Penny for the Advertising Industry

Our marketing cousins in advertising are having a tricky time of things at the moment. Belts are understandably tightening. But I fear the PR industry will not be immune.

The fact is, love or loathe the idea of advertising (because it’s cheating isn’t it – just paying to put your message in an advert, where’s the fun in that?) advertising spend underwrites all that lovely editorial space the PR industry plunders on a daily basis.

Newspapers are announcing redundancies, BBC newsrooms are amalgamating and that new whipper-snapper on-line media is hoovering up all the opportunities in-between.

It makes for interesting times. But if the PR industry believes it’s immune then it might be in for a surprise. It’s true that marketing budget holders are seeing significantly better value from PR than advertising at the moment.

But as advertising budgets are squeezed, editorial opportunities will become fewer and more fragmented.

It’s not doom and despondency – far from it. Remember the value PR represents! But it is time to prepare to think even smarter.

Is the British Media Obsessessed with Misery?

Just got some outstanding coverage (as you may have read below) for GO Outdoors’ new job creation plans. It’s been on all the TV news channels BBC 24, Channel 4, Sky national and regional radio and, don’t get me wrong, I’m hugely appreciative of the attention and interest.

The coverage will be valued in the hundreds of thousands of pounds – possibly breaking a cool million. So everything is rosey!

My question however is this..

Can someone explain to me how a meat packing firm, fashion house (or whoever) laying off half the number of people that GO Outdoors is taking on can generate five times (and counting) the mentions and detailed editorial analysis of GO Outdoors’ wonderful job creation news?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/20/burberry-jobs-factory-closure

Is it our fault as readers and media consumers? Are we more interested in crap things than good? And journalists simply respond to our hunger for crap news?

I get the impression sometimes it must be really frustrating to some journalists when nationally significant news doesn’t fit snuggly into the current editorial agenda of doom and despondency.

I acknowledge that we need to respect businesses and individuals who are enduring tough times. But my question is do we really need to obsessively dwell upon their misfortune?

These are bad times, no question. And the media should responsibly represent the mood and real issues in a balanced and realistic fashion. But why not dwell on the good stuff when there’s an opportunity to do so and give people some hope? (Not false optimism of course)

Isn’t there an opportunity to seek out more about businesses that are making a go of it and share their expertise and acumen – maybe inspire others to achieve more too.

Or should we sit upon the carpet singing sad songs staring blankly into space cursing our rotten inevitable luck?

“We’re doomed I tell ye!”

Exploiting the Hudson family tragedy? – Chicago Breaking News

Horrific morally-bankrupt PR.  Only in America

Officials with a company that manufactures shotgun racks sent out a news release today that asked, “Could a Bedside Shotgun Rack Have Saved Jennifer Hudson’s Family from Tragic Death?”

The rack, called The Back-Up ($39.95, plus shipping and handling), is designed to fit along the side of the gun owner’s bed, between the mattress and box spring. The release goes on to say, “Whether it is someone known or a stranger entering the home, too many people in this country are paying with their lives during these home invasions. The Hudson family is just one of far too many Americans gunned down in their own home.”

via Exploiting the Hudson family tragedy? – Chicago Breaking News.

Is PR really over?

Bleak title for the inaugural ‘PR Guy’ post – I know.

But worthwhile I hope.

Respected journalist Dennis Howlett writes:

After 17 years, I’ve come to the end of putting up with what most PR offers. It is time to draw a line in the sand. Accordingly, any PR that emails me gets this standard response: “I’ve stopped accepting email pitches. Please follow me on Twitter and pitch in 140 characters or less.”

And adds:

In any one day I field up to 20 PR requests. I can guarantee that 90+% of them have done zero research to find out what I’m interested in. In the worst cases they won’t have done a basic Google search to find out who I am or where my interests lay. In 2008, that’s beyond unacceptable, it’s criminal. Why?

The overwhelming feedback from online and offline editorial gatekeepers is that the days of blasting out hundreds of emails in the hope that something sticks are numbered.

And the PR profession must listen.

When I began in the public relations industry more years ago than I care to remember, we photocopied journalist addresses onto labels or faxed through for that added element of urgency!  Then, overnight, email gave us the power to contact those journalists with one click of the button.

Imagine the possibilities.  We collected and voraciously stashed email addresses in Outlook.  It became a numbers game – where more emails = more coverage.

Subscription to swanky media databases then even saved us the hassle of updating our info. We were in distribution heaven.

Better still (better for journos too – go on admit it!) copy and paste enabled our skilfully crafted copy to fill column upon column of news copy.

Unsurprisingly I have a vested interest in PR being anything but over.  I think PR people do what they know.  They should know news angles.  They should know how to offer news in concise and informative fashion.

But instead of forcing our releases on hundreds of journalists at a time we need to discover and learn about the power of the blog, website news sections and the full portfolio of social media tools at our disposal.

We also need to re-educate ourselves about the power of personal communication.  Even if it doesn’t fit snuggly into our write-send-and-follow-up model.

The change won’t happen overnight – but, at the very least, we need to demonstrate that we are evolving and open to the new rules of editorial engagement.

More on Dennis’s bleak PR prophecy here