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The how-to-do-it e-newsletter for PR and marketing
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How to get more good ideas in PR
When did you last have a good idea? Perhaps you think that’s a strange question to ask – even an impertinent one. But a story in this month’s issue has got me wondering about the power of good ideas in PR – and why we should spend time to get more of them.
The story first. PR agency Unity was asked by Direct Line insurance to devise a campaign that would make the company “contemporary, culturally relevant and engaging for Middle England”. Hmmm. This is a challenge which it would be very easy to fail.
The fact Unity succeeded is interesting. But the thinking process they used to find the key “good idea” that enabled them to succeed is even more fascinating. You’ll find all the details in Unity co-founder Nik Done’s story below, so I won’t repeat them here.
But I do believe there is a lesson in Nik’s story for all PRs. It’s that coming up with the “killer” good idea that makes a campaign take off is not easy. It needs quality thinking time, solid research plus a good dash of creative pizzazz. Of course, many PR people know that already.
It’s just that during the recession some PR pros have been running so hard to stay in the same place that they’ve not had time to do the thinking which uncovers those great ideas. So, with the economy turning tentatively upwards at last, now is a good time to re-order your work schedule to inject more quality thinking time. It could pay dividends.
Another issue to think about is how to get more value from your training budget. Sadly, training is often one of the first things to be cut back when cash runs short. So it’s important that the money you spend delivers real value. And below we take a look at 10 good ideas to help you get more value from training.
We’ve had the BAFTAs and the Oscars are being handed out this coming Sunday. So this is a good time to find out what one of Britain’s leading movie journalists wants from PR. Mike Goodridge, editor of Screen International, is back in London after a spell in Los Angeles and gives his views later in this newsletter.
Writing articles for clients is a job many PRs have to do. But I’ve been asking editors what they think of PR contributed articles and it seems that as few as one in 20 actually make it into print. There’s one over-riding reason for this – and I’ll tell you more about it in the Writers’ Clinic article further down the page.
Peter Bartram
Editor
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10 ideas to make PR training deliver more value
Handy tips to help you – and your company - get more business pay-off from the time and money spent on courses
You’re a PR professional who wants to be the best. But training costs money so you want to ensure that every penny spent on you – or on your colleagues as well, if you’re the boss with the budget – delivers real business benefits. Here are 10 good ideas - practical tips that will help you do so.
1. Discover training needs. You won’t really understand what training your staff need unless you ask them – or unless they’re bold enough to tell you. The best way to find out who needs what training is to have regular staff reviews which include a skills audit. You identify what new skills staff need and then build a phased plan to equip them with the training that helps them acquire those skills.
2. Focus on the future. Don’t bother too much about the skills needed in yesteryear. Tomorrow’s PR professional requires a whole raft of new skills – writing press releases optimised for search engines, for example, or using social media in PR. Build your phased training programme to support the strategic aims of your business.
3. Put staff in charge. Instead of telling staff what courses to go on, let them take their own decisions. Give staff personal training accounts – a quarterly or annual budget they can spend on their own training needs. But make them accountable for working better as a result of spending money on their own training.
4. Shop around for the right course. Study the aims of different courses critically and decide whether what they offer meets your learning needs. Look for courses with real substance – for example, those that are based on solid research and provide detailed information about their content. Remember that the largest providers of training don’t necessarily have the best courses.
5. Opt for trainers with first-hand knowledge. A drop of real experience is worth a bucket load of theory when it comes to PR training. So, for example, the best people to teach about writing press releases or pitching story ideas to journalists are not fellow PR people… but currently working journalists.
6. Run a pre-course briefing. Even if you do it yourself. Ask yourself clearly what you expect to gain from the course. What two or three parts of the course are especially important to you. You won’t remember everything, anyway, so be clear about what you want to focus on when the course is running. Prepare your key questions in advance.
7. Talk to fellow course participants. You can learn a lot from what other people regard as important. Perhaps you’ll get some new insights on what you’ve just heard from your course tutor. And, anyway, they are more handy contacts for your little black book.
8. Put learning into practice. When you get back from the course make a list of the key points you learnt. Note down how you will change the way you work or what you will do differently as a result of them. Make a conscious effort to feed the learning into your everyday work.
9. Share learning with others. Organise a debrief in the office so you can share the key points of the course with colleagues. Become a ten-minute tutor and summarise the main learning points in ways which will help colleagues to do their jobs better.
10. Build a library. Choose training with good course materials. Re-read the materials after the course as a way of reminding yourself about the key points you want to learn. Then build a library, with colleagues, of your collective course materials. Turn it into a permanent reference and learning resource for everyone in the office.
Train to gain: to see a range of training courses for PR professionals with dates coming up soon – and in-house courses – take a look at www.newventuretraining.co.uk
Five minutes with… Mike Goodridge
Mike Goodridge is editor of film magazine Screen International and is based in London. Mike was previously US editor, based in Los Angeles
1. What I want from PR people is…
…knowledge of my title and its constituency, effective communication of what the client is doing on an ongoing basis, fair and logical treatment of Screen vis-a-vis rival publications, a clear understanding of why we would be interested in carrying a story, transparency in our dealings and, perhaps most importantly, honesty.
2. The best way to get my attention is…
…e-mail is always best. I am pretty good at replying to everything I am sent or at least directing the e-mails to the right person to reply.
3. But please don’t…
…lie. I work in an industry which thrives on illusion, hype and, to some extent, deception - and navigating it requires a good deal of experience. I have been lied to on numerous occasions and it’s hard to forget. If I read an exclusive story in a rival which I thought was coming to me, it will take a lot to rebuild the relationship.
4. When pitching a story to me…
…accept it if we are not interested or if I believe it is inappropriate for us.
5. If you’re sending a press release, I want…
…it to be so well-written that I won’t have any more questions but, if there are further questions, to be put on the ‘phone with the client post haste!”
6. The most successful PR people…
…don’t bullshit you. In the film business, the best publicists tell you if the movie is bad. They might still expect coverage but they don’t pretend that the product, as films are referred to in our business, is high art. I find my most trusting relationships with PRs in London and LA are with people who know what Screen’s identity and mandate are and work to get the best story for us.
Pitch perfect! The Perfect Pitch Masterclass in London on 14th April 2010 is an intensive half-day session which shows you how to pitch ideas to journalists successfully by e-mail or telephone. See full details and book online at www.perfectpitchmasterclass.co.uk
Why PR decided it was time for tea
Nik Done, co-founder of Unity, explains how the agency solved a “fiendishly difficult” brief with a nice cuppa
When James Murray, the then head of communications at RBS, approached us with a seemingly simple but, in reality, fiendishly difficult brief - “can you help us to make Direct Line contemporary, culturally relevant and engaging for Middle England?” - we decided it was time to have a nice cup of tea. But only after we’d run a planning project that allowed us to unearth a central truth about the insurer - that it is good in a crisis.
From this, we developed an idea that focuses on the very British response to everyday troubles – putting the kettle on. We figured that if we could show that Direct Line understands and empathises with everyday crises, folks would naturally conclude that it could also be trusted with the big ones – those it insures against. Solving a problem with a “cuppa” is something that pervades modern culture, so we knew it would ring bells as a universally loved symbol for the campaign.
The idea of coping well with a crisis had particular resonance against the backdrop of the recession. The British blitz spirit was reawakened. People were digging in their heels as the credit crunch took hold. Middle England was taking genuine pride in coping during times of need, through “stiff upper lip” pragmatism - but also by serving tea and sympathy to whichever unfortunates needed them.
To keep the campaign light-hearted, we decided to focus on everyday crises as opposed to major catastrophes. We dubbed these everyday disasters, solvable with a curative cuppa, “tea-mergencies”. (Tea-mer-gen-cy [noun] An unexpected and unfortunate occurrence, whilst not life-threatening, still a right pain...) Then we set about exploring the phenomenon.
We worked with London-based City University’s psychology department and our own insight team to devise an experiment that quantified the calming effects of tea. The results confirmed our hypothesis - a cup of tea really does calm you down after a crisis, and sometimes makes you less anxious than before your “tea-mergency”. To give this extra news value, we combined the experiment’s findings with an omnibus poll looking into the subject.
We sent the story to media with press “tea-sers” – accompanying boxes of “tea-mergency” tea, produced by master blender Alex Probyn. And what better time for them to arrive then “on deadline” – journalists’ own regular “tea-mergency”. As always, a good campaign became great through focus on detail. We scoured the press to see which journos, celebs and public figures were suffering “tea-mergencies” and sent them our tea. We placed packaged features with key media.
Following the launch, we seeded the term “tea-mergency” on Twitter. We created a bespoke “tea-bot” which automatically re-tweeted any tweet containing the word “tea”. People were intrigued, looked up who was behind it, and were sucked in. We created technology that scoured tweets for signs of people suffering from “tea-mergencies” and they were rewarded by receiving their very own box of tea - a true delight for people and a Twitter first. We also followed journalists to ensure they “happened” to be selected. We encouraged the Twitter community to tweet about their “#tea-mergencies”. We aggregated use of the word and any reference to tea on a branded site Tea-mergency.com.
The campaign struck a chord with Middle England. Within the first week alone, more than 1,000 Tweets appeared using the “#tea-mergency” tag. The story spawned a series of double-page spreads, appearing in five national newspapers including Daily Mirror, Daily Express and Daily Mail. GMTV, ITN, Channel 5, and Sky News couldn’t wait to put our theory to the test, notching up 281 million “opportunities to see”. The strategic alliance with tea was so right that Direct Line is now creating more tea and planning further activity around the “Great British Tea-mergency”.
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Contents
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Diary dates:
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Writing for Publication Masterclass, London. Thursday 18th March.
How to write news stories and feature articles that editors want to publish "Very informative and well presented. Worth travelling far for." Georgina Key, Membership and Publications Co-ordinator, ACAD. Perfect Pitch Masterclass , London. Wednesday 14th April.
How to devise article and interview pitches that journalists really want to hear
"I really enjoyed the course - it felt like a breath of fresh air." - Ruth Palmer, Indigo Pink Communications. Perfect Online PR Masterclass, London, Tuesday 18th May.
How to use new media to get your organisation’s PR message in front of the people who matter "I just wanted to say I thought the course was extremely useful and it's made things a lot clearer in terms of how to apply online disciplines to PR. Both Jo and Keren [the course presenters] were very good at explaining things through." - Sananur Meric, Adams Creative. Perfect Press Release Masterclass , London, Wednesday 2nd June.
A journalist’s eye view on how to write releases that make it into print
"Thank you so much! I walked away feeling much more confident and I look forward to putting my training to the test." - Jenny Hogan, press officer, Kinleigh Folkard and Hayward.
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PR Success Monthly:
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Worth knowing:
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Writers’ workshop
Peter Bartram says the art of getting PR articles accepted is to please the editor as well as your client
I can’t remember who said it, but some wit remarked that writing is the art of putting one word after another. I’m pretty sure Shakespeare didn’t see it like that, but we’re not concerned with high art here.
What I want to talk about for a moment is the craft – and it is a craft rather than an art - of writing articles for newspapers and magazines. (Not to mention, these days, websites.) Most, of course, are written by journalists. But some are contributed by PR people.
Now I’ve been editing newspapers and magazines on and off since Elton John had his own hair and I used to turn up at the office in flared trousers. And, let me put this tactfully, most PR contributed articles are capable of some improvement. Which is why they usually get turned down.
In fact, I’ve asked around and your average editor gets about 20 offers of contributed articles a week. Some get far more. Fewer than one in 20 make print. Considering the effort PR folk put into researching and writing them, this makes it a high investment, low return business from their point of view.
The reason the 19 out of 20 get turned down is the same nearly every time. The articles are written to please the PR client – not the readers of the newspaper or magazine at which they’re aimed. The one in 20 that gets accepted manages to satisfy both audiences. So that’s the way to write PR articles that make it into print.
I could say it’s as simple as that. But, in fact, it’s not that simple. It is, however, a skill that it’s possible to learn. And I’ll be telling you how to learn it in subsequent issues of PR Success Monthly. We’ll start next month by looking at how you can find ways to satisfy both your client and those grouchy editors at the same time.
But if you can’t wait… More than 100 PR professionals have already attended my Writing for Publication Masterclass. The next half-day event takes place in London on the afternoon of Thursday 18th March. If you’d like to be there, go to www.writingforpublication.co.uk to book your place now.
Books for PR
You can read a sample chapter from each of these books and buy online by clicking on the name of the book.
How to Write the Perfect Press Release , New Venture Publishing, £12.95.
“This is a book for people who want to get their company, their organisation, their leading personalities or their message into the media more often – and do it in a way that generates coverage which helps them achieve their objectives.”
How to Make Your Case in the Media , New Venture Publishing, £14.95.
“This is a book for people who find they suddenly have to face the media. It’s also a book for people who’ve already had a brush with the media, perhaps weren’t happy with the outcome – and want to perform better next time around.”
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Contact details
We hope you find this newsletter of interest. If you have any queries or would like to make a suggestion about future content, please contact New Venture Publishing using the contact details below.
New Venture Publishing Ltd, 29 Tivoli Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 5BG, UK.
Tel: +44 1273 565505. E-mail: info@newventurepublishing.co.uk
© New Venture Publishing Ltd 2010. All rights reserved.
New Venture Publishing Ltd is registered in England & Wales, number 5606789
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