not.

And we probably won’t try either.

But that’s the secret to great PR. While we won’t always have something groundbreaking to show, we’re actively planning ways to continue the post-launch momentum, keeping the awareness of our clients high with both the media and the end consumer.

When you have limited budget, or a pitch that isn’t on the same level as the next iPhone, that’s when a PR team’s skill can really shine through.

Want to connect with the Remedy Team? You can reach us at PRCheckup@RemedyPR.com.

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Remedy Public Relations is the leading lifestyle firm in San Diego for companies in the surf, snowboard, ski, motocross, finance, and consumer electronics industry. We know PR. We know social media. If your PR team is falling short, you may need a remedy!

Sometimes He's Just Not That Into You (Or Your Brand)
When one door closes, a good PR team will dig you a hole for your message to crawl through. Or find you more doors. Or pry open some windows... you get it ;-).
That said, brands are often disappointed when they don't see themselves featured in certain media outlets. While this could happen for a variety of reasons (timing and lack of real newsworthiness being the top two), there's one reason that few want to admit, but it happens all the time.

Sometimes journalists simply don't like certain brands.  

Since we work in the tech world, we often deal with tech media, from the consumery oriented (that's a word, trust us)  mainstream outlets to the influencers/mavens/tastemakers/other-hot-buzzword journalists and outlets that focus on the latest and greatest before it's even available.
Lately we've been working with LockerGnome on some features and tin the below video, they called out BlackBerry. Specifically, they called out that they may not review a particular BlackBerry device.
Skip to about 5:10 to get a handle on what we're referencing.

Perhaps LockerGnome is just trying to get a rise out of their BlackBerry using audience. Or maybe they're serious and just aren't into the new releases from the brand.
Unfortunately, this is a reality in PR and media relations - sometimes the media just aren't into your product or story.
This is one of the reasons we (and other reputable PR practitioners) will tell you clients in the upfront that coverage is not guaranteed. We have a pretty good relationship with LockerGnome, but we can't dictate their coverage or coverage tone. Any firm that guarantees you visibility for your retainer (without a money-back guarantee) is either lying or selling you advertising.

But again, a good PR team (or consultant, etc.) can work around this. If you can't land that one Tier-A placement this time, they should be able to help you evaluate why for the next go, and in the meantime, work to secure coverage in 10 Tier-B outlets to supplement. It takes more to do less in the PR / media relations world, and anyone who sets their hopes on one placement is setting themselves up for disappointment.

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Note: This post was originally published in 2013 and LockerGnome is on hiatus. However, the message and learnings remain the same.

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Bulldog Reporter's Questions You HAVE To Ask Your PR Team Before Agreeing To A Campaign

We hear it all the time from potential partners. Their PR firm, advertising guru, clan of digital marketing mavericks, etc., didn't come through.

Why is that?

There are a few reasons, but they can be avoided if you ask two simple questions. The fine folks at Agility PR Solutions (aka Bulldog Reporter to anyone who has been in PR for more than five years, and one of the leading trade / technology outlets in the PR / media relations space) gave one of our directors a venue to share and help you avoid the mistakes so many have made in the past.

Click the image below to go to their site and read the full article.

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Remedy Clients Win 10+ Major Awards At One Trade Show!

CES, KBIS, Surf Expo, the National Association of Mortgage Bankers Annual (aka NAMB), Outdoor Retailer... we've done them all at one time or another.

We've worked with brands launching everything from Internet refrigerators to medical devices to craft beer. While each client has had their own success, last week was a banner moment for the team here at Remedy PR.

In January 2018, the first ever Outdoor Retailer + Snow Show took place in Denver. It was the first time that the SIA Snow Show and Outdoor Retailer Show were combined. With 1,000 brands competing for the attention of nearly 30,000 journalists, retail buyers and industry experts across three levels of the Colorado convention center, we can tell you it was a little hectic.

We knew in advance that two of our clients had true innovations coming out at the show. We also knew that their much-larger competitors would be competing for the same attention. The team recommended unique strategies for each brand that included a mix of old school and skunkworks PR strategies and we're happy to say that both 686 and SPY won big.

Our press release on the win is below, but you can also download it here. If you're interested in the steps our clients took that allowed us to be so successful, well, those secrets are on our blog here.

Want to connect with the Remedy Team? You can reach us at PRCheckup@RemedyPR.com.

Like what you see? Please share it on LinkedIn!

Remedy Public Relations is the leading lifestyle firm in San Diego for companies in the surf, snowboard, ski, motocross, finance, and consumer electronics industry. We know PR. We know social media. If your PR team is falling short, you may need a remedy!

Cracking The PR And Influencer Marketing Code

Cracking The PR And Influencer Marketing Code

We've been working with influencers long before they were called that. And despite what many public relations firms will tell you, they're not all influential.

But hey, we're refreshing like that

Sometimes your PR campaign is better off targeting the New York Times or the biggest influencer in your space. And sometimes... you should aim for a local Instagrammer with 456 followers.

Remedy's co-founder and managing director, Bill Byrne, was just featured by Muck Rack (one of the top publications in the PR and social media industry) on the topic. Read it online here.



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Eight Essential PR Tips For Trade Shows

Modified San Diego's Best PR Firm Trade Show_edited-1It’s that time of year… we’re gearing up for CES, the OR Snow Show and more. Are you ready? If not, here are some quick and essential tips to help you make the most of your media relations efforts at the shows.

1. Start yesterday!: These shows are important to EVERYONE exhibiting. Almost every journalist attending will receive 100’s of emails from brands pitching the mundane and the monumental. Be top of mind by being top of mind well in advance. Make sure you engage with these journalists in advance, via social media, email or even a phone call or handwritten note, regardless of if you have something to pitch at the time or not. It’ll pay off later.

2. Have a survival kit ready.: Come loaded for bear. A battery pack for your phone should be standard issue. Images / info saved somewhere easily accessible so you can send it at a moments notice. Breath mints and snack bars you can carry are a must, as well as good insoles for your shoes. If you have oily skin (ahem) maybe some of those anti-shine wipes too #justsaying

3. Show your good side!: You may not see these journalists very often. When you confirm meetings, send them a casual (yet professional enough) photo and go the extra mile in drawing on the show map exactly where your meeting will take place.

4. Concise is nice.: Get to the point in your pitch. What are you showing that’s really great? If you have 10 great things, highlight the top two and then include a quick note of what else is coming. And be realistic in what you’re pitching… make sure your pitch passes the smell test.

And lay off the jargon and buzzwords… no one wants to hear that.

5. All hands on deck!!!: We like to have approximately 1.5 people per booth / brand at a show. Why? Well, inevitably, appointments will be shifted on the fly or last minute needs will come up. You want to give each contact as much individual attention as possible.

6. Pretend you care.: Or better yet… care! Lead each meeting by asking each contact if they’ve seen anything they loved at the show or ask about any trends catching their eye. Then shift your pitch and meeting accordingly.

7. Follow-up accordingly!: Some people may want info and images within the hour. Some the week after. Make a note and act appropriately.

8. Repeat step 1!!!

There’s a lot more to media relations than the above, but trust us… even though these tips seem basic, many brands and marketing professionals overlook them as the hecticness of the show approaches.

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Talkin' Turkey... and PR

Talkin' Turkey.... And Public RelationsButterball Screen Shot Turkey Chicago Tribune1

You don't have to be the best to score media coverage.

And you don't need to be the most innovative or the market leader, although in the case of Butterball, name recognition helps.

One of the country's top producing poultry brands wins big by repurposing questions that come into their help line for some fun content at a time when interest in turkey is at a yearly high.

Well done Butterball, well done!

One piece they netted (in the Chicago Tribune, no less) as a result of the campaign below, but if you search online, you'll find a lot more out there.

10 weirdest turkey questions posed to Butterball hotline - Chicago Tribune

10 weirdest turkey questions posed to Butterball hotline - Chicago Tribune copy

 

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