Tag: PR agency

A Public Relations Situation: One In An Occasional Series

Posted on by Marijane Funess

We in the PR agency world consider ourselves fairly expert at handling delicate client situations. Here we will occasionally share some examples of how our team has successfully defused, or even leveraged, a potentially negative situation. This post considers the case of the fired journalist.

In recent weeks our team set up a couple of interviews that went well until the PR team members who “owned”each reporter relationship followed up to see about a pub date and, after a few communications, discovered the writers had been let go.

One journalist stayed in touch and though the story was now DOA, he did keep us up to date on his whereabouts. The other writer, despite our best efforts to get in touch, seemed to have vanished. We then reached out to the writer’s immediate superior, by email and phone, to ask what could be done to salvage the story.  Hearing nothing after a few days, we knew we had to employ other strategies.

We made the decision to go to the top, to the publisher of the paper. While it isn’t always wise to take your complaint straight to the top (once you get there, you can’t come back down!) We sided with consumer advocate, customer service expert and blogger, Chris Elliott, who notes that there are times when “a direct appeal to the CEO might make sense.”

We drafted a polite, factual accounting of the details and asked that our story be considered for publication since it had already been completed. We heard back in less than 24 hours. While the publisher was personally unable to resolve our situation, suddenly we did hear from the departed journo’s editor, apologizing for the entire incident. Although he was no longer able to run the story, he was conciliatory and very open to working together in the future.

Think you need to take your troubles to the top? Try these tips.

Try to maintain a relationship with your first contact.  Most people land on their feet eventually and appreciate staying in touch with someone they’ve successfully worked with before. Leapfrog only when you absolutely must.

Write vs. call. Gatekeepers will go out of their way to prevent your call from getting through and email has a permanent record.

Don’t let emotions get the best of you. No matter how angry you might be about a situation, remain calm and concise in your email, simply laying out the facts and asking for resolution.

Do ask for exactly what you want. If you don’t at least try, you’ll never know!

Thank all parties. Obviously.

5 Things You Should Never Ask Of A PR Agency

Posted on by Marijane Funess

A successful partnership with a PR agency should fill needs and solve problems in creative, strategic and mutually beneficial ways, and a good PR firm will go the extra distance to please. There are times, however, when clients need to know what’s not appropriate to ask of their agency. So, how does a business know what’s off limits? With apologies to Stacey and Clinton, here are five examples of “What Not To Ask.”

Don’t ask your PR firm to perform (media) miracles. More than once a client has demanded that their PR agency commit to generating a certain number of national story placements, or to guarantee coverage in a specific outlet. If only it were that simple! Work with an agency partner to establish realistic media relations KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and appropriate story angles.

Don’t ask your agency to take on tasks better suited to others. At times PR agency staff are asked to run interference with unhappy customers, give the boss a hair or wardrobe makeover, or weigh in on a personal crisis. Now, some agencies can and do offer specialized services that go far beyond strategy and media relations, but if that’s not the case, or if the task is better suited to a personal assistant (or friend!), it’s best to collaborate with others. Agency teams are selling their talent and their time, and neither should be wasted.

Don’t ask your PR partner to arbitrarily lower their fees. Agencies plan and budget according to formulas that guarantee consistent service to clients. Sometimes a client has a good or unavoidable reason to ask for a fee reduction (lower than projected sales, changes in management, etc.) but in these cases, they should expect the service level and outcomes to change. Agencies are in business to make a profit, just as their client companies are.

Don’t ask your PR team to “borrow” someone else’s ideas. Presumably, you chose the agency based on their own merits, so let them develop the strategy and creative tactics. Just because a particular creative approach worked before doesn’t guarantee that it will catch fire for a second or third round.  On the other hand, if a client believes the agency is driven more by their own egos than the client needs, they should cut bait.

Don’t ask your agency to do anything immoral or insulting. This includes pulling your agency partner into competitive research that has morphed into “industrial espionage” or asking them to take the blame for a mistake that wasn’t theirs. It can also include being asked to share a hotel room with a person of the opposite sex in the name of cost-savings (yes, this actually happened!). Also, as we’ve all learned from the Brian Williams fiasco, lying or even obfuscating is never a good strategy. In the digital age, untruths are usually exposed, and the damage may be lasting.

Interested in knowing more? Let’s start from the beginning! Download our tipsheet, 9 Ways To Know You’ve Found The Right PR Firm, and start off on the right foot with your new PR partner.

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5 Taboos Of PR Business Pitching

Posted on by Marijane Funess

As the year comes to a close, there has been a whirlwind of new business opportunities in the PR agency world, inspiring us to share our wisdom about selling and closing to prospective clients. To end the year on a high note with some exciting wins, here are some moves to avoid.

Scripting the presentation too tightly. There’s no greater turn-off than a group of presenters who’ve memorized their portions like they’re auditioning for a telemarketing job. The presentation has to stay flexible to allow for changes in mood, comments, and spontaneity. Presenters should be like the best improv performers in reading the room, comfortable with one another, listening actively, and confident enough to offer impromptu comments and responses.

Presenting too formally…or too casually. It’s a good idea to decide ahead of time about wardrobe, introductions and speaking style, but a good rule is to base the conversation on input from the prospective client, coupled with advance intelligence and insights based on research and experience. Any team presenting to client-side execs should have a detective’s dossier worth of knowledge about the crowd  and be able to seamlessly match or complement them in tone and demeanor.

What, no questions? The intellectually curious win the day here, so plan intelligent, thought-provoking questions that show how well the presentation team did their research and how much their insights and experience bring to the table. It flatters the client and helps bring the conversation to new places, which will help the team stand out from the crowd.

No discussion of outcomes. It’s a mistake to put time and energy into PR strategies, tactics, and accompanying budgets without including a definition of success and how it should be measured. Another mistake is relying on “outputs” or deliverables such as earned media placements and white papers, instead of actual outcomes that support business goals.

Failing to follow up. Of course, the gracious post-meeting thank you is a given, but if the days drag on and there has been no communication about a decision, find smart ways to stay in touch. For example, we often follow up with a journalist query that fits well into a prospect’s area of expertise or highlight a news story we think they will find of interest. Be creative and clever but not overbearing.

Five Signs You Shouldn’t Hire A PR Firm

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

Many of us in the PR agency world evangelize about the benefits of a strategic public relations campaign, including why and when a company should bring on a firm. Yet the growth of our industry – it was up 11% in 2013, the first double-digit increase in five years – doesn’t mean PR’s benefits are well understood. We sometimes experience the “flavor of the month” syndrome, when a company looks at a PR agency relationship like a shiny new object, without insight into how and when it should be done.

The decision shouldn’t be a Hail Mary pass. Here are some reasons and occasions NOT to hire that dazzling PR agency you heard about or met with last week.

You don’t have clear goals. A good agency can develop a PR or communications strategy, but the right campaign should be informed by a company’s business objectives. It’s also helpful to have a clear idea of what constitutes a successful program, and how you will measure results. If the agency doesn’t have answers to those questions, move on.

You urgently need a quick sales boost. This one’s arguable, because some of my peers will say that the right media relations program can generate demand. It can, and when an earned media placement hits and drives site traffic or retail sell-in, it’s pure magic. But what a client company should understand is that the media relations piece of a PR program is very seldom a quick or reliable generator of leads or conversions. It works better as part of a digital marketing and SEO campaign, or as a branding and reputation tool over time.

Your team is overworked and needs help. Even the most talented team cannot operate in a vacuum. If you’re planning to bring on an agency to save time or take tasks off your staff’s plate, think again. A good agency will demand the involvement and input from decision-makers. If they don’t, it’s a red flag.

You’re experimenting. The marketing budget was cut, so you decide to try PR for a few months. This is probably the worst reason to bring on a PR partner. PR is rarely a substitute for marketing, but even if it is, it requires a longer-term commitment. (See #2.)

You want to be one of the cool kids. We see this in the startup culture. Although the pros and cons of outside PR agencies are hotly debated in tech and entrepreneurial circles, some early-stage businesses feel pressure to make the hire prematurely, or without clear reasons or goals. Even the most buzzed-about PR firm with the cutting-edge startup clients won’t turn you into Biz Stone unless the raw material is there and the rationale is sound. In fact, if they’re too busy with the next Uber or Airbnb, they probably won’t have time for you.

That Should Be A Word: PR Edition Part 2

Posted on by Marijane Funess

Earlier this month a client of our PR firm emailed to say that she would need to put off our weekly call that day. Her inadvertently hilarious subject line? “need to postphone.” This unintentional gaffe gave rise to a perfect neologism (newly coined word or expression) similar to those reported on weekly in Lizzie Skurnick’s witty “That Should be a Word” column for the NYT Magazine.
For any of us in the PR agency world who love words and constantly seek new ones, here are some gems from the column that lend themselves particularly well to our industry.

smearch. To Google a person or company in the hopes of finding bad news as in “Remember XYZ Company that never got back to us after we wrote a great proposal? I smearched them and the CEO’s been indicted.”

denigreet. To purposely pretend you haven’t already met someone. “I suppose because the pitch went so badly for their agency, Julia tried to denigreet her when she saw the client at a dinner.”

snoopervise.  To secretly monitor your employees. “Suspecting that the entire account team was streaming the World Cup all day, Gordon sent someone to snoopervise.”

persavow. Claim that one will persevere to finish work. “I let everyone go home early Friday since they all persavowed that the new business proposal would be finished on time.”

condrone. To agree too much. “Although the client’s idea for a holiday PR event was clearly wrongheaded, Ashley continued to condrone it until we all just went along.”

phonesia. Forgetting who you called just as they are answering the phone. “These producers so seldom pick up that I had complete phonesia when I called the one at ‘Live with Kelly & Michael.'”

flagony. Guilt over an unanswered email that you flagged for follow-up. “Even though that blogger wanted a fortune for one post, Cindy still found herself in flagony for having never responded.”

exprosé. The message complaining about someone that you accidentally send to that person. “To his horror, Dave discovered his scathing email about his West Coast counterpart’s lackluster media results went right to her instead of her supervisor!”

PR Lessons Learned From Seinfeld!

Posted on by Marijane Funess

This year marks the 25-year anniversary of “Seinfeld,” the ultimate “show about nothing” that became quite something. Though you may think of Jerry and the crew as a bunch of laughable slackers, in watching many episodes (several times!) there are some business takeaways that apply to public relations. Read on and see if you agree.

Read the social cues. Seinfeld explored the minutiae of relationships, and much of his comedy questioned etiquette or social discourse. For example, which conversations are too important to be made via cell? (or via text, as we’d say now) How many dates must you have been on before you need to end a relationship in person? These questions can be applied to the proper handling of client-agency situations as well. Can you read the signs of a faltering relationship? Do you know which situations can be addressed in a call or which demand the “personal touch?”  It may take some finessing, but the better able you are to read between the lines of an email or understand the subtext of a conversation, the better decisions you will make. As Jerry once astutely observed, “The fabric of society is very complex.”

What goes around comes around.  On the show, the characters extend themselves to help others fairly grudgingly, or they ignore the needs of anyone outside their own world, though in a hilarious way. Anyone remember George knocking down an older lady in a walker to escape a house fire? Or Kramer, Jerry, and Elaine trying to force-feed cookies to an unconscious man? The characters repeatedly live up to our low expectations of them, and in the end, they pay the price. The same is true in the business world. A good turn may come back to you years later, but a burned bridge can haunt your career forever.

Healthy curiosity has its limits.  A good agency-client relationship breeds curiosity and should come with the ability to discuss  issues without destructive, “Seinfeldian” obsessing.  (As when Jerry spends an entire episode torturing himself to figure out why Audrey, the dessert-loving girlfriend, won’t sample the best apple pie in town.) But curiosity has limits, and we should know  them. There’s a time to push in a productive way and a time to accept the circumstances or decisions of others.

Worlds really do collide.  George’s famous hand-wringing over certain people in his life meeting others is funny, but it also calls into question how PR agencies (or anyone) chooses to staff interactions. Whom to bring to the new business presentation? Who to lead the account? To whom will we assign the “difficult call?” Good leaders know how to read each situation and “futurecast” outcomes before strategizing a next move. They also know that business gaffes are rarely as funny as anything that happened on “Seinfeld.”

Lies (PR) Agencies Tell

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

In a gem of a client-agency scene in Sunday’s episode of “Mad Men,” Harry Crane is called into a client meeting to reassure them that SCP’s media-buying technology is every bit as good as that of rival Grey, whose new “computer” has been written up in The New York Times. Thinking on his feet, Harry dismisses the Grey story as “PR” and explains that SCP uses an even more powerful computer.

While not technically lying (“I never said it was our computer,”) Harry feels backed into a corner, and his first impulse is to smooth things over by misleading the client. Painful, but not uncommon. And the bonus here is a glimpse into the era when computers entered the ad buying world. AdAge has a great post about that. But I digress.

The lie Harry told probably wouldn’t hold up today (and later in the episode, we learn it may get him fired), but there are other fibs that agencies tell. I decided to poll colleagues at other agencies and came up with a modern-day list.

“We love your product/app/service.”  Within limits, this is harmless, and it may be true. But a complete absence of critical feedback is a red flag. A good PR professional should be able to see – and articulate –  challenges to the client in a constructive way.

“This is a fantastic story and media will love it.” Enthusiasm is a great thing, but there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed. Call me superstitious, but claiming that anything a slam-dunk is tempting the publicity gods.

“Sure, we do social media/content marketing/video production/whatever you want.”  This is common, needless to say, but more compelling information and proof points must follow.

“We’re fine working with other agencies.”  This may be true on the surface, but it’s a rare case when competitive issues don’t arise among agencies. When you’re essentially vying for the same overall budget, rivalries do occur. Yet this one’s fairly harmless because what it really means is: “We’ll do our damnedest to shelve infighting because if you don’t succeed, then none of us will either.”

“Of course we know all the reporters in your space.” This one’s problematic for two reasons. First, because no agency is likely to know everyone, and the media landscape is always changing. But the bigger fib is the implication that simply knowing key journalists or bloggers will guarantee story placement. It won’t. It does offer access, which is very valuable, but this is another expectations-puffer that can easily burst.

“We’re putting the final touches on the proposal.” This can mean exactly that; but other times it translates to, “We’ve been super-busy and are now rushing to pull something together.” I can relate.

Things You Should Never Say To A PR Agency

Posted on by Dorothy Crenshaw

Every public relations agency executive delights in hearing from prospective clients. One of the great things about the business is that you never know which award-winning campaign, career-changing relationship, or high-profile engagement might be just around the corner.

But a typical part of the chase is a series of calls or meetings with client prospects who can have widely varying degrees of familiarity with the agency process, or who may not be clear (or agree) on what they want or need.  And they can say odd, confusing, and even exasperating things; in fact, certain comments are red flags that an experienced public relations agency exec will spot in a moment.

Here are some of our favorites.

“We’re looking for someone to grow with us.”  This is number one on my list. It’s understandable if the budget isn’t large; in fact, it may be a smart move to conserve funds for later (and we are happy to steer you to an excellent freelancer or boutique agency if that’s the case.) But the invitation translates to, “We can’t afford to pay fair value for your work, and even if we hire you, you’ll never be able to make money with us.” Not so appealing.

“Here’s a proposal from another agency that wasn’t right for us because it was too big/expensive/outside of our category.”  This hasn’t happened often, but it’s ethically dubious, to say the least, and confusing at best (what do you really want?)

“We need our story to be in The New York Times/TechCrunch/on “Ellen” by the time we launch!” Well, as my former client used to say to her CEO when he started down this road, “There’s one way to guarantee that. It’s called advertising.”

“For this assignment, we’re not sure if we need a PR firm or a digital marketing agency.” Hmm, well, then, neither are we. They are very different disciplines with distinct goals, and they often work in tandem, but perhaps you should review your objectives and conduct some research into each. I’d rather spend my time developing the best possible PR recommendations based on quality information than explaining what PR is or does.

“We’re not looking for formal proposals. Just give us an idea of how you’d approach our business.” I’ve heard this quite a few times but have never really understood what it means.

“How much for a press release?” Argh.

“We need a viral video!”  This one needs no explanation; most PR people I know have deleted the word “viral” from their vocabularies.

“We’re looking at 30 agencies and hope you’ll want to participate.” Um, maybe not.

Put Your Best (PR) Face Forward

Posted on by Marijane Funess

Do PR agency pros and their clients have something to learn from Pope Francis on his one-year anniversary? According to veteran papal watcher and professor Father John Wauck, perhaps so. “Francis is…a transparently happy person,” Wauck says. “And it sounds really simplistic, but unfeigned happiness on the part of a public figure is not that common.”

Unfeigned happiness. Authentic joy. These emotions can go a long way toward doing better client work, fostering better PR agency team relationships and exuding real enthusiasm when pitching media or new business.

In the “real world” of a fast-moving PR agency with crazy deadlines, “moving target” client deliverables and other vagaries of servicing PR accounts, it is perhaps difficult to find something in your work that helps create unfeigned happiness.

If you’re having trouble doing so, here are some ways to find and unlock some joy and happiness.

Review your successes. If you haven’t saved every praiseworthy email you’ve received, start now! Look at some previous campaign results reports as well. On a less-than-great day remind yourself how highly others think of you and what consistently good work you produce.

Look at a cat video. Or the funny video of your choice. Don’t go crazy, but look at some humorous gifs and give yourself a good laugh. Take a few moments to find the funny in even the most seriouse client situations.

Get out. According to a recent survey, only one in three American workers take a lunch break — leaving 65 percent of employees to either eat at their desks or not eat at all. Be sure to walk to where you are going (yes that means you too, frigid northeasterners).

Do something unexpectedly nice. Random act of kindness, anyone? Our client Edible Arrangements found recently that of people surveyed, over 80% found that giving increased their happiness, with nearly half calling themselves “much happier” as a result of giving. Pitch in on account work other than your own, offer to get a co-worker coffee or an afternoon snack and see if you feel the joy.

Declutter. Tossing piles of paper, deleting dozens of useless old files and contacts and generally sprucing your surroundings will really put a spring in your step. You will operate more efficiently when you have less “stuff.” Celebrate and buy something fun to decorate your office. Here are some brilliant ideas from online art client UGallery.

5 New Year’s Resolutions for Better PR Agency-Client Collaboration

Posted on by Marijane Funess

Typically, a consumer or B2B PR firm will put forth some resolutions to improve agency performance and delivery on key strategic communications plans. As we approach the beginning of 2014, we offer up a few recommendations for the agency-client team to make for a truly fruitful relationship in the New Year and beyond.

Be fearless in critiquing work. In a positive, constructive way. Quantify your critique with some hard facts and never bring up a problem without offering potential solutions to course-correct. Most importantly, don’t let your ego get in the way of valuable feedback.

Work smarter and faster. As a team, anticipate critical dates and what your competition may do. Create tight, yet workable deadlines that always keep your client’s work ahead of the pack. Dynamism is often the key to re-energizing and improving agency-client outcomes.

Shake up the tools in the toolbox. Tools can mean agency team members (is it time to rotate in a new player with a valuable skill set?) or tactical PR “weaponry.” Consider this, is a competitor doing something attention-worthy that must be countered? Is it time to re-assess how the company announces news? Consider tossing the typical press release in exchange for something more social-media minded, if appropriate.

Remember Ed Koch. New York PR pros know that the famous mayor strode down the streets of Manhattan asking locals “How am I doing?” This is an excellent question that PR agencies and clients should ask of each other on a regular basis. Both parties will benefit from the honest exchange.

Own the data. Significant and often, edgy, research can be the key to which story is reported on, or which spokesperson is chosen for an interview. PR agencies and clients should strive to own stats of interest to media and target audiences. Collaborating on research projects can also strengthen the bond as you both become even more well-informed about a client’s industry and business.

Here’s to a year full of successful PR agency-client collaborations. Get started, the clock is ticking!