Riding The Tiger

For most people just trying to grab the media’s attention and gain some coverage is the number one goal of their media relations effort.

But for those who have already grabbed the spotlight the skill is to pick and choose the opportunities offered by a hungry media to ensure that only those that have some advantage and progress the cause are taken up.

When Empica helped launch the national charity Afghan Heroes in September we knew it would gain major national attention. After all a charity inspired by mothers who had lost their sons in the conflict could hardly be more topical or have more human interest.

We also warned all involved that we would have to ride the tiger of the media over the next few months.

A whirlwind of activity has followed with the issues surrounding Afghanistan constantly in the media. Of course many television programmes, radio stations and magazines have wanted comment from someone affected by events in Afghanistan creating lots of opportunities for mums of soldiers who have been injured or killed.

But they are not all good opportunities for the charity and the Empica role has been to help select the ones that would help take the charity forward and not just be a wallow in someone’s grief or produce good television and radio.

Good media relations is always about selecting the opportunities, even when you are not so much at the centre of the news agenda. A well chosen feature opportunity or the right story in the right place at the right time is always better than spreading your message far and wide.

It is flattering to have television programmes and producers knocking on your door for comment but dealing professionally with the media when you have something to promote is the key to success – and that means being selective.

We asked 1,000 people…

You hear it every day – especially on commercial radio; those magic words “in a survey of 1,000 people”.

The subjects vary from whether women prefer chocolate to shoes; what colours people like to wear or what are the most exciting features of a mobile phone.

The PR Survey – far different to the scientifically researched survey carried out by major research organisations – has been a staple diet of the media for many years and it is invariably public relations specialists who provide these items.

But the appetite for them never lessens within the media for one very good reason – people love to hear them and they are exactly the stories that they go home and chat to their family and friends about in the evening.

For every person who might read or hear about such a survey directly there are another eight who hear about it from their friend or even from strangers they encounter. We just can’t resist passing lifestyle trivia facts on to others!

Back in the heady days of the 1980s I worked in an Absolutely Fabulous style agency where a survey could be conducted by just asking around the office; ringing a few mates and getting the cleaner to chime in with a view.

The media got wise to such antics and now insist that the survey has to ask 1,000 people – even if it isn’t particularly scientifically carried out. So for some time, when required, Empica has sent people out with clipboards – and yes roped in relatives and the cleaner – until the magic number is reached. It takes time and effort to get 1,000 I can tell you having found 1,000 “Yummy Mummies” and 1,000 people who have visited a chiropractor!

Thankfully we now have those wonderful social networking sites and we are seeking 1,000 people who live in the South West of England and have an opinion on something to join our regional “Opinion 1,000 Club” on Facebook. The club, when it reaches 1,000, will mean we have on tap people ready and willing to provide answers to those important lifestyle questions for our clients – we even plan to bribe them with prizes.

Opinions are sometimes vital, sometimes fun and sometimes purely so that the public can say “fancy that”…but hopefully they will always be a good source of interesting material for the media.

Opinion Club 1000 (South West UK) on Facebook

The Wobbly Table Of Good PR

Italian and Greek restaurants are renowned not only for their excellent food but for the attentiveness of staff and the warmth of welcome.

One of the ways they have built up the great customer service reputation is through the “wobbly table” stunt, which gives customers a feeling that they are being cared for and looked after from the moment they walk through the door.

Too many people think that good PR is about doing everything perfectly and promising people the best in the world. In fact good PR is about under promising but over-delivering and that is where the “wobbly table” comes in. Has it happened to you?

You walk into a restaurant (almost always Italian or Greek) and a smiling person greets you and escorts you towards a table. Just as your party are about to sit down the greeter moves the table and finds it wobbles.

With a great deal of fuss and palaver the greeter makes a huge point of finding a beer mat or piece of cardboard and folding it. The greeter crawls on the floor and shoves the card under one of the table legs and won’t let you sit down until – with profuse apologies – the table is as solid as a rock.

Your party sit down and are handed menus and already you are impressed. This is a restaurant that really cares about your comfort during your stay – you study the menu while already convinced it will be a meal to remember.

After your meal you leave a generous tip and the greeter kicks the piece of cardboard out in preparation for the next party to arrive – so that the over-servicing pantomime can take place again.

Businesses should all look for ways that they can create the “wobbly table” effect for customers. Always be willing to do that little extra that people didn’t expect when they bought the product or service.

A small “free” added extra can go a long way towards customers coming back again and – more importantly – it gives them something to say about you when they talk about you to others – creating the most vital of all public relations phenomena: word of mouth recommendation

The Media Spotlight Can Hit At Any Time

There may seem little connection between Britain’s Got Talent contestant Susan Boyle booking into a rehab centre and relatives of those missing on Flight AF 447 waiting for news.

Both stories shared the front pages this week and were reported with equal gusto. Look at the photographs of relatives as they arrived in Rio and in Paris to find out about their loved ones. They were instantly surrounded by television cameras, microphones and photographers. Journalists asking them how they feel and what they have got so say.

None of us know when we might suddenly be the subject of a story and how you cope with such intense media pressure when your emotions are so raw is a trick few of us rehearse.

Of course the relatives of Flight AF 447 neither sought media attention or wanted media attention. But they are at the centre of a major event and each story they have to tell will be a harrowing human interest tale that the media will lap up.

Susan Boyle on the other hand sought out fame by entering the Britain’s Got Talent competition. However, I doubt in her wildest dreams she expected to gain the worldwide media attention that she sparked. The result, for someone who has lived a quiet life in Scotland, is a shock to the system that requires specialist help in a clinic.

Businesses and those in the public eye should prepare for the days when suddenly the media focus is on them. Preparation will at least mean they have thought through the likely moves by the media and that preparation needs to include some mental strength to realise what the media requires and why they are suddenly interested in you.

In some ways the media behave like an out of control class of children when there is a big story to chase. Knowing how to calm them down and get them into an orderly position to impart information to them is the key to good media relations at such times.

Of course that is not a role for the relatives of Flight AF 447 but those around them need to provide them with that support in handling the media as well as the counselling and medical help they need to cope with their loss.

For Susan Boyle it is essential that those who are getting rich as a result of her fame put some of that money into paying media advisers to help her through the transformation from an unknown to an international famous face.

Face To Face Is Better

We often hear that the public relations business is all about communication. In fact at its best it is all about changing people’s opinions and perceptions through that communication.

We spend a lot of time shaping messages. Then we find an appropriate media through which to send that message. Traditionally we think of newspapers, radio and television doing that job – these days it is websites, blogs, Twitter and the limitless resources of the internet.

But the most powerful way to change opinion is through the most basic form of communication – face to face meetings and chats.

We saw a great example of that this month when Prince William popped round to personally apologise to 109-year-old Catherine Masters after The Queen sent her the same birthday card for the fifth year in a row.

The pensioner had written to the Queen to complain that the monarch was wearing an identical yellow dress on the front of each card. William turned up personally to have a chat and, hey presto…one dissatisfied customer is now very happy indeed.

Now I am not suggesting that businesses send the MD (or the MD’s grand-child!) round to see every dis-satisfied customer – but there is a big lesson for all of us here.

Too often businesses hide behind e-mail and letters when a telephone chat or a face-to-face meeting will pay dividends. At Empica we have been involved in helping one major corporate prepare for public consultation meetings over a major planning application this month.

The people who will have to face the public at the exhibition are understandably nervous but a run through of the major issues that are likely to be raised and a rehearsal of the company line has boosted their confidence.

Simply being there to answer face to face and showing that you are a human being too is a powerful way to get your message across to potential critics.

The people who attend the consultation will feel much more valued and will also feel they have contributed to the plans – and not just been communicated with! By bringing about as many opportunities to meet your customers face to face you will increase your business reputation – and ultimately your income!

News Just Gets Faster

Sitting in a pew in St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street at a Memorial Service for an old friend there was time to reflect on how the media has changed.

On the walls of this London church are countless memorials with “journalist”, “printer” or “publicist” proudly displayed alongside the names of those – both well known and not so well known who have brought news to people.

As I sat in a pew proudly displaying an OK! Magazine logo I remembered how Fleet Street used to be the heart of journalism. This month saw the 97th anniversary of the Titanic and it was from offices just yards from where I sat that writers first broke the news of this momentous event to the shocked nation – days after the ship had hit the ice-berg.

Many of those news reports told how lives had been saved because of the Marconi wireless system installed on the Titanic, which alerted others to its plight. Little did they know that they were reporting on a development that would revolutionise their own industry.

By the time of the events of 9/11 in New York the media had changed so fast that the second plane hitting the second tower was viewed live on television and computer screens across the world – it was just 17 minutes after the first plane had struck.

Our means of receiving news is getting slicker and slicker, which means it travels faster and faster. There is little time for a journalist to consider their words; no time for the printer to present the article beautifully and the publicist has to be ever faster with an answer or an idea.

Back at the Empica office a story we had released on plans to hold a Titanic Memorial Cruise in 2012 was attracting national and international interest. Within a few hours a national newspaper in Norway was on the telephone to me wanting quotes – they had read our press release on-line.

Hits on the cruise website showed that people from 84 countries had not only read the story but had then gone to the trouble of looking up more information on the website. The press release had circled the globe in hours.

Fast reactions are required frequently if you are to engage with the media. But buying time can be more precious if you are to make the right call and present a story with clarity and quality. Time is a resource that gets rarer every day. We need to use it wisely.

Good Bad And Ugly Stories

Probably one of the most frequent questions I get asked by those trying to get their story into the media is: “What kind of coverage do you think you can get?”

Of course if I knew the answer to that every time I would have one of the great secrets of publicity and the job would be a lot easier for all of us.

In fact the best way to gauge whether a story will attract the interest of the media is to ask yourself whether it is the sort of thing you would ever start telling your mates or your family about in the evening as simply an interesting story.

March dawned with some major stories all hitting on the same day: terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team on the same day that Gordon Brown and Barack Obama invited the media to their first historic meeting as world leaders; there was a harrowing court case over the death of a two-year-old in Scotland and a building collapsed in Cologne causing deaths.

So which story was the one that was most e-mailed by viewers of the BBC website? Which one did people read most and want to view on video online.

Well, actually it was none of these major stories. It was a story about a cat called Ugly Bat Boy that was left at a veterinary hospital in New Hampshire, USA under the headline “Is This The World’s Ugliest Cat?”

Stories do not have to be important to sweep the world and grab attention – but they do have to be interesting and entertaining. Sometimes we forget why people buy newspapers, read magazines, watch TV, listen to the radio and surf the internet.

Rarely they do these things because they want to be lectured at and hardly ever because they want things sold to them. Mostly they want to be entertained, fascinated and inspired.

Ugly Bat Boy may have been a bit of light relief but even I now know that there is a veterinary hospital in Exeter, New Hampshire (well actually I have learned there is another Exeter a long way from the one I know so well in Devon!); I have learned that it has a chap called Dr Stephen Bassett, who will care for an animal even if it is ugly and unwanted and there is a welcoming receptionist.

Some good key messages to get out to an audience and I’m willing to bet that lots of people will suddenly want to take their animal for a check-up just so they can take a peep at Ugly Bat Boy!

Cupid Is Followed By Mum And Bunny

You might think that news is unpredictable – who could have foreseen the terrible scenes of fires raging in Australia or the plane landing on the Hudson River?

Stand up the person who predicted the Credit Crunch.

Now we are all sitting comfortably turn away from the front pages and there is a completely different picture. The beginning of February saw snow on the ground and love in the air. Every year we are surprised by some winter weather (which always turns out to be the biggest, deepest, windiest or wettest since records began) and every year the media get all loved-up over Valentine’s Day.

As soon as that is over the magazines and newspapers will be turning their minds to filling supplements on Mother’s Day and the television and radio will be looking for those “special mum” stories to fill the air time.

Soon after that it will be Easter and everyone from The Pope to the chocolate manufacturers (stand by for record sales of chocolate being announced as the credit crunch turns us all towards comfort eating) will be jumping on the bandwagon. Rabbits will get a chance to make headline news for a day or so and the media circus will move on.

You see much of what appears in the media is highly predictable and by tapping into those milestone events throughout the year the PR savvy businesses will be gaining the most coverage.

Of course timing is everything and in the case of these milestone events in the year it is often “first come first served”. You need to get in early with your hot weather story or your St George’s Day yarn.

Planning is the key and drawing up a list of events throughout the year and how you might make the most of them with a good PR story is vital. Then you can have the story on the stocks and approach the magazines a month in advance with something to interest them for that special edition.

In January Empica achieved three pages in a magazine, including a cover picture, around Chinese New Year for Dynasty and Zen Restaurants – but the idea was pitched to the publication before Christmas.

So….thinking caps on and see if you can come up with an idea for May Day while clearing the snow from the driveway.