Latest PR Articles

Do You Skip the TV Commercials? You're Not Alone: Getting On the Show Is More Important Than Ever

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:41:53 -0500

Commercials used to be the time to get up and stretch the ol' legs, get a snack or let the dog out. Today, they are the signal to hit the fast forward button on the remote.

The advent of Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), often referred to by one of the leading brand names, TIVO, has finally given the viewer a break from the background noise of television advertising. Instead of being screamed at by local car dealers, pitched on the ShamWow or told repeatedly to not squeeze the Charmin, many consumers who subscribe to cable TV these days just zoom past the commercials without ever giving them a second look.

Jim Barton and Mike Ramsay, the creators of TIVO, don't even view their creation as a consumer product. They call it a "public service."

The consumer backlash against advertising has been building for years, and it is in all sectors. Even as advertisers shift their budgets from traditional to online media consumers are feeling empowered and fleeing advertising at every turn.

But don't take my word for it.

A study published late last year by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) makes it very clear that advertising industry insiders are running for the hills. The writing is on the wall when the ANA itself reveals that, "More than 80 percent of advertising executives believe that DVRs will have a serious negative impact on the effectiveness of TV advertising...changes in DVR penetration and DVR usage will result in changes in commercial viewership and changes in the cost of TV advertising. These changes, in turn, will affect the effectiveness of TV advertising, requiring a continuous revision of the tailored strategic response to maintain advertising spending efficiency."

With consumers finally in the driver's seat as regards their exposure to TV ads, savvy marketers are looking at the alternatives to expensive TV spots, especially when the penetration of paid TV advertising continues to be eroded by the growth of the DVR.

And that brings us to the point I really want to get across.

Today it is more important than ever to actually be IN the show, rather than have your message relegated to a few seconds in between the show's segments, lost in the fast-forward blur.

So what does "in the show" mean? It means you or your company's CEO or spokesperson booked as an expert guest on talk shows, or interviewed as an expert commentator on the news story du jour. It means you are part of the entertainment, not just another commercial spot-boring at best, most often annoying.

Being a part of the entertainment, instead of the interruption, delivers tremendous value in several other important ways. The most important of these is that people trust the news far more than paid ads. The tacit endorsement of a TV talk show host or news reporter carries much more weight with consumers-a favorable interview is seen as an implicit endorsement for your products, services or book.

A great example of this value is now known as "The Oprah Effect." Ten years ago, Oprah chose Spanx shapewear as one of her "Favorite Things," and sales boomed for the Atlanta-based clothing company that manufactures the line. Countless authors, companies, and even other television personalities (anyone heard of Dr. Phil?), owe their good fortune to Oprah's endorsement.

Now granted, there is really only one Oprah, but interviews on other television talk shows can have a similar effect on the market's perception of your products or book-even if it is not quite as drastic as an Oprah endorsement.

Is it time for you to look at how the increased media coverage of a good PR campaign could give your product or service a competitive edge? Next time you sit down to watch your favorite TV news or talk show, think about how the guests and expert commentators on the show appeared. If you watched the same "expert" pitching his product in a TV spot, would you have been as convinced of its value?

More to the point...would you actuaIly have watched the TV commercial? I personally don't think I could actually sit through another 30 seconds of the brunette selling Progressive Insurance...hurry, where's the remote?

How Do You Plan For the Unexpected? Why Crisis PR Can Save a Company

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:41:33 -0500

There is a new price tag for failure, approximately $21.5 billion.

That's the amount financial analysts say the Tiger Woods PR debacle has cost the companies who had hired Tiger as a spokesperson. The personal loss of credibility goes far beyond affecting the $100 million man, and has substantially affected the value of the companies who depended on his image to sell their products and services.

In a vacuum, his misstep has caused a ripple effect that is costing jobs and may actually wind up closing companies. The terror for firms large and small is that it's nigh impossible to predict when a crisis is going to happen - but that doesn't mean it's impossible to prepare for it.

Crisis public relations is more than just the practice of damage control. In fact, it is one part prevention and one part containment, aimed at curtailing or even eliminating the damage from a public relations crisis. The problem with most companies is that they don't typically see crisis PR as a proactive measure, and they simply react when a crisis strikes.

The first way to protect yourself against a PR disaster taking the rug out from under your company's feet is to have a plan in place, just like OSHA requires you to have an evacuation plan in case your office catches on fire. Companies need to have a written procedure to be executed either in-house or by their PR agency to immediately contain and control a PR crisis.

The core of this plan should be a two-fold approach of silence, and then disclosure. When a PR crisis strikes, it's important to be sure that no one in your company speaks to the media immediately, at least not without a plan or a statement approved by management. Second, management needs to assess the damage of the story, and prepare not only a written response, but offer a spokesperson to speak to the press. A perfect example of this occurred in the 1980s in Tampa Bay. One evening, not too long after the Los Angeles race riots, a white sheriff's deputy shot and killed a black teenager during a robbery investigation. The suspect wielded what looked like a gun in the darkness and pointed it at the deputy, prompting the deputy to fire on the suspect. After the suspect was down, it was discovered what the deputy thought was a gun was a piece of wood carved out to look like a gun.

This was a potentially explosive story. A banner front-page headline could have touched off local riots and raised tensions in the community to the boiling point.

From the circumstances involved, it was what the police community calls "a righteous shoot," justified from the thread of events of the evening. Police are permitted to fire on suspects when they believe their safety or the safety of others is in imminent peril. The suspect, believed to have a weapon, had both motive and opportunity to fire and had the "weapon" aimed at the deputy. The public information officer (PIO) for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office at the time was Jack Espinosa, the first civilian PIO in the country. When he heard of the incident, he got in his car and called on his car phone (at that time, cell phones and car phones were very rare) every crime beat reporter in the city, and asked them to meet him at the crime scene. He also called the watch commander and advised him not to speak to a soul until he arrived at the scene. Once there, he collected all the information about the incident, and then brought the senior officer on scene in front of the gaggle of press he had called. He held an impromptu press conference and answered every question from every reporter, making clear every detail of the incident.

The end result was that the reporters, and their editors, came to the same conclusion as the investigators - while tragic, there was nothing the deputy could have done to change the outcome of the evening without having placed himself in what he believed was mortal danger. Also, the reporters had no suspicions that there was any kind of cover-up in place, as they were given access to the crime scene and the commanding officer on the scene.

The next morning, news of the shooting hit the papers, but not as a banner headline. Instead, it was a brief in the back portions of the papers, and one of the major dailies decided it wasn't worth covering at all. A PR disaster of life-threatening proportions was averted by first controlling the flow of information, and then opening the information flow in a professional manner, with a communications pro as the gatekeeper.

Espinosa, who later became known nationally for his skill, had a plan in place on how to handle a crisis. He executed it instantly, controlled the story and served the press in such a way that it muted the story and its impact before it had a chance to balloon into a full fledged crisis.

Companies need to make such a PR insurance policy a mission-critical task, and part of their overall marketing strategies and tactics.

How Do You Know Which Medium Is The Right Choice For Your Message?

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:52:59 -0500

Five hundred press releases is the average number delivered to the New York Times every day. When you get to major metropolitan daily newspapers, the number drops to about 250, and 100 for community weeklies. Most local TV stations are in the 200 range and radio is around 100.

Per day.

So, with competition like that, how do you make the most of your PR campaign and not get lost in the shuffle?

Well, the first step is to look at your message and ask yourself a few pointed questions. Is it newsworthy? Is it consumer related? Could it have a local twist? Is there a visual aspect to it? Is it a topic I can have a long conversation about? What age group am I targeting? Is there an income bracket I'm targeting?

With these questions and answers in mind, let's take a look at the different traditional media to see which fits your product or service best.

Television Interviews

Whether it is a morning, noon or evening newscast, TV communicates to its audience through pictures. It's all visual. A producer is looking for something camera-worthy that's also newsworthy, entertaining, informative, or a "how-to." If you don't think your message can be visual, think again.

We once had a life insurance agency as a client, and they wanted us to arrange local and national TV appearances for their CEO. The headline for our pitch was "Can You Afford To Survive Without Your Spouse?" and the interview discussion was about the need for women and children to be protected financially after the death of the family's breadwinner.

As a visual for TV, we had our client prepare big, attractive graphs showing the mortality rates of women versus men, which told a powerful story. It wound up being a very successful interview for our client as well as the media.

Each newscast, believe it or not, is written specifically for a targeted audience based on age, profession and income. For instance, early morning news shows are usually watched by working adults and families getting ready for school. Noon shows are aimed at stay-at-home moms and retirees. Late night news is usually targeted toward younger business people.

Talk Radio

Radio talk shows, in contrast to TV, communicate through words rather than pictures. It's conversational, so your message should lend itself to a discussion about the problem your product or service can address.

Like TV, radio talk shows vary from morning to night. Morning shows, as you might suspect, generally have shorter interviews during "drive time." With news, weather, sports and traffic, talk show hosts don't have time for 30-minute interviews.

Midday shows now run the gamut of topics since so many people listen to the radio at work. Today you'll even find many business shows airing during the work hours.
After work is the second "drive time" of the day. Listeners are more relaxed at that time, and it's more conducive to a longer interview.

And don't discount those overnight shows. Think no one's listening? You'd be wrong. Evening and overnight interviews reach a broad audience, including second and third shift workers, public service employees, truckers and many people who work through the night.

Getting Yourself in Print

Magazines and newspapers are similar to radio and TV in that they're looking for the newsworthy, the entertaining and the informative as well. Providing valuable information for a publication's readers, especially in the form of tips, can often land placement. As well, certain segments of the print media also like visuals.

For example, if you're pitching your interior design firm or custom jewelry collection, send photos with your pitch. Or, if you have a cook book, make sure to include a photo of a delectable dish. Whenever appropriate, photos can help you make the grade.

And As to the Press Release

As your press release is the key to opening the media's door, create one that specifically targets the media you've selected as the best fit. Make sure your headline is enticing and attention-grabbing and that the text elaborates on the subject matter. Be sure to include a clear summary of what the interview would be about and a short but impressive bio or company profile. We have found that a couple of well-chosen juicy or provocative quotes can really add "punch" as well.

Have fun, get creative and persist!

What's a Tiger to Do? What Tiger Woods Should Do with the Media to Rehabilitate His Image

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:40:29 -0500

It's not easy being Tiger Woods today. His personal life is a shambles, his family is shattered and his public image is DOA. While it's easy to feel absolutely no sympathy for the golden boy whose sins cost him dearly, we need to remember something important.

Tiger Woods is not an individual. He is a $100 million marketing corporation that provided for the livelihoods of marketing people, advertising professionals and consumer product manufacturers - not to mention the business of golf itself. Without Tiger's ability to drive endorsements and commercial viability, many people may even lose their jobs and some firms may be forced to cut back.

So, what could Tiger Woods possibly do to control the devastation of his image? Well, the simple truth is that he is way beyond damage control. The goal posts on his potential rehabilitation have been moved a few thousand yards away from its original line of scrimmage. The best he can hope for now is to set up a comeback a year or more down the line.

Still, it's not impossible. Like many celebrities fallen from grace before him, there is a chance he could re-emerge as the powerhouse he once was. First, he needs a strategy.

The secret to Tiger's potential comeback isn't the golf fans, the media or even his fans - it's women. I would venture a guess that many men are, unfortunately, less likely to think about the immorality of his actions than about how stupid he was to get caught. Of course, these men likely keep their opinions to themselves when in the company of their wives and girlfriends who wouldn't take kindly to the idea that their men are in any way sympathetic to Tiger.

Which is why women are the key to his rehabilitation. If he can get back in the good graces of women, who are shocked and outraged by his lack of fidelity to his wife, he actually has a chance at making a comeback at some point.

The key to getting women to respect him again is to get in front of the media and perform a sincere, heartfelt mea culpa. He needs to have at least an hour of airtime, if not more, to answer questions and reveal everything that happened in his own words. He needs to be interviewed by a female journalist for the interview to carry any credibility with women - Oprah Winfrey, Diane Sawyer or even Barbara Walters. These are women of substance who will be sensitive enough to his need to tell his own story, but stand firm on their need to ask tough questions and not allow him to skirt the tougher answers.

He also needs to do the interview without coaching or any previous knowledge of the questions. His answers need to sound sincere, but more than that, they need to be sincere. Any level of rehearsal will be detected by the interviewer and the viewing audience. He needs to be genuine, and any guilt or remorse he displays needs to be real and palpable. He won't win anyone over with that interview, but he will set the stage for an eventual comeback. Moreover, the interview will feed the media beast. As long as he continues to decline interviews and only communicate with the media in a one-way fashion using printed statements, the media will persist. He can hide behind the gates of his home in Orlando, or on his yacht in Palm Beach, but the media will not go away until he feeds them the real story. The interview can be the last word on the issue, much like interviews given by former President Bill Clinton and actor Robert Downey, Jr. who were then able to move onto continued success in their respective fields.

But that's not all Tiger has to do. Internally, he needs to clean house. He has a staff of handlers, attorneys, and PR people who completely failed him. Granted, as the client, Tiger probably still called all the shots from the start, but it is their responsibility to guide their client to success, and they failed.

He also needs to align himself with a group that teaches values. He needs to talk to young men about the consequences of infidelity and the virtues of commitment. Whether it is faith-based or not doesn't matter. Tiger was of such superstar status that access to him was very limited. He was on a pedestal created by the media, but that pedestal is gone. Much like a political candidate, he needs to talk to real people, face-to-face and discuss his failings as a way to help others defeat their own inner demons.

At the end of the day, it will be a long road for Tiger Woods, but it doesn't have to end there. He still has the ability to turn things around and to stage a comeback at some point. But that will never happen unless he honestly changes his ways, faces the music and takes responsibility for his actions in a very public way.

Corporations who failed to do so suffered similar fates. After the Exxon Valdez oil tanker crashed and spilled millions of gallons of oil across Prince William Sound, they tried to hide the fact they put an alcoholic captain at the helm of the ship. As a result, people drove past Exxon gas stations and the company's earnings and stock price suffered for years. It took them much longer to regain the lost market ground because they failed to take responsibility and get past the media storm. It's basic crisis PR management, and the rules are as immutable as the law of gravity itself.

The media only delivers against the expectations and desires of its audience, and as long as people want Tiger to answer the question of "why?" the media will continue to ask the question until it is answered by the only person who knows.

I debated whether or not to share my thoughts on this sad tale...but with two decades in the public relations field, I felt there were important lessons for companies, as well as other high-profile individuals, to take away from Tiger's fall from grace. PR is much more than simply the creation of fame. It is also crisis management when a corporation - or individual - makes a devastating mistake.

Are Consumer News Publications Better Than Trade Publications For Reaching Your Target Market?

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:22:05 -0500

I'll admit that sometimes they make me feel guilty.

They sit in the corner of my desk, ignored, orphaned and gathering dust. They arrive on time, every month, and I push them aside in favor of more mission-critical tasks. I really don't throw them away until they start piling too high for me to see over them, but I feel guilty when I discard them without looking at them.

They are my trade magazines, and while I'd never cancel my subscriptions, I am as guilty as most people of ignoring them. On the other hand, I never fail to read Tampa's major daily newspaper every morning (with coffee cup in hand) and monitor certain news websites

Over the years, I've observed that I'm not alone - most of us business owners and executives are diligent about maintaining our trade subscriptions but not diligent about actually reading them in a timely fashion.

In a nutshell, that's why the mass media is actually a smarter bet for reaching a niche audience, even if it's a business-to-business audience. At the end of the day, we can't be sure if business decision makers are reading the trade publications and Web sites. But, the important thing to realize is that they aren't just business people. They are consumers, like you and me, and like you and me, they definitely read their daily newspapers and general interest Web sites. So, if you want to reach them, you have a much better chance of getting to them where you KNOW they are, as opposed to where you HOPE they are.

There is one other needle to thread, however, and that is, how do you get a B2B message into a consumer press article? It's not like the Joe the Plumber cares about companies that sell building supplies to contractors or that make ingredients for health supplements.

Or do they? Two clients we represented over the years fit those descriptions perfectly.

A few years ago, we represented a company who manufactured an ingredient for natural health supplements aimed at bolstering the immune system. Keep in mind, the manufacturer did not sell a single thing to the consumer, but rather, they sold the ingredient to supplement manufacturers, who would use the ingredient in their consumer products. The way we approached it was to write and distribute an AP style article about the different things people could do to prevent colds and the flu. Of course, the benefits of the client's ingredient were mentioned as one of the tips in the article. As a result, the article was widely distributed to the mainstream consumer media, and received a good number of placements. The client was happy because it raised awareness about the ingredient and its value to the consumer - and helped their sales to the supplement manufacturers because of the consumer buzz we had created.

Currently, we are representing a client whose company manufactures a concrete outdoor paving product, which is less expensive to the consumer and easier to install for the contractor. The company does NOT sell directly to the consumer - but they needed to reach consumers so they would ask contractors for the product. The client also wanted to reach contractors who would offer their product to their customers as well.

Our approach with this client was similar. We went out to TV, radio and print media with a story about how consumers can avoid outdoor renovations scams. By positioning the client's top executive as a consumer advocate and expert in the field, they were able to reach consumers by appearing in the mass media. But they also reached quality contractors, who read their local daily papers and tune into their local radio and TV news shows, but who may not be reading their trade publications! In this process, my client is quickly establishing themselves as experts, advocates and makers of a quality product.

So, the trick is figuring out what aspect of your B2B message appeals to consumers, and then building your B2B message into a pitch for a print story or radio or TV interviews that puts the consumers first.

By the way, I'll probably leaf through one or two of my trades this week, if for no other reason, than to expunge my guilt - but not before I get through my morning paper!

What is Marketing Really? A Practical Explanation of Marketing, PR and Advertising

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:07:19 -0500

Many of today's business owners and executives find themselves frustrated when dealing with the subject of marketing - even if they have marketing specialists in-house.

For that reason, I thought it might be helpful to share some basics about marketing, PR and advertising, as it relates to your company's growth.

Let's start with a very simple, but thorough definition of marketing. The American Marketing Association defines marketing as "...an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders."

This definition makes it pretty clear that marketing is not an activity by itself, but rather, a collection of strategies and actions aimed at driving business to your door. Marketing tactics may include branding, advertising, public relations, merchandising, direct mail advertising, phone sales, infomercials, multi-level marketing, and more.

It also includes the production of "collateral" - materials such as sell sheets, brochures, media kits, sales kits and any other document that supports the sales department. This marketing collateral differs from advertising as it is used later in the sales process, often as materials used by sales people to close prospects.

Let's talk about advertising. It's a marketing activity in which companies pay for space in print publications or on Web sites, commercials on radio or television, or direct mail pieces to advertise their products or services. This is paid space, so you control everything that goes into the message, and the cost of the space is based on reach and repetition.

Public relations differs in many ways from advertising. The Encarta dictionary defines PR as: "the practice or profession of establishing, maintaining, or improving a favorable relationship between an institution or person and the public." Publicity is one of PR's tactics and involves pitching a news story about your company to the press (both offline or online), and booking your spokesperson as a guest on radio and TV.

Given that the media is driven by ratings on radio and TV and by subscribers and visitors per month for hard copy publications and online news sites, they know precisely the demographics of their audience and what topics keep them engaged. Consequently, they're very selective about who they interview as guests or who they choose to spotlight in their publications.

The great value of PR is the implicit endorsement that comes with appearing as an expert guest on radio or TV, or being the focus of a story in a newspaper or magazine. So, while advertising serves the needs of the company who is buying the advertising, PR serves the needs of the consumers who watch TV, listen to talk radio and read hard copy or online publications as their source of entertainment and information.

Of course, these are just very brief definitions - intended to give you a simple overview of the topics. I decided to write about this only because in my day-to-day conversations with clients and people interested in our PR services, I find people often confuse advertising with PR, and marketing with advertising - even when speaking with executives at large corporations. Yet each one of these tactics, when understood more clearly, can be so important to an organization's survival and growth.

Hopefully this brief explanation can be helpful to you.

Marc Harty's Seven Point Formula for Creating a Winning Online Press Release

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:30:53 -0500

arc Harty's 7 point formula.

#1 Headline

Keep your headline short and make sure you have your keyword phrase in your headline. This is key and something that even the experts miss or forget to do. The earlier you put your keyword phrase in the headline the better.

#2 Summary

Two or three sentences... What is this press release about? What are you talking about? What is the topic?

#3 Intro Paragraph

If you know anything about copywriting you know that the purpose of the headline is to get you to keep reading. The purpose of the summary is to get you to keep reading to the intro paragraph. The purpose of the intro paragraph is to get you to read the rest of the release.

I like to ask a question. I don't want to get right into talking about myself. I want to add some context. I want to say these day's things are tough in the economy whatever it is, but something that can build rapport with people.

This isn't just a press release, its common sense and copywriting 101. Build that rapport with your audience.

#4 Quotes

You've probably seen this on the news or in a press release. There is somebody quoted. If you're doing a press release that somebody is you, but it doesn't have to be you.

For example, if you're using one of my techniques and piggybacking on current events, maybe that quote is something that's out there in the media. Maybe it's a third-party, a research study and you're quoting the person who's in charge of that study.

About 99% of the time, I write the quote for my clients and let them okay it. This isn't Shakespeare. You don't have to say something that goes on and on or that will live for 300 years. Make it pithy, short and sound bite worthy.

#5 Support Points - Facts

When I first started in copywriting I learned the distinction between facts and claims. If I say we're number one, that's a claim. If I can say we're number one, because we sell more units or we've generated more revenue, now I've taken that claim and made it a fact.

What can you do that are support points that are fact-based that you can talk about in terms of your story or topic for that press release?

#6 Call to Action

I would say most people that do press releases do not have a call to action and if they do it goes something like this: "Visit our website blahblahblah.com. Call our toll free number blah-blah-blah." I don't know about you, but I am not incentivized. I'm not motivated to move further in learning about this business, service or company, because I don't know what's waiting for me. It seems kind of pedestrian.

In press releases people were taught to be non-promotional, because it's a press release. It needs to be editorial and that's true. One of the differences in press releases is you can't use the word "you" in copy, because it needs to be written in third-person.

#7 About

This is a paragraph your company, not the subject of the press release, because you may have multiple products. And it can also be about you if you're an author or speaker it can be about you.

This is an opportunity that if you have some credibility, if you've been published in a specific magazine, as seen on CNN whatever those things are, those are the opportunities to put in that about section.

This about section is consistent from release to release, which is good, because now part of your press release is already pre-written for you and it's not going to change. It doesn't have to be long. I usually do three or four paragraphs. Also put in your link to your website.