Case Study: MapSherpa
"We have been fortunate enough to have worked over the past nine months with Francis Moran and Associates to deliver virtual CMO services for our company, and so far it has been highly effective. With this relationship, we get access to a level of experience and expertise which would be unaffordable to us if we were to hire a full-time equivalent." Dave McIlhagga, Founder and CEO
Case Study: Singletouch
"When I hired Francis Moran to lead our marketing efforts in 2011, I had very high expectations. We needed to completely rebuild our marketing from the ground up. Francis and his team not only met those high expectations but exceeded them. He brought a very high level of strategic thinking, professionalism and creativity to our organization that will be felt for many years to come in our quest to build a successful IT company." Marty Hilsenteger, Founder and CEO
By Francis Moran
I was hoping to find the time today to blog about how Canadian packaged goods company Maple Leaf Foods Inc. has been responding to the outbreak of listeriosis linked to one of its meat-processing plants. In general, I have been impressed by the company’s upfront and forthright approach.
However, I really can’t improve on what Dave Fleet has written so I’m happy to provide this link to his post.
Still, many bloggers are looking for a nice, polite way to tell us PR folk to stay away and Todd Defren is again advocating that bloggers be explicit about their wishes. It’s an approach, as Defren says, worth looking at.
By Danny Sullivan
The majority of smaller tech companies approach dealing with technology analysts in much the same way. That is, brief them on key milestones such as new products, major customer wins and so on, and hope to eventually make the breakthrough into one of the industry reports covering your sector.
This is still a valid approach to dealing with analysts, but there are other ways of addressing them. Beyond being advocates of technologies and observers of trends, analysts are recognised thought leaders in the sectors that they cover. As such, they are always interested in new perspectives and visionary approaches to addressing the challenges in their markets.
Tackling this does not necessarily mean using a briefing to explain in depth how your latest product addresses these challenges – you may be better served by organising a briefing where your company’s top thought leader will simply raise the concept and discuss it in detail in a non-commercial conversation.
Why do this? Well, analysts have to sit through countless briefings and often are rarely engaged more than to silently take in the information being fed to them. By hopefully engaging them in more of a discussion of a concept than a barely altered sales pitch, you may raise your company’s estimation in their eyes, but more importantly, you may bring some influence to the perspective of a key thought leader in your market. Even if you don’t receive direct coverage, your reward may be that your vision sparks debate and commentary at the analyst level… Not a bad return on a conversation.
For more on working with analysts, check out my previous posts titled Analyze This and Analyze This (continued).
By Leo Valiquette
“Do what you’re supposed to do to the best of your ability and be content with the results.”
Okay, that isn’t a catchy quote from some luminary of historical note. I just made it up. But it is along the same lines of the general theme that Francis espoused the other day with that comment from Canada’s oldest Olympian, 61-year-old Ian Millar, “If you persevere long enough, if you do the right things long enough, good things will happen to you.”
These are words to take to heart for any pursuit in order to reach a state of acceptance and satisfaction, as opposed to a stressed-out state of frustrated discontent. Do the best that your skills, experience and resources allow and find satisfaction in the fact that you’ve done all you can do, rather than feel miserable that the outcome of your effort was less than desired. It’s the best way to evaluate objectively how the results could be improved and muster the courage to try again.
I raise the point because John Greer at Catching Flack blogged today about Five Ways to Make Pitching More Productive and Less Painful. He talks about how many PR people dread pitching the media due to fear of rejection and the expectation of a churlish response.
Well, as any of us in this business know, churlish rejection is a fact of life. There’s no way around it. However, as John points out, if you’ve done the necessary homework to understand the story you’re pitching, to provide relevant and factual information, and know why the journalist should be interested, there’s no reason for fear and stress. You’ve done your job to the best of your ability. If this fish won’t bite, reel in the hook and cast in another direction.
Like they say in sales, every “no” is a step closer to a “yes.”
By Francis Moran
“If you persevere long enough, if you do the right things long enough, good things will happen to you.”
This is such a gorgeous quote, I simply couldn’t resist blogging about it even though it has absolutely nothing to do with technology or public relations.
This marvelous sentiment came yesterday from Canada’s oldest Olympian, Ian Millar, who, at 61, has finally snagged an Olympic medal, the only significant trophy in equestrian competition that had evaded him. It wasn’t for lack of trying; Millar has competed at nine games stretching all the way from the era of Spitz in Munich in 1972 to Phelps in Beijing in 2008.
Congratulations, Ian. You’re an inspiration and a testament to the value of perseverance.
August 19, 2008 by Leo Valiquette
By Leo Valiquette I still remember the day on the schoolyard when I picked up a pair of bent twigs to serve as an imaginary pistols and offered one to my classmate for an impromptu game of cops and robbers. “I’m not allowed to do that,” he told me solemnly. “Do what?” “Play with guns.” […]
Read more... -August 18, 2008 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran Who’d have thunk that my self-professed word nerdiness could come together with my social conscience on a single web site with a terribly addictive premise? Well, in the world of the web, all mash-ups are possible, and the quirky but fascinating site Free Rice manages to marry these seemingly disparate interests of […]
Read more... -August 15, 2008 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran I originally wrote this post for DangleTech, Canada’s largest community-sponsored website dedicated to the issues surrounding Canada’s technology sector, where I contribute a weekly blog called “In the media: It’s where you need to be.” But my editor here at inmedialog, who’s been itching all week to see a post on this subject, […]
Read more... -August 14, 2008 by Leo Valiquette
By Leo Valiquette There’s been no shortage of commentary about the threat and opportunity posed to traditional media, and the PR profession for that matter, by social media (reference too, my post of yesterday). But, while these new tools of mass communication and interaction are truly disruptive, have we developed the maturity to use them […]
Read more... -August 13, 2008 by Leo Valiquette
By Leo Valiquette Yesterday I enjoyed a lively piece from PR executive and co-manager of The Bad Pitch Blog Richard Laermer about the gradual extinction of the newsprint dinosaur or, at least, the dinosaur mentality of those who run the old-school journals of record. He asserted that traditional media suffer from a fatal self-importance (I’d […]
Read more... -August 11, 2008 by Danny Sullivan
By Danny Sullivan Working at an agency, it is always interesting when you first sit down with a prospective client to find out more about them and determine what their requirement for PR might be. Often, companies have not given much thought to what it is they are hoping to achieve through media relations, but simply feel […]
Read more... -August 11, 2008 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran I have been an enthusiast of the Clover coffee brewing machine ever since the new Bridgehead café a few blocks from our ByWard Market offices opened up a year or so ago, featuring one of these shiny devices that brew a perfect single cup of steaming hot Java exactly to my taste […]
Read more... -August 08, 2008 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran Many, many years ago, I worked at the then-decidedly down-market tabloid Halifax Daily News. (See my post on the closing of the News earlier this year by Transcontinental.) It was not unusual for our newsroom to receive odd missives, their senders clearly counting that our bent sense of humour, appreciation for the […]
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