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Archive for the ‘Public Relations’ Category

Promoting your on the ground stunts online – a marriage made in marketing heaven

shutterstock_59718907I’m a little tired of hearing about the wonders of social media and the stunning achievements of the PR 2.0 world. Anybody who’s ever done the hard work of promoting in online video knows that for every thousand views, you’ve got a ton of leg work. Those “Susan Boyle” moments just don’t come around that often.

I may get called a Luddite for this, but there simply isn’t a better public relations tactic than the good old-fashioned STUNT. Jay Conrad Levinson may have coined the term ‘guerilla marketing’ to try to make it seem like a fresh concept, but ever since the first beauty pageant to find Miss Dove soap, creative stunts and promotions have made the difference for brands. And by combining those stunts with the power of online promotion, you’ve got a wicked good strategy.  What better example than the Old Spice campaign…many would say this was a red hot viral campaign but really, it was a clever promotional idea launched with an ad campaign, but fueled by strategic use of Twitter and YouTube to make it seem current and new. That’s the beauty of integrated marketing.

Most people think big promotions have to cost quite a bit of money, but really it just takes a creative idea. London-based Taylor Herring Public Relations is arguably one of the best agencies in the world at truly creative, unusual promotions. Taylor Herring provides public relations for events like movie premiers and television shows, as well as  PR for major brands like Honda and Google. But what they, and their online division also do very well, is create unusual experiences for their audiences that might be eyebrow-raising, but still fit the image of the brand. And although they are the people that created the world’s first ‘live’ TV commercial, the campaign that got my attention was one they did for a comedy channel’s stand-up season on UK television. Instead of something huge, they thought up the idea of simply finding the world’s oldest jokes and created a “Historical Humour Study” including the oldest jokes and one liners. Complete with a resident professorial expert, the idea was contained in a simple press release. Yet it was so unique, the agency garnered millions of impressions for its client. (You can read the entire case study on the Taylor Herring site here)

Here are a few simple tips that you should follow when planning your own ’stunt’: (more…)

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Would YOU use this wire service?

I got this email from a service provider claiming to be the ‘best online newswire from small business” I know what I think is wrong…let’s see how many things we can point out. Would YOU use this service? What can we learn about email marketing from this example?

(FYI, I’ve NEVER used this one)

Grettings Bonnie,

Recently we have been receiving an increasing number of comments from SBWire members like yourself regarding issues they are having with the press release submission process on SBWire.  Please know that we are fully dedicated to making SBWire easy-to-use and customer feedback is one of the most important parts of our development process.

We would like to know if you have had any issues with the press release submission and order process?

If so, please let us know what the issues were and how we can improve.  You can do so by replying to this email.

Additionally, you may be aware that we are working on adding many new search engine optimization features to SBWire.  Below is a list of many of these new features.  Are there any features you feel we are missing?

New Features:
- HTML links with customer anchor text
- Definable HTML titles, meta keywords and meta descriptions
- Title Based SEO friendly URLs (Already Live)
- Keyword based SEO friendly URLs
- Keyword density reporting
- Site embedding – add your web page to your press release

New Analytics Reports
- Press release views by date, browser, country, etc
- Press release XML/RSS feed views by date, syndication system, etc
- Press release search engine views by date, search engine, etc
- Links In report showing who is linking to your press release
- Links out report showing what links are clicked on in your press release based on url or anchor text

Thank you for your time and help in making SBWire the best online newswire from small businesses.

Thank you for choosing SBWire!

Daniel R. Jones
Managing Editor, SBWire
http://www.sbwire.com

PS – Let’s be fair too. If someone uses this service and really likes it, let us know!

Your email:

 

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How to pitch CNN

Recently I got one of my clients an interview on one of Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s stories on CNN. My client (check out the drumming circle in the video below) told me I had paid for myself for a year with this clip. (more…)

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How to pitch the national morning shows


Photo from fOTOGLIF

Once again, I started to write a blog post about pitching Good Morning America and found this great article with the basics from a guy named Mort Fleischner. (Who couldn’t trust a guy named Mort?) I’ve included the first part, but please click through to the original article as well – his ‘don’ts’ are excellent advice!

New York City born and raised, Mort is a graduate of Columbia University School of Journalism, New York University, and Stuyvesant High School.  He resides just outside of the city with his wife Anita and two daughters. He currently consults with some of the leading news programs and reporters on-air.

Join him as he shares some secrets on how to get onto Good Morning America.

DO

…Make a cold call to the Good Morning America (GMA) studios news desk and ask for the name and any contact information you can get of the producers who handle the area you are pitching: books, business, politics, money, health, sex – you name it!  Be sure you get the correct spelling, as well as their email address and if possible, a phone number.  If they will not give you the phone number, you can at the very least get the Good Morning America mailing address and the correct contact that you should be pitching.

…Send your material and a brief and concise pitch letter or email to the producer, along with all appropriate contact information.  Be sure to paint a picture as to why their viewers may be interested in your story or product.  Be sure to mention your ability to employ visuals into your segment that will make it more appealing as a televised story.

…Be sure you have all the elements of your pitch organized before you send it out to the producers.  Morning shows work fast and they will not want to wait around for you to get organized if and when they reach out to you.

…Write out what you are going to say before you pitch and rehearse it.  Keep talking points and important information in front of you just in case you forget what you want to say in the heat of the moment.  When on the phone, be enthusiastic, keep it short, and remember that there is a fine line between pitching and being pushy.  Pushy folks do not get on television.

…Wait about a week and then call back.  You might get lucky and someone will answer, either a producer or their assistant/intern.  If no one answers keep trying, and note that a voice message will do nothing for you unless you are Tom Cruise or Sharon Stone so just hang up and call again another time. For the rest of the article from collective-e.com go here.

I would add also that having video “in the can” is a big plus. But sorry, your Flip won’t be enough. If you really have a good story, hire a professional and go shoot some background footage. Great visuals always give you a leg up and worst case, you can always use it for a Video News Release later.

Questions about pitching morning shows?

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How to pitch your product to celebrities

I once got a celeb to wear my client’s bunny slippers on the red carpet at the Academy Awards. How did I do that?

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Photo from fOTOGLIF

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Creating good marketing karma

buddha-headAccording to Free Dictionary the definition of karma is the total effect of a person’s actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person’s existence, regarded as determining the person’s destiny. Beth Hodgson’s last post about the boomerang effect – what happens when you get even more traffic by sending it to others from your blog -  stirred up some comments about how karma works in the blogosphere. (Thanks Jorgen for kicking that discussion off and I’d love to hear YOUR stories too!) It got me thinking about my clients, and how their attitudes and actions affect the kind of PR results they get. Read on to find out how MUCH karma affects results. (more…)

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Bad public relations worsens the situation for BP

Earlier this year I was horrified that brilliant public relations tactics at Toyota were able to cover up the fact they’d known about potentially deadly defects – and lied about them – for years. Now I’m horrified yet again. This time not because I’m watching people who are too good at manipulating the media – this time I’m seeing how traditional corporate communications practices are helping destroy a company’s brand rather than mitigate the damage during this awful disaster. A New York Times article yesterday discussed the satirical twitter feed @bpglobalpr and its impact on the messages being sent regarding the oil spill. So far the feed has 133, 000 plus followers. BP’s real feed has a mere 12,000, showing how clueless they are in terms of the PR 2.o and its impact.

BP is accused of many things in this disaster – lack of urgency, poor testing, circumventing the process, the list goes on.  I’m not sure we’ll ever really know what happened at BP from a corporate standpoint because their communicators seem buried in the Dark Ages of public relations. Stilted press releases, bland twitter feeds and stiff spokespeople reading messaging points are only going to drive BP further down. Come on guys, don’t hire some old fogey from the Bush administration. Go hire Chris Brogan and let him tell the world what’s really going on. It can’t get any worse than these 1950’s messages you keep sending out.

What do you think? Who would you hire to run PR strategy at BP right now? What would you do if you were in charge of their public relations right now?

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Pitching HARO and ProfNet

For entrepreneurs, small business owners and experts, the daily query boards like HARO and ProfNet can be incredible resources for gaining media placements. From major news broadcast shows to popular niche bloggers, these sites host queries from journalists and producers looking for specific sources for current stories.  Despite how great these resources are,  reporters tell me most  folks  blow their chances completely by the time they write the first sentence in response to a query. Here are some ways to up your chances for getting the media to email you regarding a query, and hopefully get mentioned in a major story! (more…)

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How movie PR REALLY works

This gets funnier the longer it goes. See if you guess how it ends LOL

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How to pitch a magazine editor

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I’ve been chewed out one too many times by a fierce, brilliant magazine editor, and yet a great feature in a national print monthly is still a plum placement. I asked an old editor of mine (in my brief freelance writing career) to spill the beans on what these folks REALLY want. And how to avoid totally pissing them off.

Sheri Wallace is the former  Editor-in-Chief of ePregnancy magazine and Associate Publisher of REAL Magazine, with respective bi-monthly national newsstand circulations of 400,000 and 250,000. She doesn’t mince words so read on… (more…)

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