Wordstorm Blog

What is media relations?

August 31st, 2010

Let’s face it; a lot of people don’t know what Public Relations is – let alone what PR professionals actually do.

While Public Relations encompasses a range of activities (issues management, crisis communications, community relations etc. etc.), one of the key areas that PR people work on is media relations.

The ultimate aim of a media relations campaign is to generate publicity – seeing your brand in the media through written stories, interviews on radio or segments on TV. In this regard you can kind of think of it as “free” advertising (however while you might not be paying for the story, you will need to earn it!).

Basically what publicists do, is develop story ideas with our clients and from these story ideas write ‘media releases’ (aka ‘press releases’). A media release tends to be a one page article that’s straight to the point – no marketing fluff, written the way a journalist would write a story.

After the media release, is ready the publicist would then contact journalists, gauge their interest in a story and (if successful) the journo would go ahead and cover the story – usually conducting their own interview and adding their own flavour to the piece.

The key to a successful media relations campaign is understanding what the media is interested in and delivering it on a silver platter. You need to know what they want, how they want it and when they want it, which is why media relations can be a time consuming exercise (and why sometimes you’d hire an expert… like WordStorm).

Finally, there are also few key points to understand about media relations:

We can’t look at the story before it goes to print

Unlike advertising and other types of marketing, with media relations you can’t always control the “message” and “wording”. While PR pros definitely influence a story, we hardly ever get to look at a copy of an article before it goes to print.

We can’t make a journalist talk about us

It is completely up to the journalist if they want to run a story or not. The job of a PR person is to develop a story that would be suitable for the media, to give it the best possible chance with the media. Sometimes, for whatever reason, the media might not be able to run with it. This could be due to breaking news, e.g. a terrorist attack or a change in government, which bumps you right off the news agenda.

Do not be discouraged though – it might not be the right timing for your story. In order to see the full benefits of a media relations campaign, we recommend an ongoing long term commitment. Keep a steady stream of media contact (with the relevant info of course) and you are more likely to be top of mind when a relevant story arises and the journalist is looking for case studies.

It has to be newsworthy

As journalists report on news, it is important to provide them with newsworthy information. By that we mean, information about something that is happening in your business – it has to be new, fun and exciting. If you don’t have a newsworthy story then you need to consider what you can do to create a story – and this is often where you see other strategies come into place (see our blog about media stunts for example)

Tags: media relations, media relations campaigns, media release, newsworthy, press release, public relations, publicity
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PR from an Intern’s Perspective

July 19th, 2010

Hi, my name is Zahid and I have been interning at WordStorm for the past six weeks. I‘m studying abroad from the U.S. and grew up right outside the busy city of Chicago. I am starting my third year of college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign double majoring in Marketing & Management with a minor in Communications. Through my program, I was allowed to choose a company to intern with. To me, PR has always been something that interested me, so I picked WordStorm to experience everything about the world of public relations. I knew that PR firms acted as publicity agents for different companies, but I didn’t know how they went about doing it. Let me just say that this is not at all what I expected.

My time here at WordStorm has given me insight into what the field really entails. A lot of the work is relationship based rather than business based which was completely different for me to see. Marketing consists of formulating business plans and strategies that target the costumers directly via advertisements, promos, public relations etc. Because these fields do overlap and share similar structures and goals, you can easily say that PR is a heavily concentrated branch of my major. Therefore, I soon found that PR does include all those aspects as well. I see it as the alternate to direct advertising. Furthermore, the team here at WordStorm focuses on building up relationships with their clients, journalists and anyone else in the media. You would think that the saying, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” applies to this field, but after one and a half months here I can tell you that you’re wrong.

The girls at WordStorm are extremely hardworking. They go above and beyond every day to prove to me that public relations is not all glamour like many may think. When I first started here, my tasks included filling up goodie bags, stamping envelopes and making follow up calls… typical intern stuff is what I thought. However, I soon realised that this wasn’t the case at all. In the next couple of weeks, I began to see each account manager complete the same tasks I had been asked to do at one point or another. Clearly, this field has everything. I’ve seen first hand that you must be well rounded in order to succeed. Your tasks could fall anywhere between packaging goodie bags, unloading boxes of product, planning famils and writing the oh so famous press releases. Every day here is different; this is what I have come to learn and love about PR.

Completing this internship has definitely left a good taste in my mouth. This sneak peak into the working world of Sydney has only left me wanting more. Who knows, PR can now be a possible career for me in the not so distant future. But what I do know for sure is that this internship has created so many opportunities for my future. Although the work has been challenging at times, it would be a complete understatement to say that this experience has been anything less than rewarding, unique and memorable. Thanks again WordStorm.

Tags: Intern, pr
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How to evaluate the success of a PR campaign

July 5th, 2010

With the new financial year upon us we thought we would change tact and focus on how to get more bang for your buck from public relations this financial year.

PR can help stimulate demand by generating consumer awareness of new and existing products, create interest, build a brand’s credibility and reinforce a brand’s image.

So we all know PR is a cost effective way of achieving media exposure however it can still be an investment for any business, therefore businesses (and financial controllers!) will always want to know how much their investment has returned. To help evaluate what a PR campaign has achieved, we have listed below some methods to help evaluate the success of any PR campaign.

To evaluate the success of a PR campaign you must first look at the original goals and objectives that were decided upon at the start. This is important as the campaign has something to go against and provides realistic expectations for any PR campaign. If your goals don’t align with what your PR person/agency can achieve you will have problems from the start.

One of the most obvious ways of evaluating a PR campaign is the amount of media exposure that is generated through a PR campaign. But where many people go wrong is simply counting the number of clippings without looking into what is actually being said. When evaluating media clippings you should consider:

Where the media clipping is – the media outlet, it’s placement and prominence
If it is going to reach your desired audience
What is being said – is it positive or negative
If it includes an image or a website mention – making it a better article as it engages the audience

Company websites are also a great way to gauge if a publicity campaign has been able to convert media mentions into consumer interest in a product or service. Similar to looking at levels of awareness you can access the website hits and measure whether any media exposure activity has boosted website visits and if they have improved over the duration of the campaign.

And finally word of mouth. Word of mouth should never be underestimated as it still remains the primary way to increase a positive brand image and sales – as we all want people to be talking about how great we are. Research is one way to measure the value of word of mouth. Whether it’s using a survey of a focus group, research is a key tool to measure the success of a campaign.

Tags: awareness, brand, evaluate, financial year, Media clippings, pr, public realtions, publicity, word of mouth
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Five media stunts we remember

June 24th, 2010

A good stunt is one that not only captures the public’s attention, but also the media’s. Although risky, stunts are fun and a great way to get noticed. In the digital age, a stunt that goes viral on YouTube can also have more of an impact than traditional advertising. These are some of the publicity stunts from around the world that stood out too us…

1) Money falls from the sky

To launch his new book Indonesian businessman Tung Desem Waringin dropped 100 million rupiah (more than AUD$10,000) from a plane.

With the majority of Indonesian’s living on only a few dollars a day this publicity activity appealed to the media and to Indonesian’s who needed extra money.

You can read more about it here and here.

2) Pandas in Paris

To raise awareness of Pandas and their place on the endangered animals list the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) decided to create 1600 papier-mache pandas and put them on display in the world’s most famous city, Paris.

The 1600 papier-mache pandas represented the actual number of pandas in the world today. The stunt was well received across the world with numerous press articles written about the plight of pandas.

You can read more about it here and here.

3) The Britney & Madonna kiss

It might be tacky, but combining the two music giants (Britney Spears pre-breakdown and the Queen of Pop Madonna) at the MTV music awards in 2003 proved to be a publicity success with news journalists across the world going into overdrive about the “controversy”.

It was a simple act that bordered on outrageous, but it got people talking.

The biggest barriers to organising a stunt

June 18th, 2010

Stunts can be a great way to generate buzz around a brand or product. Creative stunts catch the publics attention and get people excited (admit it, you would be excited to see a bunch of people randomly breaking out into dance on your way home form work!) But before you get too excited about planning a stunt, you must first overcome some important obstacles.

1. Wet weather. Don’t you just hate when the rain ruins your plans? If you’re planning an outdoor stunt this is something you must be prepared for. Be sure to book several dates for your stunt to take place on, back up dates are crucial. It is also a good idea to check annual weather reports to see which months have the least rainfall. For smaller stunts you could set up a marquee big enough to cover the area you need.

2. Permits. If a stunt is held outside or in any public space, you will most likely be required to get a permit from the local council. Be sure to put this at the top of your to do list when planning a stunt as the council may give you size or space restrictions.

3. Timing is everything. Avoid clashes with other events, charity days, religious holidays – anything and everything! Imagine your stunt is ready to go and there is a parade on that would put your stunt to shame (an extreme example, but you get the point) – timing is everything!

4. Money. It’s true, nothing in life is free and you must be prepared to spend money on a stunt. Costs usually (but not always) include a permit, costume hire, product sampling, paying staff for documenting the stunt, participating in the stunt and choreographing the stunt – you get the picture! Be sure to prepare a generous budget.

Once you overcome these barriers you can get your creative juices flowing and organise a fantastic and memorable stunt – good luck!

Tags: pr, PR stunt, Stunt
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Don’t be a Twit on Twitter

June 11th, 2010

In the last year, Twitter has been the buzz word. From the guy I went to primary school with, to Neil Patrick Harris; everyone is on Twitter. Earlier this year I decided it was about time I jumped on the bandwagon as well.

At first I couldn’t really see the point. It seemed that Twitter had taken the concept of the status update from Facebook and eliminated everything else. I was never keen on updating my statuses on Facebook in the first place, feeling it made me look like a bit of douche! I felt as though my life wasn’t interesting enough to tell entire friend list about and I knew how annoying it was for me when my homepage was covered with “I just went for a run”, “My dog is sooo cute”, “So cold! Don’t want to get out of bed!”

With Twitter however, we were all on there for the same purpose – for the status updates. Suddenly it didn’t matter how interesting, funny or lame a comment seemed to be – it fulfilled Twitter’s purpose just by being there and I found the courage to tweet here and there. In my first week on Twitter I instantly followed everyone I knew (and everyone I wish I knew, including comedian Russell Peters!) For the first month I was amused and entertained but soon this wore off and I was stuck scrolling through the tweets for something remotely interesting or relevant.

Now, a few months down the track I have learnt a few lessons about how to use Twitter productively and not waste too much time on it. Here are my top five tips:

When you join Twitter it is very tempting to follow all kinds of celebrities to see what the ‘real person’ is like. My recommendation is not to bother. At first it was extremely exciting to read Russell Brand’s tweets and feel like we were long lost friends but how long can you fool yourself? The novelty wears off very quickly and you are left with lots of meaningless tweets that serve no purpose at all.

It is worth following people that you’d like to create a relationship with. If you own or work for a fashion brand, it is a good idea to follow fashion journalists who have a twitter account.

Do not bombard Twitter with sales messages or you’ll find yourself blocked by everyone. It is possible to promote your brand using Twitter but you have to be clever about it. For example, you can run a giveaway or competition through tweets. Tweet clues and images of where your product will be and announce that if followers come to this location and mention that they saw the tweet they will receive a prize. Another idea is to ask a question and get followers to use hashtags to link to your page when they respond – the best response wins.

The main thing to keep in mind is to have a solid idea about what you want to achieve through using Twitter. Keep this objective in mind when you write tweets or decide to follow people.

There are many applications such as Tweetdeck.com which you can download to help organise your Tweets and not waste valuable time refreshing your page.

Being in PR, I’ve found that by following interesting brands, journalists and other PR companies, I can stay in tune with the PR world and discover valuable PR opportunities for clients.

Have you had amazing opportunities appear from being active on Twitter or are you finding it to be a bit of a time waster?

Tags: PR and Twitter, social media, Twitter
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Why are you holding a publicity stunt?

June 10th, 2010

Every so often clients see wonderful PR stunts and want the same for their campaign. Unfortunately a stunt isn’t as easy as clicking your fingers. It involves a great amount of organisation and most of the time, money. For this reason, we always ask the question, why are you holding a stunt, to ensure precious time and money isn’t wasted.

PR stunts can occur in many shapes and forms, however companies need to be aware of their objectives in order to save themselves from a PR fail!

When considering a stunt, you should consider the following:

Do I want to voice a significant message?
Stunts have the potential to be super successful when a meaningful message is being communicated. For example, in 2007 Greenpeace activists cloaked Dell headquarters in Texas with a banner directed at founder Michael Dell that read, “Michael, What the Dell? Design Out Toxics! – Greenpeace.” – see here . This stunt was very simple, yet communicated a meaningful message and in turn received widespread attention from general consumers, other electronic companies and the media.

Do I want to raise consumer awareness?
If your aim for holding a PR stunt is to raise consumer awareness about your company / product / service, a great deal of research is probably in order.

Ask yourself:

- Who do you want to target?

- Where are these people located?

- Do these people have a lot of time on their hands or are they busy professionals?

For example, it would be a waste of time holding a stunt for busy stay-at-home mums in the central business district.

Do I want to gain media coverage?
If the sole aim of your PR stunt is to gain media coverage for your brand, it needs to be newsworthy, downright quirky or controversial! Take for example the PR stunt from Australian clothing company Witchery for the launch of its new menswear line Witchery Man in the start of 2009 – see here. The stunt fooled almost everyone, including the media and was definitely on everyone’s lips. Although the stunt’s ethics were scrutinised for “lying” to the public, once it all was revealed, it created a lot of conversation about the new menswear line and definitely captured an audience!

Whatever the reason is for holding a stunt – you need to work it out from the get-go to ensure you’re on the way to a successful outcome.

Tags: PR stunt, PR stunts, publicity stunt, stunts, successful publicity stunts
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What are the key elements to a successful PR stunt?

June 3rd, 2010

There’s no doubt publicity stunts, when executed successfully, create buzz around a brand or product, and we’re the first to admit they’re a ripper project to work on.

Truth be told, a lot of strategic planning and elbow grease (not to mention money) goes into arranging the logistics of a stunt, without any guarantees of it being the colossal success first envisaged.

Of course, we visualise mountains of brand awareness, front page scoops and billboard sized photos in the planning stages. But what happens if it flops? We decided to look at the key ingredients of a successful stunt.

As captain-obvious flies overhead, we’ll point out that a PR stunt must tie in directly with the brand or product being promoted.

Example time! Ben & Jerry’s once hustled a herd of thirty dancing pantomime cows in Trafalgar Square. And yes, they were all branded with the words “Ben and Jerry’s”.

Why did they do it? Well (duh, we hear you say) it’s memorable and got heaps of attention. Of all the stunts that go on each year, only a small portion makes a big bang with the media, so get those creative juices flowing.

Successful publicity stunts are timely, have news value and offer a lot of photo, video and sound bite opportunities.

Make it extravagant, loud, visual and in a central location, all the while keeping a clear and concise message – don’t lose sight of what you’re trying to achieve.

Co-ordination is a key. The stunt should flow and keep constant unison. Those pantomime cows didn’t teach themselves to dance; they had a routine, a planned and rehearsed routine. Take the time to prepare and practice. Think of photo opp’s and video footage on the day – the stunt should work in perfect harmony.

Pick the day carefully. Avoid clashes with other events, charity days, religious holidays – you get the picture, timing is everything. And that counts for the time of day too. Research thoroughly before locking in a time and date.

Alert the media! Give the heads up to as many journalists as possible. Give them the time and place and hook them in without giving too much away. Keep the element of surprise, while tickling their curiosity.

Publicity stunts are a chance to create a mini-production, if you like – take advantage! Opportunities like this don’t come up everyday, be bold, be brave and leave nothing to chance – cover all bases and be prepared for little glitches, such as weather. Ensure there’s a back up plan in place and once your client is happily plastered all over the media, exhale. Your work here is done.

Tags: elements to a publicity stunt, how to hold a publicity stunt, Publicity stunts, successful publicity stunts
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Manage your issues before they turn into a crisis

May 31st, 2010

Continuing on from our last post about crisis management this piece looks into managing issues before they become a crisis. All organisations have a list of issues that could be potentially harmful to their brand and overall business. Issues management is all about getting ahead of the pack. If you recognise your own organisations strengths and weaknesses you are better equipped to prepare for potential problems.

How you approach these potential issues is the key to preventing them from creating damage in the future. There are a few areas you should think about when considering issues management.

Firstly you need a good plan. Organisations need to have an issues management plan. This is what helps you really think about your organisation – ask yourself: what do people love or hate about us? You just need some basic public relations – ask people what they think.

If you don’t have a plan and an issue turns into a crisis – you will need to come up with one quickly. An issues management plan is an asset for any organisation that wants to be proactive and ready to deal with potential issues. A plan should include all possible issues for your organisation, how you can prevent these issues from occurring and how to manage them if they do occur.

As an organisation it is important to identify all internal and external issues that have the potential to harm your business.

Potential internal issues can include:

Management and ownership – This includes things like takeovers, mergers and change of leadership.
Employees – You need to consider work place disputes and any other employee behaviour that could damage the reputation of your organisation. This could include their conduct on social media outlets.
Operations and practices – Think about how you do things and how the public will react.
Products or services – Your core business function and everything that could possibly go wrong.

Potential external issues can include:

Industry related – Things like changes to Government legislation or any other industry regulatory body
Disasters – If a cyclone occurs in a region that has an impact on your business, you need a contingency plan.
Financial markets – If the GFC has taught us anything it’s that you need to plan ahead just in case things go drastically wrong
Competitors– Your competitors have an impact on your business so you need to think about how what they do will affect you.

Even after thorough planning and identification of your issues you still need to manage them. In order to control issues you may need to change the way you operate and be prepared to manage how others will perceive these changes.

Just remember, it’s always better to come prepared. A combination of planning, identifying and managing potential issues will enable you to be better prepared for any situation that may arise.

Tags: crisis, GFC, issues, Issues Management, Issues Management Plan, social media
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How to respond to a crisis

May 28th, 2010

This month begins our series of blogs about the ever prevalent area of crisis communication. In this day in age knowing how to respond to a crisis is important for any organisation due to the speed news travels through the internet. In order to salvage a crisis you must act swiftly in order to protect your brand. Here at Wordstorm, we have outlined the who, what, when, where and why of how an organisation should react if a crisis does occur.

Who

You can not respond to a crisis alone. Crisis management is a team sport and involves a variety of tasks and responsibilities. We’ve all heard the motto two heads are better than one – teams are important because they are able to outperform individuals. In your crisis team you need to

Pick a leader who will manage the entire crisis.
Decide on a team of communication professionals who are able to respond to any further developments
Chose a spokesperson

What

In the early stages of the crisis it is essential to define your key messages as the initial response does more than sets the tone – it establishes the path of the crisis. You need to respond with clear and concise key messages outlining the problem and the solution. For example “We have discovered the oil spill and are doing our best to rectify the situation”.

When

Acting swiftly when a crisis happens reassures key stakeholders and helps to protect your brand. You should respond as soon as possible and preferably within a few hours of a crisis occurring. It is important that you understand your position and release vital information through appropriate channels to help manage the progression of the crisis.

Where

You must also decide where and how you release information. A press conference is a popular option to release information in the event of a crisis. A press conference puts a face to an organisation and allows questions to be asked in a controlled environment. Alternatively, using press releases allows a further controlled distribution of information in a timely fashion. In this day and age you can also release information online through an online press room, a dedicated website and social media outlets.

Why

You can’t stick your head in the sand when a crisis happens. A crisis can not be ignored and must be faced head on. Effective and accurate crisis communication management is crucial as it is the only way to protect an organisations brand now and into the future.

Finally after a crisis occurs reflect on what happened and plan for the future. It is far easier to manage an “issue” rather than a “crisis”.

Tags: crisis, crisis communication, crisis management, issue management, issues, pr, public relations, social media
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What is media relations?

PR from an Intern’s Perspective

How to evaluate the success of a PR campaign

Five media stunts we remember

The biggest barriers to organising a stunt

Why are you holding a publicity stunt?

What are the key elements to a successful PR stunt?

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