3 media relations tips

I thought I would share three tips from a panel event I spoke at last week. We covered a lot of ground in an hour and the debate was lively with lots of PR people clearly challenged by communicating the shifting media sands to their boards. 

We all accept that the media is changing and as PR people we have to react to that change. With this in mind, here are three tips for digital PR: 

1. The newsroom has shifted from thinking in terms of headlines to thinking about interaction. What will generate the most debate or shares is a key consideration for news selection. This should shape the content from any PRO. 

2. Think in multi-media. This goes beyond video news releases or great pictures. A French doctor was interviewed on the Today programme last week because of she added 100 female scientists to Wikipedia. How we use content can make a story. 

3. News is real time and churnlism is here to stay. It is not good enough to simply fire out a press release and wait for the coverage. Stories can be built over time, recycled, comments used to inform strategy. Every story should be approached as a game of chess and carefully planned. Sometimes it is worth thinking laterally about your media selection. Trade magazines may give your story the weight it needs to appeal to national or international press. Broadcast news will often shape their running order around trending topics. Monitor and react to the arc of your story. 

Interesting times. 

Coke's great content journey

Coke recently outlined a shift in focus from decades of great ads to a focus on compelling content. They outline the strategy here: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LerdMmWjU_E

and here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiwIq-8GWA8

A nice execution of the strategy can be seen here: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh2v1XfQ-SE&feature=player_embedded#!

If find a clearer explanation of where marketing is at right now, please let me know.  

Rappers get it.

Corporate and brand communications hasn't kept pace with technology.It is still grounded in positioning statements, straplines and brand promises.

People are savvy to it and want to engage, partner and be part of a brand. They want to like the page, follow the twitter feed and wear the t-shirt.

Rappers get it. They leveraged their brands across multi media years before anyone mentioned content strategy. They understand that people love what they do and when people love what you do they want to make it a part of their lives. Then it is simply a matter of creating conversations. That could be a tour or getting your new album played on Mars.

It gets harder for business. One bloke doesn't turn to another in the pub and compliment him on his lack of dandruff. It can be done. It just needs a bit a creativity and a some bloody mindedness at the board table.

Olympic digital marketing effort.

http://www.slideshare.net/balf/london-2012com-olympic-games-digital-round-up-13-august-2012

Don't worry about labels.

We recently got a few agencies together to welcome our friends from The Drum to Leeds. Inevitably talk turned to work and the sort of business we are all pitching for at the minute. The story was the same across PR, digital and branding agencies. It seems there is one 'space' that all agencies are working in, albeit from slightly different angles. Many tags are applied to this space and none really cover it. Digital, content marketing, pull marketing, digital PR, all these badges are suitably amorphous to do the job but none really nail what we are all doing for a living at the moment. 

We live in a society where people are digitally supported in their daily lives and don't draw the distinction between media channels. They walk down the street checking news, sorting out who will pick up the kids and chatting to friends in different countries. It is a world that only a few predicted 10 years ago. In a society of media abundance, it is clear that people channel and self select the media they consume and reference a global community for purchases that range from milk to cars.

People don't think in channels and some of the better agencies and brands don't either. This is the age of the great story. Great campaigns have stories that speak to people and compel them to tell their friends. Two days later the story will appear in the main stream media and drive a second wave of interest. You will see iterations of the story across all media and the story will be praised and damned, but people will be talking about it. 

The implications of this new world can be seen daily, from the spectacular growth of the KONY campaign to reputational damage for Tesco T-Shirts. How we manage and influence this world as marketers is driven by technology and accelerated societal change. Companies have to become social organisations that interact in real time with their staff and external audiences to enable constant change. It's a cliché, but change is the new constant and things will not return to the pre 2007 status quo. The recession knocked down some shaky walls. 

So, what do we call this new marketing world? I don't think it matters because by the time we all agree on a name it will have changed again. 

Great stories build brands.

The nature of the media is changing and the communications industry is changing with it. The old models are busted. What chance has the brand that shoves out a generic message to 18 to 30 year old males? The digital age enables the individual to filter the media to their own wishes, to consume what they want, when they want it. Big data enables the company to market to the individual and it is this level of granularity that will drive the next step change in our industry. Advertisements, product placements and programming all tailored to my viewing patterns, tastes and social media habits. 

What role for PR in this brave new world? People still seek to reference their lives against influential sources, be they media, journalists, popular bloggers or their friends. The growth of influencer marketing sits well with the traditional PR skill set, even if it does require some fresh thinking. It also drives new models of communication that are based on long term relationship building rather than the flash bang of a press release. If brands are to build longer term relationships they must articulate brand stories that can be told over years rather than 400 words or 140 characters. The stories must be relevant to their audience and compelling. 20 years ago we used to debate the water cooler test "will people talk about this story when they get to work", today social media provides the ultimate water cooler test with the best stories shared globally across any number of social media platforms. 

Agencies will have to change their structures with more flexible teams that enable the right mix of skills to be applied at the appropriate time. Few clients will carry the cost of a full time one stop shop team but will instead seek teams that 'get' the brand and the organisation. 

The ability to create engaging brand stories that have legs will overtake the value of visual branding agencies. The ability to spot and capitalise on trends within sub sets of your audience will be the difference between success and failure. 

Brands with great stories: 

Apple

Virgin

Red Bull 

Ryanair

ASOS

Starbucks 

Waitrose 

Often the stories are told through the achievement and vision of the founder (Apple, Virgin, Ryanair) but equally it can be the customer experience, corporate vision or CSR that drives the story (Waitrose).