THE LITTLE RESORT THAT COULD: A SUCCESS STORY

This is a true story. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Okay. This is a true story, but changing the name of the client has nothing to do with innocence. We just don't think it's fair to share a client's name and budget with the world.

So while the results and statistics in this story are true, I'm just going to call our client the Little Resort That Could.

The Little Resort is not the kind of place that can afford to pay for a lot of advertising to tell the world it's there. But its managers believe in the power of PR. They looked at their budgets, squeezed them tight, and came up with as much as they could to fund PR.

Here's where perspective comes in. The Little Resort viewed their PR budget as a stretch, a very large investment for them. By PR campaign standards, it was very small. But we knew that something bigger and more important was happening here. The Little Resort was showing our team a vote of confidence and literally giving us their all.

The budget was in the $30,000 range. Spread over an entire year. Including expenses. Time to make every penny count.

Decisions, decisions. We could have come up with a big idea, dazzled the client and used the funds all at once. But would that give the Little Resort the most bang for its buck? We didn't think so.

We needed a better idea. Why not spread the funds over a year and generate a steady stream of publicity? And so it began.

Day in, day out, we encouraged media to report news about the Little Resort. We ran a tight and targeted media relations operation. Slow and steady wins the race, we told ourselves. Oh yeah. Pictures with captions helped too.

Big papers like The Washington Post, as well as small regional newspapers, bloggers and big online news sources responded to our message. Impressive awards followed. More and more people started booking vacations at the Little Resort.

Month after month, the results poured in. After a year, we counted them up: coverage 122 times in 45 different media. News about The Little Resort appeared 11 times every single month. Now that's frequency!

If the Little Resort had bought ads to get that exposure in those particular media, it would have cost them more than half a million bucks.

There was much joy at the Little Resort. The general manager liked the return on his investment in PR. The marketing director was thrilled with the exposure. The accounting department head nodded solemly and muttered words of appreciation for our thrifty ways. The owner applauded his staff for finding a cost-effective way to get the phone ringing and build business at the Little Resort That Could.

Best of all, the Little Resort rewarded its PR firm by extending its contract for another year.

Illustration Credit: Download-Free-Pictures.com

THE TORTOISE OR THE HARE: WHICH WILL YOU BE?

Publicity creates “buzz.” It informs people about your product and gets them talking about it.

It's easy to generate publicity if you can come up with a great idea (see IMAX dinosaurs below) — and get it funded. Make a big enough splash in the old sensory pool and people will start buzzing all over the place.

But the impact of a big splash is fleeting. A big splash occupies a single point in time. After its initial impact, it kind of floats away like the rings you see when a pebble is thrown in a pool.

People forget. They move on. But, you have to keep the buzz going.

In an ideal PR world, you launch with a big splash and sustain interest with a program of frequent news reminders about your product. But maybe your budget is small.

What can you do?

Consider the fable of the tortoise and the hare. Hare runs fast and, man, he's cool! But the slow and steady tortoise wins the race.

Most publicity work isn't about the big splashes. It's just plain grunt work. Nibbling around the edges of the news cycle, looking for a way in. But when you are proactive and you get your message reported repeatedly, you CAN make an impression. People become aware of your product and they talk about it.

You create buzz with frequency.

“But,” you ask, “can't I just do that with advertising?”

Well, yes. But not as effectively. Because it's all about the old subconscious.

View an ad and the wheels start turning deep down in the gray matter. You know you're being sold. Even if you're naïve, you're no dummy. An ad's an attempt to sell you something. Your brain gets the message loud and clear. Skepticism creeps in.

But your mind processes editorial differently – especially when it's in one of the softer news arenas like travel or product publicity. Your guard is down. You read an article and your subconscious is much more receptive to what it's learning: “Hey, this is interesting! Intriguing. Nobody's pushing me to buy. This resort might be worth trying. Picture looks cool.”

When a news source spotlights your product, that reporting is perceived as a kind of recommendation to give that product a try. It's subliminal and it's what's called the “third party endorsement.” It's invaluable.

It's also way more powerful than an advertisement.

When your news appears over and over again in media aimed at your target audience, that frequency has an impact. People get your message and the buzz not only begins, it's sustained.

Don't have the budget to make a big splash and follow it up with a strategic publicity program? If you have to choose, put your hard-earned bucks into a sustained program and pursue frequent editorial coverage.

In the Aesop's fable, the hare bolts far ahead of the tortoise in the race. But then he stops to nap. Similarly, a big splash project will get you a lot of publicity— but its impact may fade within days.

With a sustained PR program, you may not have the flair of the hare; but, like the tortoise, you can win the race.


Illustration Credit: Tortoise & The Hare by Milo Winter

WHAT A WASTE: PURSUIT OF NEWS COVERAGE WITHOUT A NEWS HOOK

You know how you feel when you're pressured to do something you don't want to do? Now think about the media. They feel that pressure every day.

You've got a story and you think the media should want to report it. Why? Because you think it's important news.

Not good enough. Unless you're the President of the good old USA, you've got some splainin' to do before you get your story covered.

Before you make that media call, spend some quality time thinking about why your story is newsworthy. What's your news hook? Why is your news of interest to others? What reader-friendly angle could the writer use? Think strategically — you may only get one chance to make your pitch.

Today, the news business is tougher than ever. Many media are short-staffed and stretched to the limit. So here are some tips:

Don’t call the media unless you have real news to report.

Don’t call the media to complain that they don’t ever call you or that a story contained news about your competition but not you.

Don’t call the media and ask them to publicize your sale — they’ll send you to the advertising department to buy an ad.

Do call the media when you have genuine news to report.

Do call the media after you have given serious thought to why your news would be of interest to the media and their public.

Do thank a writer for positive coverage when you get it.