Archive for publicity
Media Relations Tip #14: Don’t Ask for Guaranteed Coverage
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Here’s a new one, brought to the PR Buzzsaw’s attention via a Twitter exchange this morning:
Gus Sentementes, a reporter with The Sun in Baltimore, received an unusual request from a PR person who wanted a “100 percent guarantee” that Gus would write a story before he would be granted access to the company. No chance to judge its newsworthiness, no opportunity to see if they had anything interesting to say/show, not to mention what Gus’s editor would decide. Promise you’ll write a story first, and then you can sit down with the company reps. Otherwise it’s a waste of time!
Gus was likely as surprised as we were, and sent out a tweet to see what PR people who follow him on Twitter thought.
I tweeted that the PR person was either clueless about the media or did not have the ability to counsel his/her management team about what a bad idea it is, and that it will have negative repercussions for the company/brand down the road.
Gus confirmed in a subsequent post:
“I meet a lot of people and I have a long memory. Just b/c I don’t write about u now doesn’t mean I won’t in the future.”
Later, Gus tweeted how he responded:
“I said making a guarantee would be unethical and unrealistic. I haven’t heard back.”
If any PR people out there have ever requested a coverage guarantee, we’d love to hear your point of view. Has it ever worked? Maybe we can all learn something.
‘The DeMarco Factor’ Maryland PR Launch Handled by Baltimore Public Relations Firm
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BALTIMORE, Md. (June 14, 2010) – “The DeMarco Factor: Transforming Public Will into Political Power,” a new book profiling the fascinating inner workings of Annapolis, Maryland through several high-profile public health social justice advocacy campaigns created and run by Vinny DeMarco, has selected Sawmill Marketing Public Relations of Baltimore to handle PR in Maryland that includes a press event in Annapolis followed by media interviews throughout the state prior to appearances in New York and Washington, D.C.
Sawmill is handling media relations, message development and social media for the book launch.
Co-published by Vanderbilt University Press and the American Public Health Association, the book authored by Michael Pertschuk, former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and founder of the Advocacy Institute, offers a behind-the-scenes look at some of the campaigns lobbyist DeMarco has orchestrated in Maryland, and how the challenges he faced were overcome, revealing insider details of DeMarco’s interactions with lawmakers, advocates, lobbyists and the media.
In 20 years of organizing advocacy campaigns in Maryland, DeMarco has led successful efforts to pass gun control laws (against National Rifle Association opposition), to hike cigarette taxes as a strategy to prevent youth smoking, and to extend health care to hundreds of thousands of low-income workers. He has also built a unique alliance of mainstream and conservative faith groups, which helped secure rare bipartisan votes in Congress for the enactment in July 2009 of landmark FDA regulation of tobacco manufacture and marketing.
About Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations is a Baltimore PR firm and social media marketing communications agency established in 1995 specializing in the development and execution of marketing public relations programs as business development strategies for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and professional services clients. The Maryland public relations company specializes in social media, traditional media relations, media training, and crisis communications. For additional information, visit www.sawmillmarketing.com
Maryland PR Firm Selected by GBAHC for Baltimore Public Relations Campaign
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BALTIMORE, Md. (March 8, 2010) – Greater Baltimore AHC, Inc., (GBAHC) has selected Baltimore PR firm Sawmill Marketing Public Relations for a public relations campaign to increase awareness of the firm’s development and property management expertise in affordable housing in the greater Baltimore area.
The Baltimore-based PR and social media company is implementing a comprehensive public relations campaign that includes media and community relations programs including the upcoming grand opening of the newly renovated, MonteVerde, a 301-unit affordable apartment home community for seniors and non-elderly people with disabilities in the lower Park Heights neighborhood of Baltimore.
About Greater Baltimore AHC, Inc.
GBAHC is part of AHC Inc., headquartered in Arlington, VA. It is a private, non-profit developer of affordable housing in the mid-Atlantic region that has been providing quality homes for low- and moderate-income families since 1975. GBAHC, located at 1501 St. Paul Street, has been in the greater Baltimore region since 2002. It currently has developed five properties offering approximately 1,000 affordable apartments. For more information, visit http://www GBAHC.org.
About Sawmill Marketing Public Relations
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations is a Baltimore PR firm and social media marketing communications agency established in 1995 specializing in the development and execution of marketing public relations programs as business development strategies for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and professional services clients. The Maryland public relations company specializes in social media, traditional media relations, media training, and crisis communications. For additional information, visit www.sawmillmarketing.com
In the January 25 edition of The New Yorker, Ken Auletta’s Annals of Communications column provides a fascinating glimpse into the role the Internet (the author refers to it as the “third party”) is playing in how the White House press corps covers the President and, in turn, how the White House works with the media.
He reminds us that only six years ago, when George W. Bush was finishing his first term, there was no Facebook, Twitter or YouTube and that regional newspapers as well as television stations were profitable enterprises.
To whet your appetite for reading the column, Auletta describes a typical working day for NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd who, when his day is over, will have done eight to sixteen interviews for NBC and MSNBC (grassy area where he stands with the White House in the background is nicknamed Pebble Beach) PLUS eight to 10 tweets or Facebook pos
tings and three to five blog entries. Whew! Todd says he is “compelled to do more reporting on my Blackberry.”
The column also describes that Politico.com “is the most prominent face of new media at the White House.” In existence since 2006, the site draws more than three million unique visitors each month, making it the ninth-largest newspaper online. While traditional media have curtailed their travel budgets, Politico.com has had a reporter on nearly every one of the President’s domestic and overseas trips.
Finally, the column also details the relationship the President and his Administration have with the media and 
the impact Obama believes the Internet has on its coverage. He told Bob Schieffer on a recent CBS “Face the Nation” show that “…what is different today is that the twenty-four hour news cycle and cable television and blogs and all this, they focus on the most extreme elements on both sides. They can’t get enough of conflict. It’s catnip for the media right now.”
Regardless of your politics, or if you are a journalist, PR professional or some other occupation, the article is a good read and offers glimpses into a world most of us will never be a part of firsthand.
Media Relations Tip #1: Do Your Homework!
Posted by: | Comments“Please do your homework before contacting me. At least know what I cover.”
These two sentences are nearly always the opening mantra of reporters talking on yet another panel of media seated before yet another gathering of PR professionals hoping for a tip that can catapult their e-mail pitches and follow up phone calls to the top of the reporter’s “must cover” list.
In a sidebar to a story by Jennifer Nycz-Conner of the Washington Business Journal, she reminds us to “know what kinds of stories a reporter is drawn to.” Or she as she so memorably writes, “you wouldn’t walk into a hardware store and ask for mascara.”
Recently, I got caught not doing my homework by an editor of a major trade publication covering an important client’s industry. Much to my chagrin, my pitch was absolutely out of line. If I had studied the online editions of the publication and then paused before hitting “send” I would have realized that they don’t cover what I was proposing and that the pitch was a waste of his time and attention.
However, he had the grace and professionalism to take the time to instruct me on his publication, including what it would take to get his attention. I got lucky, didn’t I?
I’m now in the process of re-tooling my pitch to him and feel confident that my second and corrected attempt will be a successful one. His magazine gets what it’s looking for and gets it exclusively, my client is thrilled with the prospect of coverage in this prestigious industry magazine and I believe I’ve learned the “mascara in a hardware store” lesson once and for all.
Although rumors were fluttering around weeks earlier, when micro-blogging phenom Twitter finally announced its acquisition of the Summize search service on Tuesday morning, it didn’t issue a press release. Instead, the co-
founders Tweeted about it, linked Tweets to their blog post and let those in the Twitter community spread the news. No press release. No media advisory. No press conference. No standard PR practices here. Just a bunch of Tweets and a blog post. Did we just witness the future for corporate press announcements?
Check out the chain of events leading up to the announcement, according to the archives of Twitter co-founders Evan Williams (aka @ev), Biz Stone (aka @biz) and CEO/co-founder Jack Dorsey (aka @jack):
“composing a blog post” – Evan Williams on July 14 at 8:49 p.m.
“Big day tomorrow. Sleepy time” – Evan Williams on July 15 at 12:20 a.m.
“Meeting Biz at Whole Foods before we embark upon this grand day…” Jack Dorsey on July 15 at 7:50 a.m.
“watching the clock” – Evan Williams on July 15 at 8:52 a.m.
“Holy crap: http://search.twitter.com (details: http://tinyurl.com/56j2zx)” – Evan Williams on July 15 at 9:01 a.m.
“It’s a foggy 9am. We’re adding a great team and technology to Twitter: http://tinyurl.com/56j2zx. Exciting!” – Jack Dorsey on July 15 at 9:01 a.m.
“announcing Twitter’s acquisition of Summize” – Biz Stone on July 15 at 9:07 a.m.
With Williams’ “holy crap” teaser, followed quickly by the others, the official word was out, sending readers straight to the blog post Stone had apparently completed the night before. From there, the followers were on to the story, re-Tweeting it, commenting via Twitter and blogs and sending others to the blog post, Finding A Perfect Match. Online news sources covered the announcement, followed by online versions of the mainstream media, who were offered a “press” link on the Twitter Web site – no more than a six-question FAQ document. Simple.
From a PR perspective, this is a refreshing change for an acquisition announcement and one worth learning from: build a base of followers who are interested in your company and what you have to say (caution: this takes time); engage them with content so they’ll stay with you (relationship building); have the announcement come directly from the top; use a conversational yet factual style that shows it wasn’t crafted by the marketing department; and, send readers straight to a blog where they can learn more (again, direct from the source).
Funeral services for Tim Russert are today, and as we’ve heard during the tributes since his death on Friday, his “down to earth” I’m-from-South-Buffalo persona is one reason he was trusted and beloved by so many people across America. I’m sure someone having an especially tough time right now is the long-time executive producer of Meet the Press, Betsy Fisher.
I sat with Betsy during lunch at the National Press Club a year or so ago, and from that experience can tell you she is just as friendly, down-to-earth and open as her boss was.
Betsy said she receives around 500 to 600 emails each day, with the vast majority nothing more than spam from PR people sending the same generic, over-written, non-personalized messages to everyone on their media list – and hoping something sticks.
BTW, Betsy asked me for info about a Sawmill client and we exchanged emails the next day, proving that one can cut through the clutter of those 500 emails if you’re delivering information of value.
WBAL-TV in Baltimore ran an editorial today that said Tim Russert “knew what questions Americans wanted answers to,” and that reminded me of a PR tip Betsy shared with me that day. While getting a seat at the Meet the Press table would be quite a feat, she said that if I ever have a question that I (or a Sawmill client) wanted to ask a guest on the show, email her and she would share it with her boss. During all the tributes to Tim Russert, his ability to ask tough but fair questions – that Americans wanted answers to – came up a lot, and it’s likely that some of those questions came from those of us watching from home.
