By Leo Valiquette
Have you seen that commercial for a teeth-whitening toothpaste that features two “sisters,” one of whom says, “as a professional photographer …” but as she speaks, a disclaimer pops up on the screen that states this is not a photographer, but an actress?
Read zero on the credibility meter.
As Alex blogged about earlier this week in her inbound marketing post, more traditional outbound marketing, in which specific messages are pushed upon a target audience in a one-way flow of information, remains an important part of the marketing mix. The good old boob tube is the best place to see examples of it done right and done horribly, horribly wrong.
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By Leo Valiquette
Quality writing, whether it is for journalistic, marketing or public relations purposes, is too often considered a commodity service. For those of us who have experience with the community newspaper business, where editorial content (to quote a colleague of mine) has often been viewed by publishers as “the shit that keeps the ads from bumping together,” this was painfully evident long before the advent of the Internet content mill.
The question is whether our present-day age of real-time, on-demand news and information is driving this to an extreme and leading many writers to, either accidentally or intentionally, break those tenets of ethical writing most often talked about in the context of journalism.
To be frank, some forms of content are a commodity and can be pumped out far more quickly than others. Nor are all writers created equal. I have worked with no shortage of wordsmiths who, despite the fact that this is their profession, still agonize for hours to produce something on a deadline that will still read much better if they are granted a second crack at it the next day.
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By Leo Valiquette
Last week I talked about how any media coverage can be good media coverage if it provides an opportunity to establish rapport with a journalist.
Of course, this statement comes with a big fat caveat – it’s only true if said journalist is not on a witch hunt and sizing up you or your organization for a stake and a pyre. But if you have bad news to share, or find yourself embroiled in some kind of juicy scandal, then what you need is a program for crisis communications. That’s a different beast and not my focus here.
Instead, let’s look at how you can go about getting the media’s attention when journalists don’t have an obvious reason to come to your door or don’t know your story well enough to understand why they should.
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By Leo Valiquette
Business and trade press journalists regularly find themselves in the position of needing owners or executives who are willing to talk about specific issues in their industries and how their businesses have dealt with them.
For a PR practitioner it’s the classic dilemma – the goal is to drive earned coverage of a client’s story (as opposed to paying for an ad) when many of the media who are receptive may have a different agenda in mind. Hard-nosed and busy executives often brush off interview opportunities if they feel that the nature of the story will not provide a clear and obvious promotional advantage for their organization. “Why should I talk to this reporter about X when that doesn’t highlight the value proposition of my business?” they ask.
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By Leo Valiquette
Government, particularly Canada’s federal government, isn’t known for being a bold early adopter of new technology and certainly not an entity eager to play the role of guinea pig.
But earlier this week, six Ottawa-Gatineau technology companies were awarded contracts through Public Works’ Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program (CICP), ranging in value from $71,500 to $565,000. Four other local firms had already secured contracts through the program since its launch in 2010, in addition to a host of others across Canada.
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By Leo Valiquette
