Cheryl's Blog

Moving Beyond the Press Release
Getting Ink for Clients

Well-written press releases, creative media kits and strong relationships with the media used to be enough to get adequate exposure for clients. These traditional communication tools and skills no longer provide the best way for securing media hits, which forces public relations professionals to explore innovative ways to grab the media’s attention.

Everyday the media is bombarded with emails and phone calls from people attempting to get a product or company’s name published in a credible source. People in PR are beginning to realize the easiest way to stand out from the competition starts with having a creative idea for a campaign or product launch, not with mastering the art of standard forms of communication.

Hosting special events, integrating advertising with PR, donating money to charity and even blogs all grab the media’s attention more than traditional strategies because they offer additional information that separates inventive clients from other standard companies.

I found several examples of companies that take PR to the next level during my search for the best tips for getting ink for clients. Both Jeremy Pepper and Andrea Weckerle provided useful insight, opinions and advice that exemplify the creative tactics needed to get the media interested in a client.

While discussing some of the best practices in an email with Wekerle, she said “I know that word-of-mouth is the best promotion a client can receive.” Womma.org defines word-of-mouth marketing as “the act of consumers providing information to other consumers.” Once consumers and the general public create a buzz by talking about a company or product, the media is more likely to take notice. Green Gear Cycling, also known as Bike Friday, has created a network of loyal customers who spread the word about the custom bike company by giving former customers 12 prepaid post cards after they purchase a custom bike. Whenever someone inquires about their bike, these “customer evangelists” gladly hand out one of the post cards, which serve as referrals to a potential customer. According to CMOmagazine.com, about 10,000 of Bike Friday’s customers came from these referrals and they generated $1.3 million in sales by utilizing the word-of-mouth tactic.

In one of her more recent blogs, Wekerle also describes how tie-ins with celebrities can help raise awareness about a new company or service. Yly, a new social networking website for teenagers from ages 13-18, asked Nick Lachey to be a spokesperson for their website because many cyberpredators started using his name to entice underage internet users off the web. The idea behind the website is interesting enough, but adding a celebrity to the company’s name separates YFly from other social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook.

Furthermore, the line between advertising and PR is starting to become blurry. The Dallas Mavericks combined advertising and public relations to promote the basketball team by placing the team’s logo on the hub caps of 115 taxicabs throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. The Mavs are the first to use hub caps as a form of advertising in North Texas. Although the hub cap idea seems like strictly an advertising move, the Mavs generated free publicity by being the first in the area to place information about the team in this creative way.

Heineken also created a buzz by using new technology and an innovative form of advertising to promote the company. According to Eric Schwartzman’s blog, 5,000 digital-downloading jukeboxes displaying Heineken’s brand were placed in bars across the country. PR strives promote brands in off-the-wall ways, and Heineken’s new ad campaign incorporates PR tactics because the company is one of the first to try jukeboxes as way to promote the brand.

Whether or not it’s appropriate, a controversial campaign sometimes effectively grabs the media’s attention more so than the average press release. Media Orchard stated PETA “launched its latest campaign -- and like most of its recent efforts, it seeks to shock and awe people into paying attention.” The campaign uses a parody of the scandalous Girls Gone Wild videos in order to draw attention to the hazards of drinking milk and the little-known abuse of cows. Granted PETA may cross the line with this campaign, they still get their message out to consumers because they are so controversial. The Milk Gone Wild campaign
was banned from television, which instantly draws attention to their website. Word-of-mouth marketing plays a key role in getting people to visit their website to see the banned content, which in turn has media interested in what the buzz is all about.

In addition, Jeremy Pepper suggested building a concise press list, writing a succinct pitch email letter and making the effort to actually call reporters to help get a client’s name published in the media. A strong idea or creative campaign like the examples above are still part of the process in getting ink for a client, and the traditional PR tools become useful only after a company grabs media’s attention. Creativity is a must in corporate communications, and I think unique tactics will continue to separate the strong companies from the weak as technology advances within the next few years. The blogosphere may open up new doors for communications, but only time will tell how far this trend will go.

posted by Cheryl @ 12:21 AM