Press Release Writing 101: Sex, Green, Secret

Refreshing article courtesy of NY Times reporter Joanne Kaufman...Here's an excerpt, with tips that might bring a press release into the press:


The original pitch landed in the inbox with a whiff of medical authenticity overlaid with a snicker-inducing headline: “Toxic Ties to ‘New Shower Curtain Smell’ Evident, According to Latest Laboratory Testing.”

There was a news conference, this release said, at New York University Medical Center. It was led by a doctor representing an obscure if official-sounding group that few people have heard of, the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. There were revelations about how shower curtains that are “routinely sold at multiple retail outlets” and can “release as many as 108 volatile chemicals into the air.”

Thus, the Toxic Shower Curtain Story was born.

ABCNews.com picked up on it, only to debunk it. With varying amounts of credulousness, other outlets ran with it as well, including U.S. News & World Report, The Daily News in New York, MSNBC.com and The Los Angeles Times. The gist of some of the coverage was that it was all a tempest in a bathtub, though other reports took the information at face value.

How do stories of this ilk get such bounce from major news organizations?

Those who make their living composing news releases say there is an art to this easily dismissed craft. Strategic word selection can catapult an announcement about a study, a product or a “breakthrough” onto the evening news instead of to its usual destination — the spam folder or circular file.

“P.R. people want to invest time in things that are going to get picked up, so they try to put something to the ‘who cares?’ and ‘so what?’ test,” said Kate Robins, a longtime public relations consultant. “If you say something is first, most, fastest, tallest — that’s likely to get attention. If you can use the words like ‘money,’ ‘fat,’ ‘cancer’ or ‘sex,’ you’re likely to get some ink in the general audience media.”

David Seaman, a P.R. stunt planner and the author of a book to be published in October, “Dirty Little Secrets of Buzz,” is a proponent of “safe,” “easy” “secret,” “trick” and “breaking” because they suggest that something is new and fresh, he said.



“Anytime you have ‘toxic’ next to an item everyone has in their house and has always been assumed to be the last thing that would harm them, you can be sure it will get picked up on the news, and the Web will spread it like wildfire,” said Allen P. Adamson, managing director of Landor, a corporate branding firm, and the author of “BrandSimple.”

The words that attract media attention change with the times. “Anything that speaks to long-term health risks is good these days, because there is a belief that there’s a lot of stuff out there harming us, from the cellphone on down,” Mr. Adamson said.

David B. Armon, the president of PR Newswire, a distribution service for public relations professionals, likens writing a news release to writing a headline for the front page of a newspaper: every word has to do heavy lifting.

“It’s a lot more scientific than it used to be,” Mr. Armon said, “because you’re not just trying to get media pickup, but to get search engine attention.”


“Green” and “environment” are huge right now, he said, as is “foreclosure.” “We’ve done 412 press releases that incorporate that word so far in ’08, up from 261 last year.” For the record, Mr. Armon added, the use of the word “toxic” in news releases is up 5 percent.

The words that may help get a news release picked up vary from region to region. Brenda Baumgartner, the news director and anchor at KPVI, the NBC affiliate in Pocatello, Idaho, for example, looks for words like “fishing,” “hunting,” “Mormon” and “polygamy,” she said, “because they fit the culture we live around.”

Words that help elevate a news release also vary from industry to industry. For instance, Tom Gable, the head of a San Diego public relations firm, said a news release about video games could benefit from a phrase like “faster graphics.” When talking about technology, he said, it would be “ ‘cost breakthrough,’ like the $200 computer.”

In the entertainment industry, on the other hand, the most basic of nouns will do — baby, breakup, marriage, divorce — according to Cindi Berger, co-chief executive of the public relations firm PMK/HBH. “Now attach names like Madonna or Jessica Simpson,” Ms. Berger said, “and of course the assignment editor is going to pay attention.”

Perhaps because many people in public relations are former journalists, they know what grates on the Fourth Estate. Mr. Gable, who was once the business editor of The San Diego Union, has compiled a list of words that will do a news release no good whatsoever, like “solutions,” “leading edge,” “cutting edge,” “state of the art,” “mission critical,” and “turnkey.”

Mr. Gable said that his company once did a weeklong survey of the releases that came out of PR Newswire and Business Wire, a commercial news distribution service, “and most of the releases identified their company as ‘a leader’ and described their research as ‘cutting edge.’”

“They were empty, unsubstantiated and had no news value,” he said.

Ken Sunshine, the head of a P.R. firm in Manhattan, said he thought the media had an institutional bias against “hype-y terms” like “world renowned” and “once in a lifetime,” which he studiously avoids putting in his news releases. “But ‘unique’ is fine,” he said, “if something really is unique.”

Ultimately, perhaps, the whole thing is less about terms than timing.

“Was it really the issue of toxic shower curtains that fired up assignment editors?” asked Mr. Armon of PR Newswire. “Or was it just a slow news day?”

Viral Marketing Hall of Fame 2008: Top 10 Campaigns & Results Data

Great summary of top strategies executed by big and small brands, courtesy of MarketingSherpa.

The overriding theme:
-> Rise of social media
Most of this year’s candidates sent videos to YouTube, created Facebook pages or organized communities on MySpace -- or all of the above. These sites are free to use and add seemingly unlimited viral potential to any campaign. That means free additional exposure from powerful peer-to-peer networks. Marketers are hearing the social media message loud and clear.

-> Peer-to-peer sharing is critical
There were two distinct groups in this year’s entries: fantastically thought-out campaigns and wacky content. Either way, success hinged on peer-to-peer sharing. As our winners illustrate, both strategies can work if enough effort is put into the right places.

Clever marketers created funny videos or text documents, posted them to a few social media sites and people shared like mad -- ka-boom! Other marketers left less at risk. They created contests, microsites, full-assault ad campaigns and got on every Web 2.0 medium reachable.

-> All hail mighty content
You’ve heard the adage -- we’re not even going to say it -- but all it took for some campaigns to go wildly viral was great content. Not every content-based entry made it to Sherpa’s winners’ circle, but there were enough to denote a trend. Most of the content being passed around was funny or sarcastic -- even if it was a bit risky for PR. But being truly funny requires risks. Some of these marketers went out on a limb to grab the ripest fruit.

Advertising 101- Don't Waste The Space

A full page ad promoting a Dow Jones service in today's WSJ reinforces my table pounding that someone needs to proofread advertising copy before spending mid-six figures on placing ads into the real world.

The entire text reads : "Make customers stick like glue." The first 'message' that my eyeballs transmitted to my brain was "Make customers sick..like glue." This was after my first cup of coffee, so perhaps my brain wasn't processing at the right setting. Then I looked at the ad again...same thing...I kept associating the ad with 'make customers sick'.... To the extent that it captured my attention, the strategy worked. But the ad failed, simply because it delivered a negative context and completely turned me off to what the actual service being promoted was.

OK, lots of ads out there, and many are carelessly thought out. At the top of the careless advertising list was a recent highway billboard campaign executed by Bloomberg LP's radio division. Placed smack dab on the busiest roadway in the heart of hedge fund country (Fairfield County, Connecticut), the billboard ad displayed an innocuous message "Check Your Pounds"...and a Bloomberg LP logo below. No radio station call signal displayed, no display of the company's cable television channel #--absolutely nothing in the ad that would drive the viewer to tune his/her car radio to the Bloomberg station. Bizarre.

When I called up the head of advertising buying at Bloomberg in connection with another topic, and pointed out what I thought was a surprisingly poor marketing strategy, he thanked me profusely for making the observation, and he said that it wasn't his decision in the first place t0 run or administer the billboard campaign. That billboard ad stayed in place for another 8 weeks and then it was replaced with an ad that displayed the radio call signal.

Communicating via LinkedIn

Eric Leebow, a finalist in IdeaBlob's latest contest for 'next great idea' recently initiated a strategy targeting LinkedIn members to go to IdeaBlob's site and cast a vote for his "FreezeCrowd" idea.

Eric had pinged me soliciting ideas about the best phrase he might use in his subject field--and while I was pondering, lo and behold my email alert registered an inbound from SiteProNews, which coincidently re-enforced the entire value proposition of Linked-In's business networking value for those seeking to crack open doors in the course of selling/marketing/communicating C-Level propositions. Click on the link...it makes for good reading!

Technocrati Rocks

Pretty simple strategy for those publishing blogs and hoping that others will actually read your musings! Technorati Profile

Online market for buying and selling ideas..that's marketing!!

Now this is going to be an interesting platform--an online exchange where product innovators seeking to get to the next level can meet and transact with intellectual property buyers.. While not exactly an innovative idea; Idea Connection is another one, and this has been tried via an assortment of initiatives over the years), its being backed by a formidable group of manufacturers, retailers and major corporations.

The obvious biggest obstacle is privacy--i.e. appeasing those concerned about promoting ideas that aren't protected (patented), and naysayers will suggest that this could become a flea market that can be raided by knock-off artists. Wonder what Donny Deutche thinks?

Selling Chat on Fox, and a Sex-Enhancing Potion on the Side

If you don't subscribe to the NY Times (who could blame you?), you probably won't be able to get much out of the link imbedded in the title, but here's a story you gotta love---another 'new product and marketing tactics' profile..

Who woulda thunk that a former professional wrestler would morph into a Wall Street investment banker and then turn that gig into becoming a financial market news talking head...? Only in America, folks!

Just when I thought that my condo association President (a former top gun at CIT Financial) had it right when he suggested the idea of a lotion format for a Viagra-esque product--along comes pseudo star John Layfield with "Mamajuana Energy" ....an energy drink/beverage potion from the jungles of somewhere south of Bora Bora---and a product that purportedly emulates something similar to what happens when you take a Viagra tab.


From the NYT:
Mr. Layfield, a 6-foot-6 Texan, actively cultivates an outlandish persona. His wrestling character is based on the television character J. R. Ewing, the ruthless oilman on “Dallas.” For a photo to accompany this article, his publicist, Pamela Johnston, suggested the following: “Layfield in a beach chair, wearing a suit and tie on the top and swim trunks on the bottom. N.Y.C. skyscape in background. Cabana girl serving him Mamajuana Energy on a silver tray.”

Hats off John--you got Vitamin Shoppe to take a gamble and stock your product--and you're no doubt being labeled a scoundrel and elixir salesman...but we love your tenacity and your passion---lets hope your beverage evokes the same response from those on the opposite side of the table!...

Email Software Delves Into Employees' Contacts

If you have a subscription to WSJ online--you can access the full article..but the story ( in excerpted fashion), brings to light the most integral element with respect to Sales. Its all about leveraging (some say 'exploiting') internal relationships.....at www.JLCgroup.net--resident guru Jay Berkman opines that "every single one of your employees is a salesperson--even if their job title is miles apart from traditional sales roles--and that secondarily...your most valued clients are the best third party sales executives..."

The article does point out that privacy concerns remain an impediment to full scale exploitation---but gee whiz golly gosh...contact information acquired by employees in the course of doing their job belongs to the company---NOT to the individual--and it merely requires a pragmatic, rational and mature business executive to determine the most appropriate way to leverage this data---taking into account relationships that exist between employees and their counterparts/relationships at other enterprises...

Bytes from WSJ article:

Companies are rolling out software that allows them to mine their employees' emails and electronic address books for contact information, in a bid to make it easier to establish relationships with potential clients and others.

The products work by examining the contact lists on employees' email programs, as well as other information such as lawyers' billing records or contacts stored on special programs for managing customer relationships. Then it checks how often individuals email the contacts and whether they have appointments for face-to-face meetings or phone calls on their calendars. The software uses that information to determine how strong a relationship a person has with the contact. For example, individual emails that get replies rank higher than a blast email sent to many people.

"We're able to infer where people have relationships, based on their electronic vapor trail of activities," said Geoffrey Hyatt, founder of Contact Networks in Boston. The company, whose product is called ContactNet, said the program is used at about 40 law firms, including Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, both in New York.

If an attorney at a firm using ContactNet wants to pitch his expertise to a particular company, he can type in the name of the company or perhaps the general counsel. The system responds by saying how many of his fellow employees have relationships with the general counsel or other people at the company. The lawyer can then ask his fellow employee to introduce him to the contact. At other firms, the program reveals which employee has the contact, but details like phone numbers aren't shown. The employee may offer to share just an email address, or they may advise against pursuing business with that contact altogether.

Google_ Mystifying billing practices to be uncovered?

We're hearing from lots of Google advertisers that they are incurring charges for clicks that are not documented within Google's own analytic reports.
Here's an example of a complaint we just rec'd a copy of:

i have repeatedly brought this to your attention, and i have not been provided any type of adequate explanation
1. Site targeted campaign name :(blocked)
2. Campaign manager displays (1) Click for period mar 20-mar 23 I had selected approximately 500 different sites.
Your ad manager indicates i received 1 click from 1 site (www.legacy.com)
3. Despite above #2, when scrolling down the admin page, it indicates that (9) different ads resulted in 16 clicks, and I have been charged for those clicks, despite the fact that you are reporting to me only 1 click was made during this period.

I would like a credit for the 15 clicks that I was fraudulently charged for.
Thanks


Actually, we asked three different clients to take a close look at their monthly billing from Google adwords campaigns--each of which run both CPC and site-targeted campaigns (also CPC). In each case, clients reported an inexplicable discrepency between what GOOG reported as the number of clicks and the number of clicks that clients were charged for.

No surprise that in each case, clients are apparently being charged for more than the actual number of clicks---the dollar amounts are relatively inane (approximately 8-10% of total monthly spend)...wait a minute, that's not inane--that's INSANE.
We're guessing this is something that Wall Street analysts are going to take a closer look at.

Name That Firm: What Should You Call Your Business?

We're in the midst of trying to come up with a name for a boutique product licensing/distribution firm that started out specializing in licensing and manufacturing rights to innovative/disruptive technology products, and has since grown to the point where we have multiple products under our umbrella; extending across environmentally- friendly consumer goods, health care products, eco-friendly cleaning products for commercial application, food, and some technology widgets.

At the moment, the firm has a next generation, alcohol-free hand sanitizer product line, a lubricant made from mineral oil that is Green Seal certified and best described as the eco-friendly alternative to WD 40 (making it a great product for both the consumer and commerical marketplace), and some food products that are Fair Trade certified. We also continue to look at software and hardware products.

My partners and I have been trying to come up with a moniker (which is currently Mata Global Solutions) to a name that will resonate i.e.--encompass the unique nature of products that we are licensing/distributing, can perhaps be universally applied to the products we are licensing (a tough one considering the breadth of products), and can be easily incorporated into a URL for optimal search engine strategies.

Today's WSJ profile "Name That Firm" is a solid primer do's and don't(s) when it comes to putting up a marquee for a business.

Here are good excerpts from the WSJ article:

FIND THE UNIQUE

The first step is usually pinpointing the company's unique value or service. Companies should ask themselves, "What are you doing to bring value to potential customers and what's your vision?" says Scott Kuehl, president of BrandResolve LLC, a St. Cloud, Minn., brand-consulting firm.

BUT DON'T BE OBSCURE

AVOID THE MUNDANE

Indeed, companies trying to create a unique brand sometimes err by choosing a name that describes too closely what they do. "When a company tries to describe its services, it usually makes the company sound generic," says Mr. Montoya. The names of many successful companies don't describe what they do, he says.

Josh Robbins of Geckotech.

Names that describe a company also require a greater investment to promote the name in the marketplace, says Steven Winokur, CEO and founder of Turning Point Strategies, an Atlanta-based branding consultancy. "The only way I know how to do that is through repetition," he says. "You have to get people to see it many times."

GET REACTIONS

The best way to gauge the effectiveness of a small-business name is to find out how it resonates with people outside the company. It's an "ask people" question, says BrandResolve's Mr. Kuehl.

If people respond using phrases that echo the company's mission, that's good, he says. A catering company whose goal is to create irresistible, sinfully delicious food, for example, would know a name was right if people said it made them think of food that is "wicked good" or "devilishly tasty," he says.

Mr. Montoya says that people also should find a name memorable and easy to look up, either in phone listings or on the Web. The easier a name is to remember, the more it will benefit from referrals, he says. Similarly, a name that's hard to spell makes a company hard to find.

David Placek, president and founder of Lexicon Branding Inc. in Sausalito, Calif., notes: "You want to make people think a little bit -- not a lot. But if we don't make them think at all, they will walk past."

DOMAIN DO'S AND DON'TS

Check on the availability of a domain name, as Pacific Biosciences did, before making a final decision. An Internet domain name should be closely related to the company's name and make sense to users, says Mr. Winokur

Mr. Placek, however, cautions against sacrificing an effective name if the domain isn't available. He notes that many people surfing the Web don't look for corporate Web sites by remembering a domain name. Instead, he says, they type the company's name into Google, and then click on a link that is listed.

"Companies shouldn't sacrifice memorability and creativity [in a name] just to have a URL," he says.