“Hi NAME,
Hope all is well! Just wanted to touch base with you regarding XYZ. COMPANY will be exhibiting this year AT EVENT and would love for you to stop by the booth to have a little fun, check out the new PRODUCT and discuss what’s going on in the industry. Please let me know your thoughts and if you are interested in scheduling a one-on-one booth appointment with COMPANY, as I’d be happy to help!
Kindly,
PR REP” Continue reading
With the PGA Tour season coming to an exciting close this past weekend with more than $10 million on the line for eventual winner Bill Haas, it is timely to offer up insights on how pitch letter writing is like the golf swing. I’ve been an avid golfer for most of my life and like many golfers believe that golf itself is a microcosm of everything we do in life. So here’s my take on how developing a pitch letter is similar to developing a sound golf swing (please note that I am a PR professional NOT a golf professional though it is still a dream to be one someday): Continue reading
Oh Twitter… receiving a suck notice , being told it has a stickiness problem. Are you really still useful to PR pros, if not just for helping us craft more weighty headlines in 140 characters? Besides the obvious observations for how a tweet helps PR pros pitch more effectively, one thing is definitely overlooked and it’s something I stumbled upon just today: the timehook. Continue reading
I recently had the pleasure of seeing my two good internet buddies, Danny Brown and Gini Dietrich, try to get a room full of bloggers and PR folks to play nice. As someone working on the brand side, I was an impartial witness to what is clearly a big, heaping pile of infighting.
Clearly, the explosion of Social Media and blogging has changed the landscape, with bloggers looking to be taken seriously and PR reps not quite sure how to handle this new Fifth Estate. As an outsider in both camps, I wanted to share some unemotional insights into what is clearly a highly charged subject. Continue reading
Oh yes, it’s that time of year where thousands of contestants try out to be the next American Idol. There are some great singers, some really awful ones, and then there are those that are a little ‘pitchy.’
I’ve been getting a lot more pitches lately that are starting to remind me of Idol contestants. They aren’t necessarily terrible but they aren’t that great either.
Do you want to wow the judges (the media) with your next pitch audition and get that golden ticket to Hollywood? Think of me as a sort of Marie Seacrest but taller; grab a Coke glass and sit back as we break it down for you. Continue reading
Moby is a unique musician. His music is somewhere between dancehall and coffeeshop, and that’s not a bad thing.
I’ve seen him at a stadium show, which was not the right venue to enjoy his music, since there were no dancefloors or lattes within reach. But his performance was incredible.
So what the heck does Moby have to do with PR?
Simple: A Moby song is like a bad story pitch.
Say what?
Follow me.
Moby’s songs are catchy because they are repetitive. Very repetitive. Continue reading
Any publicist in the midst of a PR campaign for a client has probably asked him- or herself this question: “Is my PR working?” And for a client who’s invested their money in your services, they’re probably asking the same question. Sometimes as publicists, we forget how PR works.
Evaluating a PR campaign based on sales or rate of return is all too typical. But here’s the thing: PR doesn’t work like that; it’s a long-term investment. As a publicist you know this already, but does your client? Sometimes you have to paint a picture for the client about what to expect. You have to make it clear that PR — when done right — will increase awareness of their product, service, book or expertise, to their target audience. And sorry, this doesn’t mean skyrocketing sales right away. Continue reading
Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar to you:
PR/Marketing Guy: So tell me, Mr. X, who is your company’s audience? Who is interested in what the Widget Factory has to offer?
Mr. X: Well, we consider our audience to be widget consumers, widget manufacturers, those who work in the widget industry and our own internal employees.
PR/Marketing Guy: Sounds like quite a diverse group. How will you be alerting all of these individual and distinct audiences of your upcoming big company announcement?
Mr. X: We were going to do what we always do: Blast out a generic e-mail announcement that goes to that entire group. That way, they all get the same exact message.
PR/Marketing Guy:
Frustrating? You bet. An exaggeration? Sadly, not even close.
Continue reading