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.
Recently, one of our long-time clients Big Fish Games, the world’s leading online destination for games and interactive entertainment launched Faunasphere, a browser-based casual multiplayer online game (CMO). Players adopt and care for cute and quirky creatures, known as Fauna, and collaborate to build and explore beautiful virtual worlds. Faunasphere provides rich social networking elements and an immersive storyline, and it’s free to play.
To promote Faunasphere, Communiqué PR reached out to key influential gaming and mommy bloggers to secure game reviews and drive traffic to the Web site. To date, we’ve secured 22 reviews and press mentions in the following publications and blogs:
Casual Gaming Biz News
Cinemablend
o Reposted on USA Today
Cutie Booty Cake
Exploring War Like Worlds
Fractured Toy
FreeBrowserGamer.com
Gamers Daily News
Gamers Hell
o Reposted on Play.tm
GamesAreEvil
UGO Gamesblog
Gaming Angels
NPR
Playbbg.com
Reviews!
Seattle Examiner
The Family Gamer Online
The Gadgeteer
o Reposted on Topix
Your Fun Family
Unequalled Magazine
Visit our past blog entitled, “The Rise of Mommy Bloggers” for tips on how to approach mommy bloggers to ensure a great review of your product.
On August 10, our client SAM Medical Products, a privately held developer and manufacturer of innovative medical products used for emergency, military and hospital care, announced the launch of CELOX Trauma Gauze. CELOX Trauma Gauze is a new dual-product hemostatic gauze used to control traumatic bleeding, and cool and protect first- and second-degree burns. The gauze provides two-in-one functionality and stops bleeding in approximately 30 seconds.
We had the opportunity to test the gauze and were extremely impressed by its technology. With the look and feel similar to that of standard cotton gauze, it transforms into a gel-like material when saturated with water or a saline solution.
Instantly cooling the skin, the gauze is a great tool for treating burns – and it’s safe for the patient since the gauze is comprised of chitosan, a natural compound derived from shrimp shells.
To date, we have secured the following coverage of this announcement:
EMS Responder online
JEMS.com
Medical Hemostat
UPI.com
Portland Business Journal
With anticipated coverage appearing in:
EMS Responder -October 2009 print issue.
Journal of Emergency Medical Services (JEMS) – Fall time frame for the print issue
Responder Safety -September 2009 issue.
To learn more about CELOX Trauma Gauze feel free to send us an e-mail at info@communiquepr.com.
Muck Rack, a Web site that aggregates journalists’ tweets, recently announced the launch of a short-message press release service, which enables companies to publish releases, with links, up to 130 characters long at a cost of $1 per character.
The announcements are published on Muck Rack’s release page as well as its Twitter feed. As many journalists are avid “tweeters” this is a great opportunity to reach this audience through a different medium. In addition, journalists receive thousands of e-mail pitches per day from PR professionals. This allows them to focus on the news that is most relevant and interesting to them and their readers.
To learn more about Muck Rack’s service and similar services, read the PRWeek article entitled, “Journalist Tweet Aggregator Launches Short Press Release Service.”
On August 12, one of our clients, Big Fish Games, announced the launch of Faunasphere, a browser-based casual multiplayer online game.
To drive coverage of the new game, we reached out to gaming bloggers and journalists, as well as mommy bloggers.
In order to find out how this influential audience, mommy bloggers, operate and like to be approached for product reviews, we posted a HARO inquiry and want to share some of the feedback we received.
“I absolutely believe the very best way to approach a mommy blogger (or any blogger for that matter) about product reviews includes a genuine interest in that person. I receive about 15-20 e-mails a day and nearly 40 percent of them are blatantly generic and have absolutely no interest for my readership.” – ExtraordindaryMommy.com
“I know it takes more work, but try to read the blog (at least the home page) before sending a pitch. My Web site for example, gives directions for how to submit a successful product review request, but putting “Product Review Request” in the subject line. You’d be surprised to learn that less than two percent of pitches come in this way.” – Lille Punkin’ Reviews
“A company can stand out by sending great photos and detailed information about the product. They can also stand out if offering to give readers a sample as a giveaway, but the latter is not necessary, just a bonus.” – Milkshakes and Margaritas
“Be specific in what you are offering (i.e. what are you sending?); what you expect in return (i.e. Review? Advertising?); when you want the review posted; and if you would like to sponsor a giveaway.” – Mom2Ways
We recently participated in a mid-year PR review with one of our clients to review our activities and results garnered.
To clearly outline the work we completed, we prepared for the meeting by developing a PowerPoint presentation which included the following information:
- Review of the client’s business and communication objectives
- The benefit of PR and how it contributes to an organization’s success
- PR versus advertising
- Our contribution to the client’s business
- Materials developed over the past six months
- Media outreach efforts and journalists we forged relationships with on behalf of the client
- Analyst relationships and quotes we have secured on behalf of the client
- Media impressions and articles secured to date
- A look at the overall value and impact of our activities on our client’s business
As a best practice, we believe it is important to do these types of reviews to ensure the work we are doing maps to our clients’ business objectives.
If you’re considering a mid-year review with your agency, we hope you’ll find these tips helpful in developing shared expectations on the information you’d like them to present.
The current economic climate is causing many shifts to occur in the media industry. In an unprecedented move, rival print dailies such as The Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun are now collaborating and sharing news content because of a lack of resources and man power.
Additionally, in June four New York broadcasters announced they will use pool video, rather than send competing camera crews to events in order to cut costs.
It is important for PR practitioners and companies to adjust their approach and set client expectations to take these changes into account. For more information about news organizations sharing content, read the PRWeek article entitled, “Financial Reality Prompts News Organizations to Share Content.”