Eric Yaverbaum, Robert Bly, Ilise Benun. Public Relations for Dummies, 2nd Edition

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Like many giant retailers, IKEA sometimes gets resistance when opening a

major store in a new area: The neighbors don’t want a big store in their neigh-

borhood because of the traffic and noise. A mediocre PR tactic would be

sending out a release saying, “We care about the neighborhood,” with some

bland statements from the CEO. In the “Sharing the Caring Program,” IKEA

demonstrates that it cares about the neighborhood and its people by spon-

soring a free family-day fair offering education and services to help residents

live better lives — everything from lead testing to health checkups. Which do

you think gets more coverage in the news — the free family fair or the usual

corporate claptrap?

New-product press release

The most popular type of press release is the new-product release, which is a

simple announcement of a new product. The product doesn’t actually need to

be brand new to qualify for a new product release. Enhancements, upgrades,

new models, new features, new options, new accessories, new grades, new sizes

and styles, and new applications can all form the basis for a release of this type.

New-product releases are typically featured in the new-product sections of pub-

lications. Editors run short, two- or three-paragraph descriptions of the prod-

ucts along with a photo or drawing, if provided with the release. This type of

coverage, although routine in nature, provides additional exposure for your

product, builds awareness, and can generate numerous inquiries at low cost.

Figure 15-3 is an example of a new-product release that’s effective because it

ties in the new-product announcement with current news — in this case, the

controversy over genetically engineered foods, a hot topic as of this writing.

The new-product release can work for any new product, whether it ties into a

newsy hook or not.

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Figure 15-3:

New-

product

release with

a news

angle

(genetically

engineered

foods).

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Tie-in with current fad, event, or news

Although not always easy to do, tying in your release with a fad, current

event, news story, or trend can help you maximize your publicity pickups.

For instance, after the first run of the enormously popular reality TV show

Survivor, my PR firm did a survey to find out the differences in survival

instincts and strategies between CEOs of brick-and-mortar companies versus

CEOs of dot-coms. The objective: to get our name known and demonstrate

knowledge of the dot-com marketplace. The survey was featured in the

Japanese edition of the Wall Street Journal.

In 1997, virtual pets became popular, and Bob Bly sent out the release shown

in Figure 15-4. Within three days of mailing it, six newspapers had called Bob

for an interview; one sent a photographer and reporter to his home and did a

front-page story.

What’s the lead story in the news this week? Who’s the hot celebrity? Which

trend is all the rage? With a bit of creative thinking, you can probably think of

a way to tie your organization or product to that story.

Survey-results press release

It’s ironic: Journalists consider themselves in the news business, yet aside

from investigative and news reporters, most journalists — trade journal edi-

tors, columnists, feature editors — have a tough time finding anything that’s

really new. Most of what they find is recycled and has been done before. So

when you present them with real news, they’ll bite — and publish.

At my PR firm, our favorite strategy for creating real news — new information —

is to take a survey. It’s easy to do; anyone can take a survey and tabulate the

results. By doing so, you create new facts, based on numerical results, and

journalists love hard numbers.

Trade-in press release

Another promotional gimmick that works wonders in PR is to publicize a

trade-in. The classic example is my firm’s promotion for British Knights

sneakers: We offered a free pair of sneakers to couch potatoes who mailed in

their TV remote controls. At my agency, I use the trade-in gimmick often. The

only requirement is to have a logical reason for the trade-in: For example, you

want to give people sneakers and get their remote controls so they’ll exercise

more and watch TV less.

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For Calyx & Corolla, a national florist, my firm did a trade-in for Mother’s

Day: Send in a toy gun (to promote nonviolence) and get free flowers (see

Figure 15-5).

Figure 15-4:

This press

release got

my co-

author, Bob

Bly, on the

front page

of a local

daily

newspaper.

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Figure 15-5:

I think the

cleverness

of trade-ins

is what

attracts

editors and

readers to

these

stories.

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Call-to-action press release

Create a cause or a call to action and publicize it. One example is the “Strike

Back” promotion, described in Chapter 1, that got me front-page coverage in

USA Today. All I did was urge baseball fans to boycott baseball games one day

for every day the Major League Baseball players remained on strike.

Another example was the “Cursing for Chips” promotion we ran for a snack-

food manufacturer. At the time, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was

running a campaign to improve the quality of life for New Yorkers. We said

that living in New York was stressful, so one way to improve the quality of life

would be to reduce stress. We encouraged people to “blow off steam” — by

swearing aloud. They came to a booth on a busy street corner in Manhattan;

if they swore in front of us, they got a free bag of potato chips.

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Chapter 16

Going Public in Cyberspace:

Your Web Site

In This Chapter

! Creating a virtual pressroom

! Making your pressroom easy to use.

! Marketing successfully on the Internet

! Promoting your product online

! Driving traffic to your site

he Internet is changing the way business is done, and public relations is

no exception. Everybody knows it makes sense to be customer driven

when designing a Web site, especially if you’re doing business online. But

that’s no excuse to forget other major audiences, including the media. For a

company doing PR, an important application of technology on the Web is the

virtual pressroom — the section of a company’s Web site designed specifically

for use by the media.

Reporters on deadline don’t want to click through three or four pages of

content just to find an executive’s name, a financial statistic, or a product

specification.

In this chapter, I provide a plan for you to serve the media well at your site

and to make it easy for them to find it.

Designing a Media-Friendly Web Site

If you’re a manufacturer or a service provider, plan to provide extensive

informational options that make it easier for your company and your prod-

ucts to get mentioned as accurately and thoroughly as possible. A chemical

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manufacturer, for example, might allow journalists to access chemical formu-

las, research studies, applications briefs, and material safety data sheets for

each of its products.

The top three things journalists want to find quickly when they visit a site

are deep financial information (for public companies), a file of historic press

releases, and readily available contact information (e-mail, phone, address).

One survey of editors shows that only 65 to 75 percent of companies are

offering these basics. When asked how often they’re required to phone,

fax, or e-mail a company for information that could have been offered on

its Web site, all answers ranged from 30 to 55 percent of the time.

Use the sections that follow as a quality check to make sure your site has

what the media is looking for.

Company background/history

Often lumped under a section titled “All About XYZ Company,” this informa-

tion may sometimes include so many different pieces of information that you

should consider making it a separate section. Here are some types of informa-

tion you can include:

! What the company does

! Mission statement

! Industries/applications

! Philosophy

! Founders and an explanation of how the company got started

! Historical markers and milestones

! Philanthropic events and charity sponsorships

Another key piece of information you can offer is a list of customers. Case

histories or customer success stories are also valuable.

If part of what you offer new clients is confidentiality, posting a list of cus-

tomers and the projects you performed for them violates that confidentiality.

Be sure to get permission from all customers you list on your site; then note

on the site that all customers listed have given their permission.

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Key management

Read business articles and you notice that journalists like to give descrip-

tions of key players of the companies they’re writing about. So, make execu-

tive bios available to journalists on your Web site. Be sure to provide

! Where managers hail from

! Individual biographies/background

! Responsibilities

! Contact information

! Links to their e-mail addresses

It’s amazing to me how many companies hide contact information. A high

percentage of sites have addresses and phone numbers on their sites, but

most are almost impossible to find. Journalists need this type of basic infor-

mation. Always have an e-mail and phone number available for the PR direc-

tor or whoever is the company’s main contact for the press.

You can also list key personnel, but be warned: Web sites are a ripe source

of information for headhunters who want to steal your employees. So if

recruiters are actively raiding companies for people, you may opt not to

list your personnel on your site.

Press release archive

Archiving all of a company’s press releases for online retrieval on a Web site

has become common practice. On larger corporate Web sites, some search

engines give the visitor the option of excluding press releases from the docu-

ments being searched by keyword — otherwise, the results would be over-

whelming. If you decide to offer a press release archive online, I suggest you

include these parts:

! Chronological listing (most recent first) of release announcements,

including the date of the release followed by the title

! Downloadable photos of your products

! E-mail link and phone number of your PR manager or main media liaison

! E-mail hot links to press contacts, resources, or quoted sources, when

applicable, within the body copy

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