Media freebies – do they work?

July 27th, 2009

Everyone loves something for free. Everyone enjoys receiving an unknown package the mail to unwrap. And in the past, sending a freebie to a journalist was often an assumed part of the PR strategy to secure media coverage. But the days of tightening budgets forces the question, does it actual work?

On the upside, sending a journalist a free product sample, free tickets to your event or a gift can help you stand out from the crowd. These days, an average journalist at a daily newspaper receives hundreds of media releases over email so by sending something in the mail you’ve instantly managed to separate yourself from the rest of the PR pack. You have their attention and if you know how to hold it, you just might achieve success.

On the other hand, many a PR consultant will agree that even the most generous of freebies will not guarantee a story. A journalist will accept your gift, even thank you profusely, but this doesn’t mean they will run the story the way you want them to run it…in fact they may not even run any story at all. In some cases, sending a free product is an important part of allowing a journalist to touch, feel and experience it so they can better understand and write about it. However, when it comes down to it, most of the time there are more valuable things you can invest your time and money in to increase your chances of getting media coverage. These include:

- Researching the media you’re targeting – read the publication over a few months – what stories do they run, what topics do they place importance on, what’s their main audience groups – then put together a story idea that will specifically be of interest to them

- Writing a succinct and interesting media release or pitch

- Building rapport with the journalist. This is done in many ways including being highly responsive and helpful when they require information, pitching ideas that are relevant and offering exclusives (as opposed to offering the idea/media release to everyone). Perhaps the occasional freebie can help to build a relationship with a journalist, just don’t expect anything in return.

The art of the PR hijack

July 27th, 2009

There’s nothing like a good PR hijacking. What is it? It basically involves one organisation putting the expense and effort into getting the attention of the public and then another organisation coming along uninvited to share the limelight, usually in a highly amusing way. To get your cunning and creative PR juices flowing check out the following hijacks – the first is a Nandos hijack of a Bruno premier and the second is a rebranding of ATM’s in Sydney’s CBD for Tax Today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIUlpkPKGvA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuRQACV8m3k.

 

Estate PR – Community focus the key

July 27th, 2009

At Square One PR, we live and succeed by the motto that any angle being pitched to the media must offer something that’s for the better good of the community. It couldn’t be more applicable than when working with property developers.

Property developers face numerous public relations issues – it isn’t just about selling the land, although this is obviously the underlying objective of a good campaign plan.

The issue that property developers proactively need to address, is that people don’t just want to buy a block of land, they want to build a home in a safe and interactive community.

There are many ways to create a community and the most common PR practice is to hold family fun days. We’ve all seen them and been to them with their free jumping castles, facepainting and sausage sizzles.

Left to run at a basic level these ‘free days’ usually attract a heap of people chasing a freebie, who might not necessarily be from the estate, let alone the suburb and worst case, maybe not even interested in buying property.

The possibility to create a great outcome from these sorts of days is, as always, easy when you know how, especially with a bit more thought than the ‘standard’ freebie in the park day.

We always recommend the implementation of a lead generation tool, such as a competition where people are required to leave their phone number or email address or better still create a unique competition.

Ideas like these can also be included in the estate newsletter, which shouldn’t just be another sales pitch. Square One PR’s heavy experience in newsletter writing proves that newsletters that offer value to the community and interact with readers are the most successful. Ultimately, this gives developers the opportunity to embed a soft sales approach by profiling features, builders or promotions.

A unique competition or event idea also opens the scope to involve local schools or media, which is the next point.

A new land estate needs to be promoted as a place where children are safe and families are happy with a lifestyle of convenience.

Square One PR works directly with the client to identify any possible opportunities to highlight estate features of distinction, lifestyle factors and convenient or innovative living aspects. We use this information to work heavily with the local media by continually alerting them to new trends, identified through leads or sales feedback plus other stories of interest from new residents.

At the end of the day, people want to live somewhere they are proud of and we can help you build that image.