There’s a major misconception in terms of how PR placements actually come about.
We had one agency partner – who we thought was pretty savvy – ask us why we “couldn’t just blast email some mommy bloggers” and get quick results. He wasn't as savvy as we thought...
What most PR agencies won’t readily admit is that the media landscape is changing and there’s more competition than ever for placements.
Even so, the good stories can rise to the top, but often it will take some solid effort unless you're the iPhone of your industry and simply bleed PR.
We’ve outlined below some select examples of great PR placements we’ve had happen for a few clients during the last two years and how long it took to see them happen. If you're not regularly dealing with the media making pitch calls, may find some surprises!
Example 1: New Product Launch - National Men’s Magazine Website
Freelance journalist was a trusted friend of someone at the agency who we spend time with during non-work activities frequently. Literally put the product in his hand and a month later, he filed his story. It didn’t appear online for FIVE more months.
Example 2: Financial Client’s New Office - Major Market Regional Newspaper
New office openings are rarely news in bigger markets, but this client offered something in this market that few firms do. After researching who at this paper would be interested, in an email, we highlighted what we had to offer and sent it off at the appropriate time. The result was an email interview which took months to complete (due to slow responses by reporter), which was incorporated into a feature story. There was more to it than that, including the client being misquoted multiple times in an early draft. (again, this was an email interview). Thankfully we were able review ahead of time (which rarely happens – you should never ask a reporter for this) and we corrected it. Four months after our initial email went out, the piece appeared online and in print, and the local office's phone rang with some impressive people on the other end.
Example 3: Client's Industry Announcement - Trade Publication
While we have a great relationship with the people managing this industry trade publication, an indutry where our client is a force, we should add, that doesn't mean that the editors of this site will drop everything just for us or our client. Even though the announcement wasn’t fluff, their staff was quite busy at the time and it took a few days for them to get back to us and later, run a feature. While the announcement was important, it wasn't "drop everything" important.
Example 4 - Consumer Technology Launch / Major National Magazine
Again, the journalists at this outlet we've known for years and have a great relationship with. They almost always return our calls and emails with some sort of response... a rarity these days for most PR people. At the end of Q3 2015, we gave the team at this very respected magazine an early look and one of a limited number review units that we had available (one of 15 at the time) to try out. In all honestly, this is the next generation of a class-leading product in its category, a PR person's dream and one that is a brand that is frequently covered. At the beginning of Q2 2016, they’ve finally decided they will cover it and we’re working with them now to triple-ensure they have what they need.
Example 5 - Financial Client / Leading National Newspaper
The client at the time was a 20+ year old, independent financial firm. Mid-sized... not the biggest, but not the smallest. In our first month of media outreach (which was our second month of working together), we cold called and emailed roughly 20 financial reporters at the major newspapers around the country. One reporter, who had never heard of our client and never worked with us before, requested an interview with their CEO, who was quoted in a story that appeared roughly a week later. Want to know which paper? Hint: It’s a journal named after a street with walls… in Manhattan.
So from the above, which were we the most surprised about? Truth be told, all of them, but Example 1 the most. It took months for a story to appear online… even after the journalist - a dear friend of someone at the agency - filed it.
Which placement do we brag about the most? Example 5... Wall Street Journal in less than two months? That's PR gold!
And it was Example 3, a regional publication, where the client saw the most traction.
The reality of the current PR world is, unfortunately, that there are multiple variables affecting when and if your brand will receive coverage, and they’re often out of the PR team’s control. As we’ve said before, reporters are not parrots and on a micro-level, they all have their own needs, so research into what each one wants from you before moving forward.
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How do PR hits happen? What's the anatomy of a PR hit?
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That said, while we're pretty darn good at our jobs, this campaign from Budweiser is absolutely brilliant. Is it craft beer? Heck no. Budweiser isn't even owned by U.S. based company any longer.
Does that matter... well, not if you're Budweiser and want to drive both awareness and sales.
The above was taken from the recent Fast Company article you can find here.
So can craft breweries compete? Definitely. Will it be easy? No.
It'll take a mix of product (session IPA's and similar styles) unique flavors and above all, great marketing.
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Name five Super Bowl ads from last year and describe what they were about. If you can’t, do it from any year… and the Apple ‘1984’ spot doesn’t count. Or anything with Clydesdales 😉
Of those five (or less) how many of them led you to buy those products or use that brand’s services?
If the ad didn’t cause you to go out and act, does that mean the ad is worthless?
Definitely not. Here is the reality of advertising (or PR/media relations and marketing in general).
It often takes time and repetition for the message to sink in. I didn’t see the Apple ‘1984’ add live, but I know about it because it’s so regularly highlighted over the years. And its content was very different.
Think about GoDaddy’s ads. The ones with the women having wardrobe malfunctions. Regardless of your personal taste, they also are (were?) different enough to get attention and have people talking about them.
Creatively, both of these ads were different than the norm at the time. That’s an important thing to keep in mind.
Creativity is incredibly important in marketing. It helps cut through the clutter.
Because of advertising, and our love of 'The Walking Dead' a lot of us here have a pretty strong awareness of Mazda as an automotive brand. They seem to consistently have spots airing during ‘The Walking Dead’ that look pretty good and catch our attention when we forget to reach for the DVR's remote. That said, no one in our office has a Mazda. Does that mean the ads weren’t effective?
No. As an example, the last person to buy the car in our office wanted an all-wheel drive sedan. Mazda didn’t make one at the time, so their ads, while they were memorable, were for products that we just didn’t need.
However, Mazda consistently runs ads during a show we watch and because of that, we were am pretty aware of of some of the cars they’re selling. Budweiser usually does something with Clydesdales.
Consistency, or repetition of message, are almost as important as creativity, if you want to boost awareness, and later sales.
‘Consistency’ and ‘creatively’ should be the words you dwell on here.
We hear all the time from friends and colleagues – at both big brands and small – that advertising didn’t work for them. Or PR didn’t work for them. Why? Because they didn’t see sales. When I ask how they measured awareness, I tend to get blank stares. When I ask if they directed their agency partners or let them lead, I get uncomfortable silence.
What is almost always missing when a marketing program falls short is some sort of creativity or consistency in activity. Vanilla tastes good, but it doesn’t stand out. One and done is rarely enough.
Sales come from awareness, as well as availability. Marketers can’t control availability, but they can help build awareness, which will lead to sales if done right.
Despite what case study you read, marketing success comes from creativity and consistency/repetition of message. There are exceptions to the rule, but if you're going to play the odds, are you going to put your money on the 99 percent favored to win or the long shot?
BTW - If you're interested in the creative background of that Apple '1984' ad, check out this piece from Bloomberg.
Questions about the health of your PR or marketing campaign? Drop us a line at PRCheckup@remedypr.com. A consultation is always free!
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Do Super Bowl Ads Work? A Lesson in Public Relations, Advertising, Creativity And Consistency
Should You Buy Followers On Instagram?
The answer really goes back to your views on advertising and how you measure success. Does being the biggest make you the best? Or is there more to it?
Long before social media and the World Wide Web were so dominant, print media was a major component in many brands’ marketing budgets. And much like Super Bowl ads, an ad in a national publication, such as USA Today, would guarantee you a lot of eyeballs.
Or would it?
We hear from colleagues all the time that “advertising does nothing” for their brand. While we thoroughly disagree with that (usually it’s bad advertising that’s to blame, or the lack of time/energy/ability it takes to measure awareness and results), we understand where they’re coming from. They bought an ad, people supposedly saw it and nothing happened.
How many times have you left your hotel room and even looked at the free paper left there?
We are not criticizing USA Today, but we’re bringing this up to set the stage for our point that metrics such as circulation maybe aren’t always as valuable as things such as engagement or particular demographic information.
Here’s an example we can call upon from our own experience with PR and editorial.
In April we a financial client in the New York Times on some changes that were going to happen that would affect home buyers. Big news and a great piece. Did that correlate to more phone calls for the client? Hard to say, there wasn’t a real call to action there since the changes are months away. But people saw it, we’re sure of that. How many? No idea.
Back in January, the same client was also featured in a regional newspaper for another, a more consumer oriented story, in a newspaper about five times smaller than the New York Times. About two months later, a regional associate in that market received a phone call from a customer regarding a very large deal.
By no means are we saying we should never call the Times again to pitch a story, but it’s interesting to see what measurably moved the needle for the client. Keep“measurably” in mind.
Ok, back to Instagram. Should you buy followers? It really depends on your goals.
On social media, there’s followers and then there’s engaged followers.
Eyeballs are nice, but eyeballs that care about your brand and are incentivized to act nicer.
Many marketing departments judge success based on impressions. Buying an ad in USA Today, while more expensive than a regional newspaper, will probably get you more impressions to show to the higher ups. That doesn’t necessarily correlate to actions, awareness and what most brands really want… sales.
Buying followers on Instagram can make your brand look more popular than it is and as a result cause others to consider it to be somewhat important, which may cause others to follow and hopefully, engage with you.
However, we have to strongly recommend judging the success of a social media campaign strictly on the growth of followers alone. If that’s your criteria for judging success, then you’re driving down the wrong street.
What’s the best way to grow your presence on social media? Advertising can help you get fans (again, advertising works, if it’s the right kind), but above all, you need to have great content that people actually want to engage with and share with their network.
All it takes is strategic thinking and typically, a great deal of effort. This is why companies have social media managers with decades+ years of experience in strategic marketing and, unfortunately, why sometimes our proposals for social media programs are as much or more than in fee than our traditional PR proposals.
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Not everyone can be the best. Not every brand can be number one. (more…)
Wired.com just did a piece on the Twitter response to the tragedy that just happened during the Boston Marathon. (more…)
Media Bistro's PR Newser has an article on Coke's announcement that social (more…)
If you read the action sports industry trade sites Shop-Eat-Surf or TransWorld Business, you already know that the CEO of Skullcandy is (more…)
It's safe to say most people in the US are familiar with the brand Solo Cup, but if not, they're the leader in the red, disposable party cups used at BBQ's, for beer pong and other activities where you want a decent-sized, disposable cup to aid in the consumption of a beverage.
Not too long ago, Facebook and email inboxes lit up everywhere because it was discovered that the indentations on Solo Cups actually denote units of measurement, presumably for pouring beer, wine, liquor, etc. Solo could have done a few different things in this situation, including deny or simply not respond.
Instead, Solo decided to issue their own fun infographic, explaining that while the measurement lines are accurate, but they have applications for other liquids as well, not just those served at keggers and July 4th beach volleyball games.
Great work Solo, you turned a story with some not-so-great connotations (namely over consumption of alcohol) into a positive piece and extended your media exposure through a little bit of creativity.
Why do some PR people continue to blast out their releases to everyone in their network?
We recently received another “press release” from a brand today. We’re not sure why. We’re not a media outlet. In fact, the release was from a competitor of one of our clients! Thanks for the heads up on what you’re doing ;-).
We fully realize why brands keep PR in-house. Sometimes it’s budget, often it's because a company doesn’t see the value of a dedicated team (in-house our outside help) and believes it’s ‘easy’, since the hard costs in terms of tools include a word processing program, email and phone, along with the ability to write.
And sometimes, those mass-blast emails do bring results. Great results? Not really, but they do bring results for little investment.
Regardless, PR is not easy. You may be able to get a few hits by leveraging your network or the simple mass-blast. Heck, because of the great work we did for some clients in the past, we know journalists continue to go back to those brands for news on their own, regardless of if we’re working with them any longer. That says a lot.
But to really put together a great, results driven, strategic campaign takes some work. Megan Michelson, someone we’ve worked with more than a few times in the outdoor landscape (in addition to being an all around nice person too), made a Tumblr post a while back offering some tips for PR people. Here are some highlights and our thoughts from Megan's post:
Totally agree. Story pitching in PR is a little like dating. No response often means not interested.
Mental note: mass PR blasts do not = exclusives. Sometimes you don't have the luxury of doing an exclusive, but when you do, it can help really get that top tier coverage.
Keep it personal. It may take longer to do this than the mass-blast BCC email, but a little extra effort can go a long way.
Look at the magazine/website/tv show before that email goes out or you grab the phone. You wouldn't buy a boat trailer to haul your dirt bike... make sure the media you're sending info to is the appropriate media for your pitch!
Some of our favorite portfolio pieces involve the people behind the brands. Those sort of stories take real effort, but they're worth it (and many times, our friends in the media, like Megan alludes to, enjoy working on them as well).
While the team at Remedy Communications (http://www.remedycomm.com) is good (we won't go so far as to drop such over-used terms as "pr gurus," "social media experts" or "media mavens," although... we're not too bad and we've been called those things before), we'll acknowledge that we make mistakes too (including typos in the Remedy Communicationsblog) and sometimes don't follow all of the rules Megan has put out there. Sometimes we don't have a choice, sometimes... well, stuff happens. But regardless, this is solid, strong advice for anyone who is taking on a PR role.
Like this post? Please share it by clicking the LinkedIn icon below! Wondering if your PR program is working? Drop us a line at PRcheckup@remedypr.com.
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How many times have you left your hotel room and even looked at the free paper left there?
Why do some PR people continue to blast out their releases to everyone in their network? 
