By Danny Sullivan
As a PR practitioner, once in a while something happens to make you scratch your head and revisit the question we all wonder from time to time: what qualifies as newsworthy on any given day?
Of course, there are certain things we know about this question (known knowns, if you will). For example, that size matters – the big news always gets covered first, and that it’s a known fact that survey results invariably make for good content on a slow news day.
But sometimes the rulebook goes out the window. A recent announcement by a client was deemed by all to be a fairly routine affair – certainly a story that was worth distributing, but not one that would generate significant media attention. Or so we thought.
Cue two days of frantic media activity, spawning all kinds of broadcast and print media coverage. No complaints here – delighted to get the response, but did we miss something on this one? Clearly we did, although, looking back, I stand firmly by our original conviction that the story was a relatively minor one!
In retrospect, the response was unexpected, but primarily driven by the media’s willingness to revisit a good story that, while already having played out in the press extensively, has the kind of enduring appeal that means it only takes a fairly minor event to push it back into the limelight.
It’s great when it happens, but confounding nonetheless.
By Francis Moran
More words will be written today, perhaps, about yesterday’s presidential election in the United States than have ever been written about a single event in living memory, but I feel compelled to add my own few since rarely in my life have I seen something transpire that I frankly never expected to witness.
U.S. president-elect Barack Obama will enter the White House in January arguably the least experienced person that office has ever seen. He will take up power atop a nation that has been wounded, perhaps irreparably, by grave errors of judgment and downright malicious intent at almost every level. He has ridden a wave of expectation, entirely of his own deliberate manufacture, that no human could ever fulfill, and this may eventually be his undoing.
But this morning, as the world awoke to a tectonic shift in the geology of human endeavour that few thought possible, Obama must be recognized for achieving the unimaginable, for forging a campaign and a connection with millions of Americans that overturned our every expectation about race and its supposed immutable place in the politics of that amazing, capricious, expansive and divisive country.
I lived in southern Africa for many years as a child and never thought I would witness the emancipation of South Africa this side of a bloody and protracted uprising. My parents are Irish, and I went to school in Ireland for two years, and never thought I’d witness the laying down of arms and the embracing of democratic means in Northern Ireland by men wedded to the gun and the laws of violence. And I never, ever thought I’d see a black man in the Oval Office.
The audacity of the human spirit, a force that Obama harnessed to his own equally outrageous personal ambition and rode to the most powerful job in the world, is boundless. Whatever he manages to do with the power he now has, this one man has demonstrated that anything we dream, we can accomplish.
By Francis Moran
Although it had its genesis in a consulting practice that was already several years old, and its first employee had been in place for several months, inmedia Public Relations Inc. was legally incorporated on November 5, 1998, and so today is our tenth birthday.
I would be less than forthright if I said that 10 years after launching a technology focused PR firm that I had accomplished what I thought would be in place a decade out. The tech meltdown damn near put us under and the continued severe contraction of Ottawa’s tech sector means we have slim pickings here at home. And my initial business proposition, that we could create an agency of excellence and extract a premium from the marketplace for that excellence, has proven to be a tough pitch in a market that too often has yet to be weaned off mediocrity.
But we survived the meltdown, the only exclusively B2B technology PR practice in the city to do so. Today, we get very well paid for our excellence from clients who have come to understand the difference. And our deliberate business development strategy over the past three or four years has been to embrace Ottawa clients certainly, but also to aggressively pursue business anywhere and everywhere we see a good opportunity.
My excellent colleague Danny Sullivan’s self-repatriation to his native Scotland a few years back opened a whole new front for us, and our far-reaching Google Adwords campaigns and this blog have brought us amazing opportunities from many other corners. With Ottawa accounting for about 35% of our revenues, we have embraced clients and projects in Calgary, Toronto, Montréal, Fredericton, Moncton and St. John’s; in Boston, Jersey City, San Jose and Chicago; and in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Farnborough and London.
If the business outcome has not been everything I hoped for 10 years ago, the experience has been nonetheless incredible. Most noteworthy has been the extraordinary people who have come to work with me here at inmedia. In an industry where average employee tenure has been pegged at less than a year, inmedianauts tend to hang around for much longer, with the average tenure here topping three years and some having spent five, six and even seven years on board. The consultants who work here are the real product that we sell, and I have had the unmitigated pleasure of consistently being able to bring to market the very best product in the PR industry, period.
Similarly, we have worked on some amazing projects with some of the brightest minds in technology, business and marketing. Our web site lists nearly 90 clients with whom we have worked over the past 10 years, and each and every one of them has represented a unique story, a unique set of market dynamics and a unique set of media and analyst targets to whom that story needed to be told. It is this ever-changing nature of the business that makes PR consulting so fascinating to me.
It has been rewarding, challenging and frustrating, as most any worthwhile venture inevitably is. It has also been a period of considerable personal and professional growth, and I look forward to learning even more as this little PR company continues.
By Leo Valiquette
I’m always on the lookout for interesting advice and insights that can serve me as a PR practitioner as well as provide insight to those interested in how things work, or should work, on this side of the fence. Here are some recent links of interest.
Be heard
As a PR gun, you are the gatekeeper for your client. It’s not only your job to take the client’s story to the media, but also to qualify and investigate media opportunities when they come knocking. Not all media opportunities are ideal for your client and some can in fact be a well-disguised sales pitch that’s nothing more than a nuisance. Even when there is an ideal fit, you must still ensure your client is prepared for the interview with an overview of what ground the journalist wants to cover and how specific questions should be answered.
This requires that you, as the PR gatekeeper, interview the journalist to some degree. As Cece Salomon-Lee at PR Meets Marketing says, you can’t be afraid to ask questions that put your client’s best interests forward.
Communication works two ways
Meanwhile, Richard Edelman articulates the evolution of the PR function into a critical tool for public engagement that must be part of business strategy and policy formulation. His particular point that strikes close to one of our key foci here at inmedia is positioning the client as a go-to expert in certain areas relevant to their subject matter expertise to become part of a public discussion on broader issues. Maybe this kind of content doesn’t talk about your client’s products or services, but it still contributes to the marketing effort.
Sometimes, silence is golden
Lastly, there’s much to be said about pitching your client’s story to key media in the context of current events. Under the appropriate circumstances, it can be an excellent means of demonstrating the value of your client’s product or service using a real world example of what pain point it addresses or problem it solves. It can also give teeth to that story pitch you have in mind that demonstrates your client’s authority and thought leadership in an area relevant to their market.
But note my use of the word “appropriate.” It may be wise to give hard thought to putting out a news release that references a recent event in which lives were lost, no matter how strong the case that your client’s product could have made a big difference.
This may seem like common sense, but as the folks at the Bad Pitch Blog point out, common sense doesn’t always prevail. Of course, if you are interested in finding out how quickly you can have a cocked and ready shotgun in your hands in the middle of the night, this may be just the thing for you.
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I want PR, but I don’t know why
October 31, 2008 by Danny Sullivan
By Danny Sullivan It’s not uncommon to sit down with a startup technology company for an initial discussion about a potential PR engagement and have a conversation that goes something like this: Tech company exec: “I think we need to start doing some PR and I’d like you to present us with some ideas.” PR agency: […]
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No better time to start a company
October 30, 2008 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran There is no better time than now to start a technology company in Canada, Montreal-based serial entrepreneur Austin Hill told a sold-out crowd at last night’s inaugural Ottawa Founders and Funders dinner. Hill told the entrepreneurs and various investors gathered at the Velvet Room how he raised US$25 million on a US$100-million […]
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‘My PR agency can’t write’
October 24, 2008 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran “I’ve just come to expect that my (public relations) agency can’t write,” was the astonishing admission I heard a few weeks back from a vice president at one of Ottawa’s larger technology companies who called us to see if we’d be interested in participating in an agency review process. (I’ve promised not […]
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So here’s the bad news…
October 23, 2008 by Danny Sullivan
By Danny Sullivan Over on TechCrunch yesterday, Michael Arrington hit back at those who have condemned his site and others for their policy of reporting on tech companies that are failing in the downturn. Arrington states: “Reporting on layoffs or a dead company isn’t tabloid journalism. We do not take pleasure in seeing companies fail. But it’s inevitable […]
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The risks of factual exaggeration
October 22, 2008 by Leo Valiquette
By Leo Valiquette Most of us in Canada are no doubt familiar with that amusing commercial from Rogers about a fellow bragging to his friend about his new high-definition flatscreen television, despite the fact that the picture quality is horrible because he lacks the HD box for his television to display a true HD signal. Well, […]
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Ask and ye shall receive
October 17, 2008 by Leo Valiquette
By Leo Valiquette A frequent challenge with the classic pitch approach to technology trade media is that, while you may have crafted a well thought out and punchy line to approach them with, you have no idea what it is the editors are actually looking for. Sure, you may sometimes find your approach is successful, but many […]
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Mole hills can build mountains
October 16, 2008 by Leo Valiquette
By Leo Valiquette Labarge Weinstein hosted yet another well-attended and informative Startup Drop-in event last night for The Ottawa Network, and the theme of the evening demonstrated how seemingly innocuous things can have a most profound impact when duplicated on a large scale. The theme was cleantech, featuring Ron Dizy of Sempa Power Systems, a Vancouver firm […]
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Show them the money, not the bells and whistles
October 15, 2008 by Leo Valiquette
By Leo Valiquette The Ottawa Citizen’s Mark Anderson wrote an entertaining and insightful piece this week about the tribulations of being a generalist business and technology reporter confronted by media releases loaded with tongue-twisting jargon. As a former business journalist, I can certainly empathize with the challenges faced by those on the receiving end of […]
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