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.
Want more PR tips? Sign up for our newsletter here!
San Diego Beer PR Public Relations Budweiser America American Beer Cans Social Media Marketing Tech PR action sports
Social media (and public relations) are part of the marketing umbrella... in some ways they're advertising (dark posts anyone?), but if that's solely how you're treating them, you're making a huge mistake.
So we ask you, are you taking the me out of social media?
For example, do you like and share photos of others, or just your own brand? What about fans of your brand? Do you actively leave comments? Do you actively try to win over people who aren't fans of your brand? Are you being social or are you simply pushing your own agenda?
No one likes that person that only talks about themselves and this pertains to brands too. Trust us on this one!
When it comes to PR, remember, Press Releases Kill Puppy Dogs! Well, no, they don't... and while the releases are focused on your brand, think about what a journalist wants to know. After all, when it comes to public relations, what we really mean is media relations... dealing with journalists, bloggers, etc. These information gatekeepers are looking to find out if the story you want them to tell is worth telling to their audience.
Sound simple? It is. See this post for more on that topic. And the image? Wish we could take credit for it. It's from an article Bill was interviewed for by our friends at 2one5 Creative.
QR Codes, kittens, QR Codes Kill Kittens, San Diego Public Relations (PR) And Social Media”San Diego PR” https://plus.google.com/+RemedyprSandiego A leading public relations (PR) agency in San Diego, specializing in social media marketing, event marketing, action sports and finance, San Diego Public Relations Agency, Action Sports PR, San Diego Social Media Agency, San Diego Event Marketing Agency, Social Media Marketing Agency, Craft Beer PR, PR, Public Relations, Social Media San Diego, Social Media Marketing Agency San Diego, Public Relations San Diego, PR Firm San Diego, a leading public relations agency in San Diego, specializing in social media marketing, event marketing, and digital publicity. PR for Tech, experts, craft beer, action sports, finance, consumer tech, bluetooth, beer, consumer goods, b2b, green, eco-friendly, craft beer PR, action sports PR, finance PR, consumer tech PR, bluetooth PR, beer PR , consumer PR, b2b PR, green PR, eco-friendly PR, real estate PR, Experts, craft beer marketing, action sports marketing, finance marketing, consumer tech marketing, bluetooth marketing, beer marketing , consumer marketing, b2b marketing, green marketing, eco-friendly marketing, real estate marketing, action sports PR, action sports marketing, best PR san diego, san diego best PR, san diego social media, san diego lifestyle PR, san diego bar PR, san diego restaurant PR, san diego restaurant social media, restaurant social media. https://instagram.com/remedy_pr/ San Diego Public Relations. San Diego’s Best Public Relations Consultants – Honesty results in public relations. bestprsandiego.com jpublicrelations, besocialpr, leaders in PR for action sports beer social media san diego, healthcare marketing, crossfit marketing, sports marketing, crossfit PR, crossfit social media, PR experts, social media experts san diego, san diego PR experts. San Diego Public relations and social media. Experts in public relations based in San Diego. Bar public relations. Beer public relations.
>take the me out of social media, winning PR, best PR in san diego
This is the biggest misconception people have when launching a PR or media relations campaign. It's common even among seasoned marketers.
But it's the truth.
Here's a tip: Journalists are not sitting around waiting to regurgitate what they’re sent by PR people. They are not parrots.
We were reminded about this we saw this Tweet linking to The Walking Deadline from Billy Brown, a journalist we work with fairly regularly.
Billy, like many journalists/bloggers/content creators/whatever you want to call them, is not a parrot. Also, Billy is not an idiot and can think for himself. Why is this important to keep in mind?
If we put in the headline of a press release or subject line of an email “This Is A Game Changer!” or "This Is The Best Thing Ever!" then it better be a game-changer, or else Billy will think twice before looking at our pitch next time around. Keep in mind that we can send things to Billy that aren’t game-changers, but before we do, we better be able to explain why it’s worth his time or else we're going to sour the relationship.
Simple enough? You'd think so, but time and again PR people are asked to push things to media that either aren't newsworthy or so overstated that they turn off the intended media targets.
Here’s what you need to keep in mind when trying to forge relationships with journalists and what you need to do to ensure your efforts are deemed newsworthy.
For the most part, media outlets need make money: They accomplish this based on selling advertising in some shape or form, the rates for which are calculated from publication sales, website traffic, Nielsen ratings, headline clicks, etc. It’s the journalist’s job to create compelling stories, relevant to the media outlet’s specific audience, that will help with this.
What may be a good story to you and/or about your brand may not help with the point above. You need to consider that. And while your pitch doesn’t have to be a game-changer to secure coverage, you do need to explain what value it has to offer.
Personally, when looking to hire consultants for our partners, we’ve found that the best PR people are those that can secure coverage for the brands that aren’t the leaders in their space. Our overused phrase in this instance is that anyone can pitch an iPhone to the media. Everyone wants to cover the next iPhone.
Journalists are busy. They’re not waiting around for your news, regardless of their need to drive revenue for the media outlets they're working for. They’re most likely not going to drop what they’re doing unless what you’re offering is incredibly monumental in the total scope of their relevant news world. And the more time you can give them, the better.
Even that Instagram personality with 100k that you so desperately want to feature your brand using a VSCO picture may work days, if not weeks in advance. Local media have their own deadlines, as do journalists who write for magazines and websites.
Everyone is your competition for media coverage. Every brand, regardless of newsworthiness, if they're engaging in PR, they're potentially blocking you from securing media coverage.
Journalists have their own coverage areas and interests. This gets overlooked often. Some will cover a range of topics, others not so much. Some just don't like certain brands. It happens. A finance reporter at one publication may cover everything from credit cards to mortgages, but at another media outlet, those topics could be spread across multiple reporters. This leads us to our next point...
You need to go to the right person at the right publication with the right pitch. At your own company, you don’t drop off a creative brief for a new logo design with the accounting department, do you? Sure, they may pass it onto the right people, but why would you ask them to do that? They’re busy handling accounting related tasks and your request, in addition to being annoying, may cause them to think twice about getting back to you in the future.
Send your news at the right time. We can't stress that enough. This is going to vary by what sort of media you're targeting, but again, Billy and others like him aren't just waiting by their laptops for emails from their favorite PR people every minute of the day.
We'll close with this because potential clients often ask about media lists and networks.
Relationships matter, but the story being pitched is more important.
Remedy has developed some incredible relationships and in our network of colleagues, it's fairly easy to connect to journalists we've never worked with before. The same goes for many other PR consultants and firms and a lot of them will agree that the relationship won’t matter if we don’t follow some simple points outlined above.
If you want to secure editorial coverage for your brand, you need to look at it from the reporter’s perspective and go from there. Give them a relevant story for their coverage area(s), presented in a way they want to see it and with time to consider it.
public relations social media san diego marketing outdoor retailer healthcare PR guru experts craft beer startup convergence wework adweek advertising tips marketing hacks
Lately CrossFit has become a pretty polarizing force in society. With its success, the media loves to knock it . 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.
Regardless of if you love CrossFit, hate their brand of fitness or are a member at another type of high intensity interval training (HIIT) or similar facility (BTW - We love Performance 360 in San Diego... and they’re NOT a client) , there are some basic social media lessons all brands can learn from these gyms.
1. Build a community through social media. This is such a basic element of social media marketing and one Bill has been quoted about before (we also blogged about it here). Simply put, take the ‘me’ out of social media.
2. Encourage others to participate and care. Many HIIT gyms provide in-gym and online boards that don’t just track gym records, but also the personal records and goals of its participants. This is HUGE for this demographic and a key source of their community building online.
As we get older, we tend to have fewer tangible goals we can point to and share as a source of pride. The glory that came from high school sports achievements have faded away and personal accomplishments in the business world don’t translate well to social media ("I filed all my TPS reports two days early!!!" said no one ever.). Even though we love our careers at Remedy, you won't catch us talking about what a great press release someone here wrote during the next off-site office happy hour.
CrossFit and other HIIT gyms provide the opportunity for members to take pride in their accomplishments, regardless of if it’s fat loss, jumping to a new height or lifting a certain amount of weight.
3. Incentivise people to recruit for you. Referral programs are another basic that these gyms dominate on a social level. Your brand may not have an official membership component like a gym does, but there’s always some sort referral program you can build in and tie back to recognizing the fans of your brand.
4. Engage with your audience. The good gyms solicit from members, both online and off, ways which they can improve their programs. More often than not, the members' questions and gym instructors' responses are posted online. The gym may not implement these improvement ideas, but they are showing their members they are listening to them.
5. Live offline. Another basic and often overlooked component in social media is translating online affinity to offline promotion. Apparel, in essence, is social media. You wear t-shirts, hats, etc., when you leave the house. If you like your gym, wearing their t-shirt is a source of pride for you and an advertising campaign you’re happy to be a part of. For members of these gyms though, they don’t look at the shirts as free advertising for a ‘brand’, they’re showing pride in a community that’s helped to improve their lives. A t-shirt may not be appropriate for your brand, but there are other social ways you can live offline to build more affinity.
CrossFit and HIIT gyms aren’t for everyone, but their rise in prominence and level of community building is something many brands can learn from.
San Diego Public Relations, San Diego Best Public Relations, PR San Diego, PR experts in San Diego, social media experts San Diego, expert PR san diego, action sports PR, action sports social media, San Diego's best PR resource, San Diego Lifestyle Public Relations, San Diego's best PR resource, San Diego PR resources, San Diego referred PR, PR San Diego, Lifestyle San Diego public relations public relations, San Diego, Public Relations, Craft Beer PR, social media craft beer, craft beer instagram
San Diego, Public Relations, Social Media, Craft Beer, Action Sports Marketing, Action Sports PR, Tech PR, Real Estate PR, Trade Show PR, PR for the Outdoor Industry
Depending on who you ask, it could take $1,000 or it could cost you $7,500 (here’s BusinessWire’s take), depending on the time involved. And this doesn't factor in distribution via a wire service or PR firm.
That distribution and intended use of the press release is what you want to focus on, not the release itself.
If you’re sending out a press release via a wire service to add SEO value, that’s one thing. And depending on who you ask, that may not be as relevant as it used to be, at least according to these experts.
Good PR people know press releases are just tools and sometimes, unnecessary ones. We have one client, for reasons we cannot discuss, that does not issue formal press releases. That hasn’t stopped us from securing great media coverage for them in outlets such as CNET and Engadget.
How did we do it? We emailed particular reporters that cover this client's space relevant info (about four paragraphs) and a JPG of their in-store marketing collateral, and then let the story go from there. There wasn't a hard sell on our part because the story didn't warrant it. It was relevant to the reporters and they ran with it. Was it as groundbreaking as the iPhone 6z (Disclosure: We have no idea if there is an iPhone 6z on the horizon or not ;-)? No. But our news was relevant enough to warrant some great coverage on two outstanding news leaders in the tech space.
Getting back to the earlier question, and presumably how you found this post, are press releases worth the cost of producing them? The answer is that it depends on the release and your needs.
We also recently had a client in the New York Times, stemming from a press release we sent to a reporter. The release itself focused on trends and issues in their field and how our client could help. We didn’t use an excessive amount of buzzwords or over-the-top language to intrigue the reporter. Instead, we presented the facts, recent and timely developments and information how our client is working in this new situation. We didn't call our client "the best" or "the most innovative" or "paradigm changing". Instead, in the release, we presented the issue, recent developments and one way our client is contributing in a positive manner. The release was written in about three days (including client edits), sent to a reporter on a Thursday and we received interest the following Tuesday. The story ran about 10 days later.
The secret to securing great news coverage isn’t a killer media list or over the top press release. Simply put, it’s reaching out to the right reporters with a story idea relevant to their coverage topic.
Sound confusing? It really isn’t, but we’re happy to talk if you’d like to discuss more. You can reach us here!
