Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
In August, we wrote about a new Communiqué PR client, Aveso, Inc., in a post entitled, “The future of One-Time Password (OTP) Technology.” Since then, we have made good progress helping Aveso educate people about the merits of its technology, building the category and raising the company’s profile as a thought leader.
Specifically, in the past six weeks, we have been focused on writing and placing byline articles as well as securing conference calls with industry analysts following the security or credit card market.
Building and maintaining strong relationships with industry analysts is a great way to raise awareness of a company’s product and services, as well as secure third-party references for media and press materials.
I am excited to say we have secured 10 briefings with influential analysts following security and/or the banking industry with Gartner, Forrester, Frost & Sullivan and IDC among others. These individuals have been interested in the market opportunity and how Aveso’s flexible displays are being embedded onto bank cards so consumers can take advantage of OTP technology to prevent online identity theft and fraud.
In addition to our work with these analyst firms, we also have a number of byline articles in the works. To learn more about Aveso, please click here to read the contributed article we developed on behalf of Dennis Brestovansky, president and CEO, which was published by Electronic Design.
Reuters is a well-respected, influential news outlet. With 196 editorial bureaus in 130 countries and 2,400 editorial staff members, the newswire covers international news, regional news, politics, social issues, health, business, sports and media. A story placement with Reuters can provide a fantastic opportunity to raise the visibility of a company, establish thought leadership on a particular trend and gain credibility within a particular market.
Reuters’ stories are picked up by a variety of newspapers and online publications across the country and world, making them a compelling vehicle for reaching a very broad audience. However, the current economic climate and shifting media landscape are forcing reporters at the outlet to juggle multiple beats or cover very niche beats such as pediatric health or mobile and wireless.
In order to secure coverage with Reuters it’s critical to craft a compelling story idea that appeals to a broad audience or target market. We have found from our past experiences working Reuters that they’re typically interested in story ideas around trends that impact a broad audience or events and announcements that are disruptive to a particular market.
When approaching Reuters consider the following elements:
Establish a clear objective for the story – What is the purpose of the story you envision a Reuters reporter writing? Is it to establish thought leadership on a particular trend or market? Is it to displace a competitor? Raise awareness for acquisition? Establishing a clear objective will go a long way in helping craft a compelling story and help you determine which messages you want to communicate throughout the story.
Craft a compelling story with broad appeal – While big name companies like Microsoft and Starbucks may routinely land Reuters stories, smaller organizations and startups have an equal opportunity to garner coverage with Reuters. The key is to develop a story idea that demonstrates how a particular product or service will change the behavior of a broad audience or significantly impact a market. You might consider looking at trends in your particular industry, recent newsworthy events or upcoming events to determine if you can leverage these to help tell the story you envision.
Bring the story to life – Incorporate other elements to help bring the story to life. These elements could include industry data points or offering the perspectives of either a customer or market analyst to help validate the key points of your story.
Check out two recent stories we’ve secured with Reuters on behalf of our clients Dashwire and Digonex.
Telling the story of your company draws your audiences into your business in the same way a novel captivates a reader, creating a powerful way to shift perceptions. “I think that we human beings have always enjoyed great stories,” says Lee Weinstein, principal of Lee Weinstein & Associates and the former director of global corporate communications for Nike. “It’s part of who we are. It’s built into our evolution. How you tell a story and where you tell a story are really important, and I think PR really allows us to do that in a powerful way.”
So how do you go about crafting your company story? First, you need to have a clear idea of the value proposition of your company. “It all starts with the company’s vision and mission,” says Weinstein. “At Nike, our mission is to provide the innovation and inspiration to every athlete in the world. If you think about innovation and inspiration first, then everything that you do in PR should be innovative and inspirational, from the writing to the images to the selection of the campaign you’re going to really get behind.”
In addition, your overarching story should have all the elements of a great narrative: a protagonist, an antagonist, a lively cast of characters, a setting, a plot, a conflict, and a resolution.
Excerpt from Strategic Public Relations, written by Jennifer Gehrt & Colleen Moffitt with Andrea Carlos
Colleen Moffitt, co-founder of Communiqué PR, will be speaking at the Northwest Environmental Business Council‘s Seattle Luncheon on Wed., Oct. 7. The event, which will be held at McCormick & Schmick’s Harborside restaurant, will focus on social media and business.
Colleen will discuss the following during the presentation:
An overview of the various social media platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Illustrate how Twitter and other social media platforms can help you achieve business and communication objectives.
Provide practical tips to help organizations get started with social media today.
To learn more about the event or to register, please visit http://www.nebc.org/Events.aspx. We look forward to seeing you there.
To get the most out of PR, you need to know what PR can help you accomplish and what it can’t. A question many of our clients ask is when they should use PR as opposed to advertising. Both play a significant role in the marketing mix; the trick is to know when to use each.
While companies are starting to invest more heavily in PR, they are still spending a much larger chunk of their marketing budgets on advertising. The $4.5 billion U.S. organizations spend annually on PR is just a drop in the bucket compared to the total $775 billion spent on overall marketing communications. Spending a lot of money on ads made sense during a time when most people watched prime-time television and read their local newspaper. But with fewer people watching TV and the circulation of many newspapers and magazines declining, advertising is becoming a less effective medium.
The media landscape is becoming far more fragmented than it once was, with people getting their news and information from a much broader range of sources. As a result, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to reach large numbers of consumers through advertising. As Al and Laura Ries write in their book The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, “Yesterday it was advertising. Today it’s PR. . . .In the future clients will be looking to public relations firms to help them set the strategic directions for brands, and advertising will be forced to follow the lead of PR.”
As a general rule of thumb, PR is the best tool for introducing a new product or service, expanding your customer base, or shifting public perceptions. Advertising, on the other hand, is the most effective tool for reinforcing a brand once it becomes well-known and the opportunities for publicity start to dwindle. You reinforce ideas that are already there. Our message is that after a while there is no publicity potential in a new brand. People wrote up Red Bull, but today? Now they have to shift to advertising to maintain the brand. Same thing with powerful brands like Coca-Cola. You’re just not going to get much publicity.
Excerpt from Strategic Public Relations, written by Jennifer Gehrt & Colleen Moffitt with Andrea Carlos
Digonex recently published a contributed article in TicketNews.com about the impact of dynamic pricing on the event ticketing industry. Jeff Eglen, vice president of strategy of Digonex, outlined the challenges the ticketing industry is facing today as the economic climate continues to impact ticket sales. Given this, he says the industry is forced to “re-evaluate alternative pricing structures that provide a fair-to-all solution for artists, promoters, primary ticket sellers, secondary ticket sellers and consumers.”
While the industry is facing many challenges, dynamic pricing, which refers to the practice of changing prices at regular intervals such as every few minutes, hours or days based on actual consumer demand, can help address many of these challenges.
To learn more about dynamic pricing read the article entitled, “Guest Commentary: Dynamic Pricing: A Fair-to-All Solution to Event Ticketing Prices.”
You can also learn more about Digonex by visiting www.digonex.com.