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
Sawmill Marketing Public Relations Sponsors ‘Stoop Stories’
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We fell head-over-heels in love with Stoop Stories minutes into one of their shows.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, each Stoop show features seven storytellers who get seven minutes each to tell a true, personal story about a specific theme. No notes, no scripts, no actors — just true stories, artfully told. The shows are charming, unique, always unexpected and almost always a sell-out.
Some months ago we became a sponsor by providing our Baltimore PR firm’s social media services to them pro bono — most notably posting regular Tweets at @thestoop — a key strategy for promoting their shows as well as their weekly radio show on WYPR, Stories from the Stoop.
Hope to see everyone at an upcoming Stoop Stories! Here’s info on the next one, June 3, 4 and 5 at Centerstage.
Integration is New All Over Again and It’s Never Been Better
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Some time ago, advertising agencies were the pioneers into the unknown world of integration. Specifically, integrating PR into, and often in support of, advertising campaigns. The rationale offered to clients was typically centered around “a single message delivered by ads and publicity” that any communications pro knew was suspect because a promotional message is rarely, if ever, also a newsworthy one.
However, that was then and this is now when integration has assumed a new and powerful role in maximizing the benefits and values of social media campaigns with traditional marketing communications ones. As many of us know, this new role for integration has expanded far beyond messaging to now include how, when and what social media and traditional communications tools are used and their exact purpose in the campaign.
We all have much to learn about how best to creatively and strategically utilize (or not) integration and to then share our knowledge with our clients so they can reap every possible benefit from it.
Recently we met with a prospective client whose business is not a tech oriented one. Imagine our surprise and delight when he indicated his interest in our help to integrate the social media tools he was already using by weaving the fingers of his hands together — the sign language of integration!
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
2010 Winter Games Recall Our PR Work at Salt Lake
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Ok, it’s corny but conducting media relations during any Olympic Games is unlike any other professional experience we’ve undertaken and being glued to the tube these past two weeks brings much of it back into sharp focus.
Sawmill handled media relations for a luxury inn and resort that was also home to many of the cross country and biathlon teams competing in the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. The intensity began to build two months before the start of the games and continued to the end of the closing ceremony. The only time we left the property during the three weeks we were on site was to drive into a nearby town to do laundry.
We spent our days and nights servicing the needs and requests of the who’s who of international major media — from The Today Show that arrived on site @ 1 a.m. to be ready for Al Roker to do his weather segments from the property 6-1/2 hours later to The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, Ski Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune and countless international media outlets doing live remotes throughout each night.
Our job, of course, was to get every media outlet possible to the property and to then assist them in every way once they arrived. A steady dose of adrenalin was a constant and important companion.
There was a consistent and, in many ways, unparalleled level of professionalism between us and every reporter, producer, 
camera crew, sound truck driver that we worked with.
During these past two weeks, as we’ve reminisced about the good old days of the 2002 Winter Games, we’ve wondered how the impact of social media — as well the dramatic change in the number, size and financial health of traditional media outlets in the past eight years — has affected, if at all, the professionalism among media outlets and the PR community at the 2010 Winter Games.
We welcome your comments and anecdotes.
Blogger’s Notebook: Foursquare, Tiger and Home/Office/Bar
Posted by: | CommentsBlogger’s Notebook is the newest feature on the PR Buzzsaw, a compilation of bits and pieces that don’t warrant an entire blog post, but shouldn’t get swept away with all the wood chips on the Sawmill floors. Here goes:
BFD? – Followers of @contactjeff on Twitter may have noticed my occasional tweets announcing where I am. Nothing glamorous, with places like Pei Wei, Free State Indoor Sports and the Maryland State House. Am I bragging? No, but here’s the story: When I read the post on Mashable titled “Foursquare: Why it May Be the Next Twitter,” I decided it was worth checking out and seeing how it might apply to Sawmill clients (I did the same thing when I heard about Twitter a few years ago…try it before you trash it!). I already see a number of marketing possibilities with Foursquare, such as becoming the tool that causes people to look up from their iPhones and Droids and actually connect with others in real life. Wow.
‘My Bad’ – The Tiger Woods “apology” grabbed so much media attention and follow-up analysis by PR pundits that there’s no need to rehash it all here, other than to say it was a highly scripted stunt that only Tiger and his team could attempt to pull off. No questions allowed or asked? Media housed in a hotel ballroom a mile away? Just Tiger reading a statement written by his advisors and attorneys? Come on.
Split Personalities – One of the PR podcasts I’ve been listening to lately is Inside PR by Canadian PR pros Terry Fallis and David Jones. In a recent episode and in response to a listener comment, they talked about the use of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and how/when to use each one. Here’s what they said: look at Facebook as your home, where you’d likely welcome friends and people you know well; consider LinkedIn as your office, where you’ll conduct yourself more professionally and keep it more business-like; while Twitter is more like a bar, with a bunch of people you may or may not know popping in and out; some informative and worth getting to know, while others are more random yet still entertaining. Makes sense.
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.
