The 'Embargo' argument

Last year, Chris Anderson of Wired magazine made news with the controversial decision to publish the email addresses of PR practitioners who consistently bombarded him with irrelevant pitches. Now, Michael Arrington of the TechCrunch blog has fired an opening salvo at companies that fail to enforce embargoes.

The latest article from Marketing Profs outlines his new approach:

"We've never broken an embargo at TechCrunch," he writes at a post titled "Death to the Embargo." "Not once. Today that ends. From now our new policy is to break every embargo. We'll happily agree to whatever you ask of us, and then we'll just do whatever we feel like right after that. We may break an embargo by one minute or three days. We'll choose at random."

In the last year, argues Arrington, companies desperate for attention have become especially aggressive in their pitching methods, for instance by providing embargoed announcements to just about anyone with a URL. While reputable outlets like TechCrunch hold the news until the embargo date, it looks as if they're being scooped on a regular basis by less scrupulous competitors. "The benefits are clear," he says. "[S]ites like Google News and TechMeme prioritize them first as having broken the story. Traffic and links flow in to whoever breaks an embargo first."

What do you think of Arrington's policy?

Cheers Heidi Alexandra Pollard, The Communicators' Coach

Using the power of the mass media

Hi everyone,
this is Heidi Alexandra Pollard, The Communicators' Coach from picturesque Lake Macquarie and I thought I would share with you a story from a well known US PR guy Paul Hartunian.
Here's what Paul had to say about the power of mass media:
"When I sent out my press releases about the Brooklyn Bridge, I knew I was onto something big. I knew I had a great story and I was sure that the media was going to pick it up and run with it.
What I didn't know was just how big the publicity was going to be!
I didn't just get calls from newspapers and radio stations in New Jersey and New York. I was doing interviews with news organizations around the world.
I spoke to reporters at outlets I'd never heard of.

I only knew two things knew about these media organizations:
1 - they were going to give me sales - and I certainly hadn't sent them a press release.
2 - That second point made me think.
If I hadn't sent them a press release how did these newspapers and radio stations get hold of me?

The answer was obvious: they'd seen the story on the news, just like everyone else!
Without a doubt, one of the most amazing things about publicity is that when you have a good story for the media, there's no telling where you'll end up. You could send out a fax release to your town newspaper and the next day, you could get a call from Oprah Winfrey inviting you on her show.The reason is simple. Reporters are desperate for stories.

They have to put out their publication or show every day or every week without fail. And each edition has to be packed with interesting information. They can't just say, "Well heck, it's been a quiet week this week, let's cut twenty minutes from the show."

It just doesn't work that way. Whatever happens - or doesn't happen - reporters and editors have to produce exactly the same amount of information in each edition or each program.

That's why the story on that press release can end up circling the world before you know it.
"You can read all about Paul's Brooklyn Bridge adventure at:
http://www.Hartunian.com/bridge.htmlHappy New Year everyone
Cheers and Happy New Year from
Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicators' Coach
www.leadingvalue.net

When's the last time you wrote a press release?

A new social marketing and information network (SNOBS) started by a Novacastrian colleague of mine from Australia is powering along on the world wide web.

This recent article titled "When's the last time you wrote a press release?" will be of interest to this blog community. The article includes a simple step by step how to guide for writing a release.

Oh and its a good reminder for those of us in the industry to remember to use this mechanism ourselves - too often we forget to promote our own company and work too!

To read more visit
http://www.snobs.com.au/2008/12/28/whens-the-last-time-you-wrote-a-press-release/

Cheers
Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicators' Coach
www.thecommunicatorscoach.com.au

Bring on the warmer weather and a healthy dose of optimism

Boy hasn't this year has flown by faster than ever!

It has certainly had its challenges with stock market fluctuations, interest rate rises and the retail sector experiencing the strain of consumers reigning in their spending. However I truly believe that the businesses that succeed in the long run take an optimistic attitude to the economy. I am confident that this is a wonderful time to be alive and those that triumph through the difficult times and continue marketing and use this opportunity to highlight their benefits to potential clients and customers will continue to flourish and prosper.

I am reminded of a story…
A shoe factory sends two marketing scouts to a region of Africa to study the prospects for expanding business. One sends back a telegram saying,
“Situation hopeless. Stop. No one wears shoes.”
The other writes back triumphantly,
“Glorious business opportunity. Stop. They have no shoes.”
To the marketing expert who sees no shoes, all the evidence points to hopelessness. To his colleague, the same conditions point to abundance and possibility.

It is in times of doom, gloom and budget slashing that we as marketing and communication professionals, by taking a strategic approach, can help our organizations progress in leaps and bounds. After all you become what you think about most of the time, so focus on where you are going and the strategic vision ahead.

Personally I am feeling very excited about the possibilities and opportunities that the 2009 will bring.

How are you remaining focused and positive? I would love to hear your stories – email me at Heidi@leadingvalue.net

How brands work in the digital world

For those of you based on the East Coast of NSW Australia you may be interested in attending the next Professional Communicators' Network event.

Date – Friday 24 October 2008
Time – 8m – 9amEnigmaCorp’s brand new offices 37 Bolton Street, Newcastle (across the road from the Newcastle Herald).
Topic: ‘How brands work in the digital world’
Presenters - Ian Bennett and Karen Fitzpatrick of Enigma
RSVP - by emailing heidi@leadingvalue.net
For more information on the network visit http://www.leadingvalue.net/profcomnet.html.
I hope to see you there!

Media Relations: why it's become the most criticised aspect of public relations

Earlier this month I came across an article that sparked a debate in my office about the value of media relations and whether we have it right or not. A presentation later in the week from media trainer Jen Fleming confirmed my instincts - it is imperative that PR people build relationships with editors, journalists and producers and understand the market and their interests before clicking send on the media release email. Here's a snippet from the article in PR Influences that got us talking:

Here’s some reasons why media relations always seems to be in the spotlight when the role of public relations is on the agenda.
1. Organisations and their management don’t understand the media.
Management often fails to recognise that media are a distinct, and quirky, audience. Media’s most important self-belief is ‘independence’. Their most common trait is being cynical. In the main they are suspicious of business. They are not there to publish good news. They cannot be ‘sold’ to, or communicated with as you would with other audiences. Above all editorial media coverage can never be guaranteed - and if you are lucky enough to get some then you can’t bank on everything you said being used. If you want control, buy advertising space or time.
2. PR people oversell media relations.
PR people often emphasise their knowledge of, and contacts with, media. What the most experienced PR people know is that this only gives them access - it doesn’t necessarily convert to coverage. Also there’s an awful lot of legwork that has to be done when dealing with media. But combine a slightly exaggerated sales pitch from PR with management’s naivety about media and the result is that there’s a level of expectation by management that is often misplaced. It can be a recipe for some serious misunderstandings!

3. Working with the media isn’t a science
There’s nothing certain or predictable about media. They all aim to reach different readers, listeners or viewers and this impacts on how they each of them handles ‘news’. Look at the four daily newspapers that are read in Sydney each day and see how different items are treated. What can be news one day, can be rejected the next. A journalist can work on a story and file it because he/she feels is important (or has been assigned to do it), but it may never be used for a host of internal media considerations. While it’s important to have a media relations function, and work diligently at it, in many instances media coverage can come down to sheer luck.

4. Modern communications means it’s too easy to send material to the media.
Years ago getting something to the right person within media was an art. It took knowledge and contacts - and the release had to be physically delivered. Today it’s much too easy to reach journalists by a click. Specialist organisations sell media databases that allow media releases to be sent instantly - and anonymously to hundreds of media outlets (and individual journalists). As a result media releases have become a commodity. Many organisations think of media releases as they do direct mail and distribute them like confetti. They work on the principle that if they send out 100 media releases they might get five who find it of interest. That’s not media relations and it only sours media who get so much rubbish that the genuinely interesting material that is sent electronically gets lost.

5. Media is under so much pressure these days.
Media is a business sector that is having its share of challenges too. Almost in all forms of media there have been staff cut-backs; and the use of new electronic tools is changing the way media work. These days few journalists can afford to be away from their desks for long. The practice of attending lunches, functions, launches and briefings is under pressure. It accounts for the fact that increasingly there are ‘no-shows’ by journalists at events they have previously committed to. This means that PR people have to adapt to the changing circumstances and be smarter in how they handle media relations. It means that it’s getting harder - not easier - to achieve results in media relations, and this is against the backdrop of unrealistic expectations from management to begin with.

All of the above is not to say that media relations -from the point of view of both an organisation and media they deal with - is not successful in many instances. This is typically when an organisation has an enlightened, and realistic, perspective with good management and savvy PR people (whether internal or from an agency) guiding the relationship.
But with an increasing number of organisations now committing to using public relations and spreading media releases like confetti to an already over-stretched media, it is likely that media relations will remain the subject of much debate for some time to come.

What do you think? Do you have good relations and create fabulous releases that are both newsy and relevant to their target audience or are you too sending out a stream of endless confetti?

Until next time
Heidi Alexandra Pollard
The Communicators' Coach

Marketing through mass email

I came across an interesting article this week on what's making it possible for email marketing to finally deliver on its promise of relevant, one-to-one communications. The article and my own experience shows that email marketing has become one of the most valuable and best performing marketing channels today.

Email campaign management is one of the top six investment areas for senior marketers in 2008 (CMO Council's "Marketing Outlook 2008").

Email marketing is evolving toward true relevance as the most savvy marketers move from one-to-many, or broadcast email tactics, to establishing one-to-one relationships with customers and prospects. This means that "less is more" will become the norm for email marketing -- soon there will be fewer, more targeted and more relevant email messages -- a growing trend that benefits marketers, businesses and consumers.
This trend is due in large part to the emergence of email automation.

To read more visit http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19491.asp.
Heidi Alexandra Pollard - The Communicators' Coach