Journalists are busy people. They have hundreds of pitches flying at them from PRs daily and often have little support or resources. As a result, media pitches have to be authentic, newsworthy and to the point to get noticed. To help them further, it can be beneficial to package pitches up that offer various experts who are able to give different perspectives on the topic in question. This can save a reporter valuable time having to source a third party opinion themselves. Offering to draft an initial article can also go a long way with time-strapped media.
This is what we did to secure a recent hit in the Financial Post. Peak strategically selected several senior client spokespeople and asked them to share the best advice they’d ever received. To make the piece timely, we pitched it in late December so that it could be published in early January to kick off national mentoring month.
Fifty-eight per cent of Canadians have no interest in the two sides reaching an agreement in the National Hockey League dispute, according to survey results out today. The telephone survey by NRG Research Group and Peak Communicators was completed between December 11th and 16th in six regions across Canada. It includes the responses of 801 individuals.
The survey results, which come out a week after the NHL announced the cancellation of games through to December 30th, also found that 25 per cent of Canadians don’t believe the lockout will be resolved in time to salvage a season.
“Canadians are clearly becoming disillusioned with the dispute process,” says Brian Owen, CEO and founder of NRG Research Group. “A large majority of us either don’t care about a settlement or don’t see an end in sight to the negotiations.”
The poll found small pockets of optimism, with 15 per cent of Albertans believing a settlement could be reached in the next couple of weeks and 15 per cent of Quebecers believing a settlement would be reached in the New Year.
The survey was conducted in both official languages. A survey of 801 people provides results with a confidence interval of +/- 3.5 per cent 19 times out of 20.
In July 2012, Peak was approached by Great River Fishing Adventures to promote a 12-foot long, 1000-pound sturgeon caught by one of their customers on the Fraser River. They hoped for some media coverage.
Within a week, Peak packaged a media kit which involved a news release, a fact sheet and a video of the giant fish being caught and then released. We organized a meeting with all TV stations under the Mission Bridge where reporters could interview the British couple who caught the sturgeon, shoot video of the Great River Fishing Adventures charter boat on the water and speak with the company’s president and guide.
The “once in a lifetime catch” got wide international coverage in print, online, on radio, including visual stories on the newscasts for Global-TV, CBC and CTV. Great River Fishing Adventures had never experienced anything like this. After seeing the footage their phones were ringing off the hooks. Their boats were booked up for months.
In mid-September 2012, less than two months later, it happened again. Another 1000-pound sturgeon, this one 11 feet eight inches long, caught by a team of 30 from a Kamloops accounting firm.
Peak saw no problem with getting all the media to do the story again. We played on the uniqueness of this event: “It was supposed to happen once in a generation…but just two months later it happened again!”.
We reprised the file footage from the July catch, we added new images and Peak reeled in another 50 media hits, including stories on the newscasts for Global-TV, CBC and CTV. Both CTV National News and Global National News picked up the story for their million-plus viewers.
Great River Fishing Adventures said they were hoping to develop more corporate “team-building” clientele. Like magic – it happened after this story ran throughout Canada.
On Sept 11, 2012, with an NHL lock-out looming on the 15th, the Vancouver Giants Hockey Club approached Peak to see if there was something we could do to position them as “Vancouver’s hockey team.”
We quickly met and proposed a “Re-discover Your Giants” campaign before the lock out actually started. We suggested offering Canucks fans a discount for the first three Giants’ games on Sept 21, 28 and 30 and a 20% discount on all merchandise just by showing their Canucks Member Cards. This evolved into a 20% discount on all red seats at the Pacific Coliseum – or $15 per seat, which was offered to all hockey fans. We knew there would be many sports and news stories about the effects of the lockout so we wanted to bring a positive story to media. We called a news conference for Monday morning, September 17.
The Giants majority owner Ron Toigo announced the deal and why Giants Hockey was such a good value this year. He also introduced the new retro sweater to a dressing room crowded with media.
We arranged for 20 comp tickets per game to use as prizes to run on hockey blogs including the Canucks Army. In addition to running the news of the Giants discounts, they have awarded ticket prize packages to people who answered Giants-related trivia questions on a variety of social networks.
The result: thanks to earned media, the Giant’s integrated marketing campaign surpassed the expected sale of 5,500 seats for Friday’s game. According to the Vancouver Sun, the Giants played the Victoria Royals before an opening-night crowd of 7,812.
Obviously B.C. Premier Christy Clark’s new director of communications Sara MacIntyre didn’t do her homework on local media. She had done the same job for the Prime Minister and may have been bounced for being too aggressive. But the back east media is small ‘c’ conservative. They are somewhat pushy but not uber aggressive.
No holds barred out here. When you tell a good reporter in British Columbia that they can’t do something, they are definitely going to do it. Reporters demonstrate the long-held tradition of a free press every day.
Veteran Global Television cameraman Paul Rowand took MacIntyre on while videotaping the Premier who had just invited reporters and camerapersons to follow her into a Vancouver trade show. “No go” from MacIntyre was met with “what did you say?” from Rowand as he kept walking and videotaping while firing off questions including “who are you and where are you from?”
The gum-chewing MacIntyre snapped back with sneering answers with the most condescending looks. Then she did the ultimate no-no: She stood right in front of Rowand’s camera in a futile attempt to block access to the Premier.
The embarrassing Global TV coverage that resulted from the altercations has now gone viral. I will use it in media training as an example of how not to manage media relations.
Former CTV reporter Chris Olsen (Olsen on your side), who was Premier Clark’s past press secretary, lost his job to the feisty MacIntyre. Olsen got off side in his attempts to manage the media even though he was once one of the reporters. The Premier’s office thought he couldn’t do the job. Well, what about MacIntyre?
She’s now off side with reporters who will find ways to continue to make her look bad. She forgot that you may be able to manage reporters, but you can’t control them. You would be better off trying to herd cats.
Maybe she should ask some key reporters for advice on how to facilitate positive news coverage on government. Christy Clark says she stands for open and transparent government. What does Sara MacIntyre stand for?
I had the privilege of being a panel expert at NEXT Marketing & Design Agency’s unique BRAND CHATTER™ event earlier this week. BRAND CHATTER™ is the name coined by NEXT’s CEO, Sandy Gerber – something she uses to describe the buzz around a brand. I joined four other experts in social media, networking and broadcast media. An interesting discussion ensued that gave the 80-strong audience of business owners and marketing directors food for thought. I think the discussion accurately reflected the ever-evolving communications industry – how social media is now a necessity and not really a choice and how the value of traditional media and campaigns is being scrutinized more closely. Business owners now want the most cost-effective options that will create the most buzz and engagement for their brand. So, what’s the answer?
Here are some key take-aways from the discussion:
Integrated campaigns are key. As seasoned communications consultants, we should be recommending campaigns that have a mix of traditional PR, social media and, depending on the brand and its objectives, an element of advertising. Word of mouth and networking is still crucial to a brand’s success and should also not be ignored. A lot of brands need to reach multiple audiences so leveraging different channels will help achieve this. That said, it’s important to ensure that communications are always clear and consistent, regardless of the platform.
Keep it simple. Be realistic – you can’t be everywhere all the time. And, if you’re a small business, you will have to prioritize what’s best for your brand. Just because other brands are now exploring Pinterest and Google+, shouldn’t automatically mean that you also have to be there. Perhaps Twitter is your best option at present, along with a simple media relations campaign. Building a brand’s reputation takes time and patience.
There’s no set formula or template. We were often asked, “where should I be” and “what should I be saying and when?”. The important thing for business owners to realize is that there’s no winning formula that can be applied to every brand. Ultimately, it comes down to what is going to bring you the best ROI. A good consultant should review your vision, objectives, audience, budget and resources and make recommendations off the back of that.
Content is still king. It’s an old one but a good one. And it won’t go away. However sophisticated a campaign may sound or cost, it must include compelling and regular content that engages a brand’s audience and makes them want to come back for more and share it with others.
Don’t just broadcast your message. Listen to your fans, followers, readers…Whether it’s through social media or more traditional focus groups, letters to the editor, surveys or blog comments, brands should be responding to the needs of their markets and not just shouting how great they are. If you go with the latter, it may well be falling on deaf ears – you will never know. Ambassadors can be a great way to create BRAND CHATTER – they garner interest and credibility – something that can prove priceless.
Metrics – this is something every communications professional should feel accountable for. Campaigns can be relatively easy to measure – i.e. number of coverage hits, circulation, readership or the equivalent advertising cost – or metrics can be more difficult to define, especially in the social arena. Still, it’s important that metrics are agreed upon at the outset of a campaign so that everyone involved is aware of what is being used to define success.
You may have seen the shocking YouTube video of a FedEx delivery man throwing a computer monitor over a customer’s gate, uploaded in December.
Within 24 hours, it had received 200,000 views. The story then featured in the Daily Mail and the number of views soared to 4.5 million. Today, the total stands at over 8 million and it has been ‘liked’ 17,000 times.
So how did FedEx deal with the situation?
In the first statement, FedEx condemned the employee’s actions, stating that executives were ‘shocked’. They said the handling of the package was ‘unacceptable’ and vowed to track down the employee responsible.
This is a good initial response. FedEx probably learnt about the incident at the same time as the press so they wouldn’t have had time to investigate. FedEx was also right not to protect the employee; instead they distanced the company’s brand from the individual’s actions.
FedEx’s next move was smart. They created a YouTube video in response – within 48 hours. The speed of their response was critical, helping curb speculation about the incident.
In the video Matthew Thornton, Senior VP at FedEx, said they had met with and apologized to the customer. The company deserves kudos for this; in difficult situations, companies typically communicate with customers via telephone or in writing. Meeting face-to-face is personal and proves FedEx cares about its customers.
Thornton also answered the question everyone asked: what happened to the employee? He explained ‘they’re working within their disciplinary procedures and the employee is not working with customers’. This is a mediocre response. Customers and journalists alike wanted reassurance that the guilty party had been fired. I suspect HR procedures prevented FedEx from providing a stronger response.
Thornton then reminded viewers that the company’s motto is to ‘make every FedEx experience outstanding’. This is good; he uses a difficult situation to reinforce the company’s key messages and its commitment to customers.
Despite this, the footage still damaged the company’s reputation – and consequently it was listed by Forbes as the ‘most brand-damaging viral video of 2011’.
FedEx’s YouTube video also received less than half a million views, a sixteenth of the original video. Clearly bad news travels faster than good.
This incident won’t go away for FedEx and any reoccurring issues will be closely watched by the public eye. However, FedEx can be commended for responding quickly, using YouTube as the channel to respond and meeting the customer face-to-face.
As another New Year begins, it’s time to consider how PR will change in 2012.
PR is one of the fastest-paced – and fastest changing – industries in the world. The evolving role of the Internet, social networks and new technology affects how people digest news. PR professionals need to respond to this change to ensure clients’ messages reach their intended audience.
So what will happen next year? Here are our predictions:
Content: As the saying goes, ‘Content is King’. This will remain true in 2012. Brands, PRs and journalists alike will strive to source or create unique and compelling content that can be shared, ‘liked’, or re-tweeted via social networks.
Exclusives: Given that breaking news is posted instantaneously online, we expect an increased demand for ‘exclusives’ from print publications. Holding a story until the morning is becoming ever-more important for newspapers.
Print won’t die: There has been much speculation about ‘the death of the newspaper’. This won’t happen in 2012, if ever. People love flicking through a newspaper on a Sunday; the experience cannot be replicated online.
Online content may come at a cost: The Wall Street Journal and The Times are trialling ‘paid-for’ only access to their online content. Given the current dependency on advertising and the looming double-dip recession, we may see Canadian newspapers follow suit to increase their cash flow.
Consumer power: Consumers now have a platform to quickly and collectively lobby companies via social networks; expect to see them capitalize on this opportunity with increasing frequency.
Crises: With the increasing speed of information dissemination, the number and pace of crises will intensify. Companies that do not respond immediately will be criticized.
ROI: The need to demonstrate ROI will increase with the uncertainty of the economy; budgets will tighten and C-suite executives will want clear evidence of ROI before investing further in PR. New tools for measurement may be developed as a consequence.
Pitching: Expect to pitch to journalists more regularly via Twitter and Google Plus; it’s an easy way to get journalists’ attention.
Gadgets: Tablets, particularly the iPad, are changing the way people read news. More magazines will develop apps where readers can interact with the content (e.g. clicking on a revolving image to get a 360 degree perspective).
Government regulations: Expect greater transparency in lobbying activity, particularly in British Columbia. This follows a public education campaign by the Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists raising awareness of the hefty fines lobbyists face for not registering their undertakings.
For PR professionals, the festive period, or ‘Silly Season’ as it’s known, offers a unique opportunity. As companies and journalists alike unwind for holiday celebrations, there is a lack of news and news writers – leaving an empty void for the savvy PR professional to fill.
So how can you capitalize on this opportunity?
Firstly, choose the right story to tell. Inevitably, reporters will be flooded with pitches about consumer products as Christmas is the key trading period for retailers. However, if you’ve got hard-hitting business news, then you’ll have an attentive audience, hungry to hear about it – as business news is sparse at this time of year. Equally, it is a great chance to push ‘softer’ stories (for example, research or trend pieces) that you may otherwise struggle to place.
Secondly, know which journalists are in the office. As with most professions, there is a mass exodus in the media over the festive season, and you need to know which few, dedicated faces remain. When speaking to journalists throughout December ask about their holiday plans – so you know who is around. There is nothing more depressing than a lengthy sell-in where no one answers the phone.
Finally, use embargoes to your advantage. No one wants to be working around the clock at Christmas – including journalists. Give them time to write up an embargoed story (to be published between 26th and 31st December) before Christmas kicks-off; they’ll thank you for it. You get coverage, the journalist gets a break.
And as for social media? Social media usage, Facebook and Twitter in particular, rockets at Christmas. This is unsurprising given the increasing number of smartphones and the popularity sharing festive messages with friends. Again, use this to your advantage to push your message to an audience that’s more engaged than normal.
Of course, the downside is that while other professionals are drinking mulled-wine and being merry, PRs need to stay focused, work hard and think creatively to capitalize on this opportunity. However, what better Christmas present to give a client than unexpected, wide-spread coverage?
Back in 1919, when Chicago White Sox star player Shoeless Joe Jackson admitted he knew about the fix to rig the World Series, it became one of the biggest stories of the year. Never before had the news media been so keenly interested in a sports story. Following his admission, the plea from millions of baseball fans could be heard across America – “say it ain’t so, Joe!” But it was so, and Jackson was banned from the major leagues for life.
Today, 92 years later, millions of fans are saying the same thing to legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno – “say it ain’t so, Joe!” But just like in 1919, it is so and Paterno’s fall from grace has been immediate and will permanent. This sports scandal will become the biggest news story ever to hit the multi-billion dollar U.S. college sports industry.
Paterno is, or at least was, a legend – not just at Penn State, but throughout the entire football world. A man of integrity who ran a clean program and was as just as interested about seeing his players graduate as he was about their performance on the field. He donated millions to the Penn State library, the conference championship trophy bore his name and many called him the greatest football coach of all time. He was universally revered at Penn State, almost like a god.
But all that is lost forever. Despite a spectacular career spanning almost 50 years, Paterno will always be remembered for what he didn’t do and not for what he did do. In grand jury testimony, he admitted to knowing that one of his assistants had been accused of sexually assaulting children. He admitted telling his supervisor, but his admission that he took no further action has stunned an entire nation. Like Shoeless Joe, Paterno could have and should have done more and that will never be forgotten.
For its part, Penn State has tried to put its best PR face forward; firing Paterno and the university president, and cooperating fully with police and state investigators. But there is only so much that can be done. The media has latched onto the story like a dog on a bone and in the weeks and months ahead, when more victims come forward and more shocking stories come out, the reputation of this legendary coach and the school where he coached will continue to wallow in the gutter. No amount of PR can ever change that.
