Adventures in Candyland

I’ve been in the PR world for about ten years now, so I’ve learned and I think most people know it can be a tricky industry. For ages, agencies have charged their clients monthly retainers whether or not they pulled publicity that month. And many times, it’s not for lack of trying, often the story just doesn’t resonate with any writers. So there’s always this wierd struggle between clients and agencies. A client pays the agency to get publicity. The agency chooses an account person or team to work to get the publicity. The account person spends time researching, writing, pitching and then nothing happens. But, the client is still expected to pay the monthly retainer. And the agency still has to pay the account person. It’s definitely a dilemma. But, there does seem to be a shift occuring and frankly, I’m not sure what my opinion is on the topic — well, maybe I am.

Today’s WSJ featured a piece called, “Paying for PR — But Only When it Works.” It’s all about this semi-new trend of pay-per-placement PR, particularly in the small business arena. So, instead of hiring a agency or even consultant on retainer, a client would provide a story angle to a pr consultant or an agency who only focuses on pay-per-placement pitching and they would only get paid if the story got covered. In theory, it forces pr people to work extra hard and more strategically to get the placement. But, as much as I understand it, I think the business model is short-sighted (for the business being pitched) and unfortunately, a bit unfair(for the person doing the pitching).

Now, I completely understand and empathize with business owners who put a significant monthly retainer towards public relations and then barely have anything to show for it. There’s no doubt that this kind of agreement has the propensity to leave a bad taste in someone’s mouth as well as give public relations and it’s practioners a bad name (what doesn’t these days). And for agencies, yah, you might have made $60,000, but you’re usually left with a fractured relationship and bad word of mouth.

So, is there a middle ground? I think there is. Here at Sweet Talk, we always begin a business relationship by focusing on the overarching marketing goals of the business by developing a comprehensive marketing strategy plan. And strategy doesn’t exist on PR alone. And PR doesn’t exist on media alone. Today all the marketing rules have changed which is why marketing should start at the 10,000 foot level and then move downward. Many small businesses don’t see this or if they do, they don’t have the time or staff to do it- they might believe one piece of good PR is going to create an deluge of sales. But, readership and viewship is increasingly fragmented these days, so even if you do get one nice piece in your local newspaper you aren’t going to get the flood that being on Oprah would bring you (and yes that is every businesses dream and unfortunately it’s reality for a very lucky few).

The point here is that pay-per-placement agencies don’t really focus on strategy. They just focus on one piece of the pie. So, if as a business and you’ve created a cohesive marketing strategy and you want to farm out the media portion by providing the person with pitches that fit in the overall strategy that’s great! But, if it’s just a one off thing, you’re probably not going to get the response you hope for.

And I’m also not saying the answer is to choose a big agencies with more comprehensive services and overhead.

I think it’s more about finding a company that will work with you and your budget to build something a little more long-lasting, that just like trust, grows over time.

I love Wired Magazine (I read almost every story every month - went to WiredNext Fest and plan on seeing the WiredHouse in LA ) and The Long Tail is a genius theory from a genius man, but come on Chris Anderson. I get that you get a ton of spam that has nothing to do with you from PR people. Unfortunately, this is a frustration for every person these days, whether they are an editor of a magazine, a business owner or a uhhh, a human being. I’m not saying you aren’t justified in your opinion that PR people need to be more targeted when pitching a story, but have a little sympathy, people are just doing their job. This is my response to said editor’s rant on ignorant PR people in his blog, The Long Tail.

In essence and ideally, PR people exist to provide a very worthwhile service to writers and editors - to make them aware of companies, people, products and concepts that they may not have time to learn about as they are often harried individuals always on some kind of a deadline. But, somewhere this help that we are supposed to be providing has become an annoyance that journalists now thwart and harp negatively on.

But, instead of outing every poor person who is really just doing their job, even if they may not be doing it well, how about if as I have complained about for numerous years and this PR Week Q & A from one of the aforementioned outees seconds, that journalists be more proactive and detailed about keeping their beats and what they cover current on Bacons, Vocus or on the company website. For so many writers there is no detail provided and even so, beats change often and writers move around often. It’s not always easy to figure out who covers what - even if you are an avid reader of multiple publications. This would provide less of an excuse for PR people to flagrantly send mismatched pitches. No sob story here, but why not make it easier for both sides to give and get what is pertinent to and from them.

Would journalists prefer the whole business of PR would just go away for good? There is sort of a circle of life when it comes to editorial and PR, so I really don’t think that’s the solution. Besides PR people being consistently all-knowing, how can we solve this problem constructively and peacefully?

Come on, pitch me your ideas!

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been doing a lot of networking on LinkedIn.  If you don’t use LinkedIn, its basically a social networking site for professional use - like MySpace but for your career. 

Anyway, by using LinkedIn we’ve met new people from as far away as Hong Kong and as close by as the next town over; we’ve reconnected with old friends and colleagues; and we’ve generated a few new leads.  But my favorite feature on LinkedIn has to be the Answers section - what a resource!  Here, people post questions about everything from attending conferences to finding venture capitalists to planning events. 

Browsing the questions is a great way to monitor trends, to find out what cutting-edge ideas people need more info about; answering questions is a great way to share your expertise or new ideas; but asking questions may be the most fun of all. 

Last week we asked a few questions about things that were stumping us - we needed some better terminology for one of our ideas, we needed a consolidated resource for some statistics, etc.  And most of the answers we got were fantastic - really interesting ideas, professional concepts and phrasing, helpful links and introductions to experts.  

The answers really are out there.

Have you asked or answered questions on LinkedIn?  Let me know how it worked for you.        

Is anyone else sick of celebrities?  Of course, I used to check out perezhilton.com everyday, that was until I started my own business.  Now, I barely have time to read my email let alone pay attention to what some rude, blobby gossiper has to say about self-obsessed people who believe what they have to say is more intellectual and insightful than Pulitzer Prize winners.  Umm…hello, Tom Cruise. But, even if I did have the time, I wouldn’t spend it reading about someone leaving the Ivy.  

I only bring this up because I opened the LA Times online one night last week, and the first thing I see is Posh and Becks.  You know, the two platinum Brits who are being fawned over by the entire city of LA. Boy, is this a superficial city (not like that’s a shock or anything).  But, can these two really love each other?  Is it possible?  Or are they just two marketing entities that work together to produce this odd pop star/athlete money-making combo.  I mean how can he love her really – she always looks pissed off.  Ironically, she probably thinks she looks chic.  

I don’t know…I guess I just feel like celebrity culture is so oversaturated and its overrun people’s individuality.  That’s why it frustrates me when clients are so interested in getting their products to and on celebrities.  They think it’s the only way to get their product noticed and purchased.  I know it helps, but there are other ways that don’t have you begging some high school dropout to say they like your product. 

I know and hope it’s only a matter of time before people will flip again and they’ll decide they like something because they like it, not because some drug-addled, pregnant, anorexic girl does.

A few weeks ago Lauren wrote about the Mean Green Media Machine and pondered whether the current eco-craze is being perpetuated by the media and will turn out to be a fad, or if we are in fact becoming a “greener” society.  Since then, we have read countless articles about all things green, worked on an event to raise money for an environmental cause and attended a conference that included sessions about planning green events.  And we have had several conversations about the inconsistencies that still exist in the media about these issues.  Here’s one small example we recently experienced:

We went to a conference for event planners last week that was produced by the publisher of events industry news magazines.  After a session about the greening of events that featured a presentation by an NRDC board member, a conference organizer told us that in an attempt to be a greener event, they would not distribute any handouts during the day.  He received a round of applause.  At lunch, we found it interesting when we went downstairs to the event’s lounge-area that was decorated with about 200 mylar balloons.  Here’s what the Balloon Council, a coalition of balloon manufacturers and distributors, says about mylar balloons:  “Mylar balloons are made with mylar nylon, a material developed for use with the US space program. Balloons made from mylar are often coated with a metallic finish and are available in a variety of shapes and imprinted designs. Mylar balloons are not classified bio-degradable and should not be released.”

It can be tough to know how serious some of the media is about all this environmental stuff.  It can sometimes seem like perhaps they are jumping on a bio-diesel bandwagon.  But here’s an eco-friendly promotion that makes sense.  WIRED has teamed up with LivingHomes to create the first WIRED Home.  Its high tech and low impact.  And its coming to L.A. this Fall.  We’re hoping to check it out to see if its the real deal or just part of the Mean Green Media Machine.      

Once upon a time (before children and starting a business) I had time to read my city’s daily newspaper each morning, listen to news radio in the car, check news on the internet throughout the day, and read a magazine and part of a bestselling novel before watching network news each evening.  Oh yeah - there was also time for reading the NYTimes on Sundays.  All of that is really important if you’re in PR - some might argue its really important if you’re a human, but particularly important if your job involves monitoring current events and the media so as to develop and pitch timely story ideas for your clients. 

So along came a kid and a biz, and suddenly my mornings are consumed by cartoons while trying to get everyone out the door, my car rides consist of listening to ”family rocker” Dan Zanes (who by the way offers the coolest kid-friendly music!), I barely have time to visit my homepage at work, I can’t stay awake for the network news and let’s face it, Sundays aren’t much different.  So what’s a PR girl to do?  Well, all I can say is thank god for Google Reader.

Give me a half-hour a day with Reader and I can consume more news than I ever have before.  With Reader I can subscribe to all kinds of feeds (my subscriptions vary from the LATimes, to parenting blogs, marketing blogs, celeb-tracking sites and business and monthly pubs) then scan the user-friendly list of headlines to click on the articles or posts I want to read.  And I can email items of interest to my friends, family and partners directly from the Reader list.  Its so easy…AND it save trees! 

But wait, there’s more!  There’s another little handy-dandy Google tool that lets me be an even better media monitor - Alerts.  Alerts lets you monitor certain topics by sending you email updates of the latest relevant Google results for that topic.  So for each project or client I’m working with, I can set up an Alert and will receive daily emails about that topic - from articles in community papers, to international coverage, to personal blog posts about the same topic.  And with these being forwarded to my PDA each day, I’m always up-to-date on my media…even when I’m watching Dora the Explorer or falling asleep on the couch.

Thanks Google! :)