We've posted before about what journalists want from PR people here.
PRNewser recently published a great post on the topic and we thought we'd share, without any commentary (which is very hard for PR people to do ;-).Want More tips? Give us a call or drop us a line at PRCheckup@Remedypr.com
We're very excited to announce that Remedy Public Relations' managing director, Bill Byrne, has been asked to speak on a panel about best practices for brands and PR people to engage with emerging media as part of a live group panel discussion through the NYC Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
The Pod Bless America event will be co-produced by the media heavyweights at Muck Rack, along with the NY PRSA, and focus on the best way to engage with podcast outlets and other emerging media. You can register for the event here , and more information can be found here.
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Bigger is often not better in PR. How do you measure the results of a PR campaign?
Number of placements? Impression numbers? If that's not how we measure the effectiveness of an ad, why do we translate advertising equivalencies to public relations campaigns?
One of our agency directors was just featured by Bulldog Reporter in an article on the dicey topic of measurement.
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The entire team is excited to share that we won one of the highest honors in the public relations industry for a project we put together with SPY eyewear.
Not only did we come home with a Bulldog PR gold medal, but we did so in the Best Consumer Product Launch category, ahead of household names such as Volvo.
You can see the full press release on Sporting Goods Business by clicking here.
There are a few things that really make this award special for us. The first is that the campaign leveraged smart, creative thinking, and a candid approach to dealing with the media. Not a massive budget spend or flashy stunt.
The product we focused on combined our expertise in both consumer lifestyle PR, and consumer tech, two areas our team is deeply entrenched. Lastly, both Oakley, one of the biggest brands in this space, and Electric Visual, were launching similar products at the same time as SPY was during the Outdoor Retailer trade show (the largest event of its kind to date - the outdoor industry's equivalent of CES combined with MacWorld). Oakley is known for producing pretty extravagant stunts and media events. Their display at the OR Show for their version of this product was definitely eye-catching.
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The Two Reasons Journalists Don't Like PR People
Dear Journalist Friends,
We're sorry. We hope this is enlightening as to why some PR people act the way they do.
Dear Friends At Brands,
If you don’t know what we're talking about, you need to read this.
A quick search of Facebook groups, industry scripture, along with Twitter and assorted other forums, will turn up instances where our colleagues, and possibly even ourselves (but doubtful ;-), have rubbed a few of you the wrong way.
Let’s get back to our media industry clickbait-esque headline.
Journalists, do you know the reason you hate (some of) us?
If we had to read your mind, it would be the nauseating amount of irrelevant pitches you receive and the annoying follow-up calls that come five minutes after we send them are likely culprits.
But do you know why we actually do this?
There are two main reasons PR people push too hard, often in the wrong direction, when it comes to dealing with journalists. It’s a systemic issue that many firms won’t want to address.
Reason 1: PR plans are developed and pitched to clients by senior agency leadership teams who are out of touch
The senior ranks of many agencies are led by people who no longer engage directly in media relations, resulting in grossly inflated expectations stemming from plans based on archaic thinking. They haven’t reached out to a journalist in years. They’re not in the trenches regularly communicating with our friends on the editorial side.
As a result, plans are developed based on outdated knowledge and experience.
Touchdowns help to win football games, but the style of play has significantly evolved over the years. As an easy example, we're often told by clients and industry colleagues that <<brand / product / event>> would be perfect for Maxim. They’re usually right…if this were 2001. They haven’t opened the mag or looked at Maxim’s site or magazine in years. Its content has evolved. Are there avenues for the pitch they have in mind? Possibly, but the lack of direct media interaction and knowledge of the current media climate steers plan development in the wrong direction.
A good PR person pushes back on clients and internal stakeholders as appropriate. Despite being experts, when we do push back a bit, the response is often that we must not have strong enough relationships with the media we’re targeting. And if that’s the perception, we could lose the account or our jobs.
While good PR pros know that landing killer media coverage takes a lot more than strong relationships, none of us want to lose our jobs. So we push on and follow orders.
Reason 2: There is a lack of trust in PR teams and understanding of how long it can take for a journalist to show interest, let alone file a story.
That is our only explanation for the following, very common, scenario.
Sometimes agencies are expected to have boiler room-esqueoperations. In addition to update reports, PR firms are often asked by clients to provide call logs for review. This was asked of me at big agencies and later after co-founding Remedy PR. Detailed records of who we contacted, when and their response.
The result of that is intense pressure on the PR agency to tangibly show how our time is spent, even showing how our time is actually spent is not the best use of our time or the budget of our partners.
Do we keep logs? Yes, most agencies do. Some people keep pretty detailed notes. I can tell you where one editor’s significant other went to school, who refs hockey as a passion side-job, and who dislikes a certain feature on a certain type of product.
Our notes aren’t always appropriate to share with our partners, and sometimes we’ll reach out to a journalist about multiple brands, or maintain lists that are relevant to multiple client partners. When that’s the case, if a client wants a call log, we’re often spending extra time drafting something that is specific for them. Not the best use of our time.
And this doesn’t take into account the time spent researching media and refining pitches so they make sense to that Tier-A journalist you want to be interested in your story.
The misunderstanding of how much time things can take is where things take a major turn for the worse, not just for us on the PR side, but you, our friends on the editorial end.
PR people grossly outnumber journalists (6:1 according to some), and some receive hundreds of emails a day, a large part of them irrelevant. These stats get worse when the journalist writes for a high-profile media outlet or is an influencer (define that as you will). This makes it critical for those of us on our side of the desk to follow-up (sorry, we know you hate that) when we have a good pitch for you (we really do!) that may have buried in the previously mentioned hundreds of emails you’re receiving.
Giving a journalist time to get through their inbox and run something through the chain of command doesn’t make for a strong call log for our clients.
Again, the call log doesn’t account for the time we should be spending on strategy, or looking at a journalist’s coverage, tweets, etc., to get a handle for what they could be into in terms of potential story ideas.
We find it strange that many don’t grasp that even a response, let alone action, by a journalist, can take some time.
Most of us probably have friends and family members who may not to respond to a text message or email for days, if not weeks. If it’s not urgent and doesn’t require an immediate response, you probably don’t text someone every other day to check in. That would be annoying.
So why do we expect a journalist to get back to us right away?
Journalists aren't public servants. They’re not firefighters – waiting and obligated – to rush out when the call comes in.
Unfortunately, the pressure some of us receive to generate these logs is the reason for the incessant follow-up.
If you didn’t get back to us on Tuesday, we need to call you Thursday and email again the following Friday to ask if you received our last email and call. And then we send a DM on Instagram.
So we smile, and dial (or the modern equivalent of that), and log every call for review later.
What’s the fix?
There are ways we can around these issues in PR. There are paths we can take that will get brands and PR teams on the radar of the media, and strengthen the relationships between journalists, PR people, and the brands they represent.
We need to change our thinking a bit, and we’ll get into that soon.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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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.
And if you like it, please share it on LinkedIn!
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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.
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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Not too long ago we executed a NASCAR®-related product PR campaign for a client. This was a first for us.
While successful, it solidified a few things we already preach regarding public relations, with one overarching theme…
Executing a PR / media relations campaign in one industry is the same as executing a public relations campaign in any other.
The publications and channels may change, but their basic needs and rules remain the same. Here’s what they are:
1. The More Time You Give, The Better
Believe it or not, journalists are not waiting around for PR people to contact them with story ideas. They have their own deadlines and content obligations in terms of the number of stories they need to publish or want to publish.
As great as your story may be for your brand, that doesn’t mean you can simply expect an outlet to make room for it or that a journalist will want to make time for it.
2. There Has To Be A Fit And If There Isn’t, You Bend
It’s a widely held belief that NASCAR fans fully support the brands their favorite drivers endorse.
While that may be true, the NASCAR related media outlets themselves don’t cover new product launches or brand news in the same way we think of general consumer and business publications as doing. Their focus tends to be on track drama, fines, equipment changes and paint scheme changes.
Some early, and later, extensive research into their media channels brought this to light. Along with extreme disappointment because we thought this would be a layup of a pitch.
So did we abandon the campaign? No. As the entrepreneurs and ‘influencers’ of today are fond of saying, we decided to pivot.
In addition to traditional media, we targeted people with large and engaged social media followings (we’re hesitant to every say someone with a lot of followers is an actual 'influencer') to secure coverage. While most of the popular accounts were owned by drivers and their pit crews who had competing endorsement deals, there were many other people we could target, ranging from on-air broadcast talent to super fans.
3. The Easier You Make Their Job, The Better
Journalists, like the rest of us, are busy. Having all the details and assets ready and at your fingertips can go a long way in helping secure interest for a story.
Speed is a big component of grabbing the checkered flag on race day and in PR.
4. All Media Want The Same Thing
They want a compelling story for their audience that at the end of the day, will drive page views, clicks, increase ratings, increase their street cred, etc.
It’s that simple.
When that isn’t available, sometimes cash works. Advertising, sponsorships, etc. Old school PR professionals shudder at this notion, but it’s the reality of our industry today. Thankfully, we didn’t need to go this route.
When planning any PR campaign, keep these four tips in mind. They won’t guarantee success – as nothing can in PR – but they’re good steps to take to help prevent failure.
Want More tips? Give us a call or drop us a line at PRCheckup@Remedypr.com
