Do You Take Deadlines Seriously?

It's surprising how many people in the business world don't. But in PR, the deadline is king.

It doesn't matter how great your news is or how well-written your press release is. When you are pursuing editorial coverage, you must respect the deadlines of the media.

Every once in while, if your relationships with the media are strong, and you can't move the material through internal hurdles fast enough to have it approved for release in time to meet a deadline, you can work your long-standing relationships and sometimes pull a rabbit out of the hat.

But each time you spend those kinds of chips, you are changing your relationship with the media ever so slightly.

In proactive PR, the media gives a lot of ink to those who can reliably provide the info they need by their deadline.
So take them seriously and respect deadlines that are set by the media. That will help you build relationships that imply we're all in this together and are doing our best to get this news out.

That builds the best kind of capital with the media – relationship capital.

And you can't do proactive PR without that.

Is It Possible To Over-Invest In Social Media?

That's the title of an insightful post that appeared today in the online publication iMedia Connection. Lots of good food for thought. So we thought we'd pass it along.

Click on this link to check it out.

PR Today: Dynamic And Evolving

The PR business is evolving. In the past, news has been pushed out to audiences via press releases and email alerts, Web site postings and the like.

Today, getting your client's message communicated well is a lot more complex.

We continue to tell our stories through the filter of the press. But just as readily, we are communicating our messages through bloggers, Facebookers and Tweeters.

Today, we have many more tools for listening. It's like the whole world is teaming with focus groups. Log onto your company's Facebook fan page and you'll learn quite a bit about how others see your carefully crafted positioning.

While PR has always been as much about listening to audience feedback as speaking out to influence audiences, today the dynamic is much more, well, dynamic.

Tiger, Earl & Nike: A Powerful Ad Or PR Liability?

The Tiger Woods Nike TV commercial that debuted during Masters week is powerful in its message of implied contrition and a father's questions to his son about his son's bad behavior. The fact that his father has passed makes it resonate even more for anyone who has lost a parent.

It could be seen as a powerful (and successful) first step in image rehabilitation for the tarnished star.

But is it really?

Some media have looked behind the carefully staged, starkly serious spot, and they have discovered something that has the potential to turn a powerful ad into an embarrassing story about advertising manipulation and insincerity.

According to several media reports, including those on ABC's Good Morning America and in The Toronto Star, the voiceover in the ad by Tiger's father, the late Earl Woods, was pulled from a 2004 DVD about the life of young Tiger.

But here's the rub: The comments pulled from that DVD and inserted into the Nike ad were not directed to Tiger or even referencing him.

Instead, Earl was describing his parenting style versus that of his estranged wife, Kultida.

Moreover, Nike took another bold step in their effort to manipulate the feelings of fans by inserting Earl's voice saying “Tiger” into the first line of the comments pulled from the 2004 DVD. The voiceover now resonates with the late father addressing his son and directing his comments to him.

It's nothing new for advertisers to design spots that try to influence opinion and evoke emotion by not exactly being truthful. But Nike went too far. Such crass manipulation is nothing more than an attempt to stir supportive feelings for Tiger's efforts to emerge from the darkness he plunged himself into.

From a PR perspective, knowing the full story makes the ad more of a liability than an asset to astute observers.

For those already suspicious that Tiger may be insincere in his efforts to change, the ad makes it tougher to believe in his image rehabilitation efforts. For fans who are eager to believe he is working hard to change, his willingness to go along with this charade raises a sliver of doubt.

While airing the spot may be construed as bold and powerful advertising, its true legacy may be negative PR.

How Some Clients Get More From Their PR Agency

It may sound obvious but the most important thing in a client and PR agency relationship is communication. Clients that communicate clearly and frequently with their agencies get the most (and best) results.

If you're a client, tell your agency everything you even suspect might be newsworthy. Get excited when your agency pitches you some ideas about how your news could be leveraged into publicity – and join in the brainstorming. On the other hand, have the confidence in the PR pros you've hired – and the humility-- to accept it when the agency tells you their guts say the media won't cover what you're thinking is big news.
You're paying them for expert advice, so take it.

Chances are you'll be surprised at how many ideas your agency gets just by you sharing your news, events, happenings and plans.

If you're an agency, listen closely to your client. At first blush, something may not seem all that newsworthy. But can you identify an angle that would generate some coverage? If your client is really passionate (or pressured by other circumstances), find a way. You're creative. That's why you're in PR. If the client's request will just have you spinning your wheels with the media and burning hourly rates, have the courage to haul out your expert opinion and give it.

A good client/agency relationship is all about communication. Remember, the best publicity results from the client and agency acting like the team they are supposed to be.

Tiger Makes The Right Choice

Looks like Tiger Woods is finally getting some sound PR counsel. His recent press conference, although somewhat transparent to PR pros, was the right first step toward controlling the PR mess he has himself in and trying to refocus media attention on his game.

No matter when Tiger returns to competition, the media will go into another frenzy and everything from the tabloids to top sports writers will ring in. But, in terms of crowd control — which could have gotten very ugly in his first tournament outing — he could not have picked a better venue than The Masters. The event is known for having the most polite (read: controlled) crowds in golf. Many of the normal crowd that follows Tiger are sports fans used to getting rowdy during the heat of competition. But, any fan who's rowdy at Augusta National is politely escorted from the grounds and asked never to return.

The Masters is a precise operation. To get onto the grounds, you pass through security gates and are scanned like at an airport. In fact, those lines move so smoothly that airports could learn a thing or two from Augusta. Food lines move briskly and the multiple souvenir shop lines (which are long and tightly controlled) move with military precision so that you get in, buy and get out within minutes.

The Masters gives Tiger the best chance of a heckle-free return to competition. And, if he wins the event, he will have made a strong first step toward moving much of the discussion away from his personal affairs and toward the return of a great player to the game.

For Tiger, The Masters is the right choice.

Impact Analysis More Important Than Ever

With social media and Web-based communications coming on so strong, some PR folks are debating whether the old method of providing return on investment stats is a thing of the past. For years (it feels like centuries, actually), PR folks have measured editorial coverage against the cost of comparably-sized advertising, figuring in what the client has spent on PR services to determine an ROI.

That approach speaks to clients who are always looking to see what they are getting for their investment in PR. Never mind that some of the most impactful publicity might appear in low-cost media, or that you can't put a dollar value on the third-party endorsement of media coverage.

With pay-per-click and Web analytics, clients are experiencing results in ways that they never could with traditional advertising. And so, they are looking for similar stats from PR.

And, just to be a little cynical, you have to wonder if some PR folks are eager to ditch ROI analysis because there aren't so many expensive magazines to measure against. Newspaper and Web-based ads cost way less than the glossy four-color print ads in magazines. ROI can shrink pretty drastically in the face of that. So, ROI is not as impressive.

So is ROI dead? No. But it can't be asked to stand alone in the face of scrutiny. That's where reach becomes increasingly important.

And impact analysis — determining if you actually reached the target markets the client wanted you to aim for — is critical.

It's a new day dawning. And half the excitement is figuring out how to communicate the value of PR in concrete ways that speak to the client.