Every cloud has a silver lining and in the last few weeks I’ve seen the silver lining of the GEC with stories of people pursuing shiny new beginnings and opportunities after being affected last year.  If you’re a positive and creative thinker you can see silver linings everywhere - not just in your dark cloud but in the dark clouds of others too - and this week a couple of great examples came to light.

Grill’d v Nandos

Burger chain Grill’d recently published a 2-for-1 burger offer in the Uni Times publication meant to be exclusively for Uni Times readers, however this was not in the T&Cs.  Electronic versions of the offer did the email rounds and Grill’d were inundated with people trying to redeem. Grill’d wouldn’t redeem electronic vouchers which upset many customers and lead them to clarify the situation on their blog. Seeing the opportunity, Nandos released a statement titled ‘we don’t care where your vouchers come from just come on in’ and capatalised on the situation by redeeming any Grill’ed vouchers - printed or otherwise. Read more about it in Mumbrella or on Nando’s blog.  Props to poor Grill’d who openly admitted the situation was a ‘complete debacle’ on their blog. On the up side there’s now of bunch of people who have a new awareness of the brand.

City of Pocket v City of Sydney

The owners of Pocket Bar on Burton Street in Sydney have seen an opportunity to ease the pain of getting fined. The Pocket Optimism Act works like this: when you recieve a parking fine, a toll notice or any other stupid fine take it to Pocket Bar within a week of getting it and they’ll give you 20 per cent off your total bill.  Pocket Bar says ‘with Pocket Optimism we are bringing the fun back into living; breathing life into little annoying things.’ Great idea, a nice kicker for customers and a great incentive to drop in.

So there’s an opportunity that came from competitors and one that came from customers above.  What are the dark clouds of your brand’s competitors or customers and how can you be the silver lining?

Posted by Renee Creer

Why does PR = evil? I’m guessing that the assumed evil deeds we perform are to do with the so called spinning of information to generate publicity and dupe unsuspecting audiences.

This 19th century framework of PR is old and irrelevant. Unfortunately as an industry, we have failed pretty miserably at helping people understand what PR is and what PR people do.

While PR is widely known for publicity generation, this and media relations is just one facet of PR, as Craig Pearce and Karalee Evans also point out.

The media is just one channel in a host of channels PR people use to help businesses and brands meet their objectives and communicate with their many stakeholders and by that I mean markets, customers, employees, investors and so on.

When a client comes with a problem or opportunity, we solve it with the most appropriate solution:

…and then there’s all the ‘relations’…

When I started writing this post I thought I liked graphs a lot; probably more than most people but as I found out, not nearly as much as Craig Robinson who in the space of 10 minutes has become my personal hero.  Unlike Craig, who once audited his life into a range of magnificent pie charts, my interest has remained strictly professional.

Last week I caught up with Jye Smith and he asked how I measure PR.  In this instance I explained to him how I measure publicity results as a component of PR.  I was glad he asked because it gave me an excuse to bust out some charts.

At Stellar* we use Stellar* Analytics, our measurement and reporting tool (shameless plug - tick).  Below are the core measures that come into play when we’re looking at publicity results (I’ll save the social media charts for another time).  Just note that when I refer to coverage, I’m talking about a print article, a radio segment, an online news piece etc.  Key publicity measures include:

• Volume:  how much coverage was generated eg. press clips, broadcast segments, online articles
• Frequency: how many times within the coverage a brand name, category or product was mentioned
• Reach: in crude terms, how far the coverage went based on circulation or audience figures
• Sentiment/Tone:  analyses if the coverage was positive, negative or neutral
• Message:  the key messages that were communicated, much like content analysis
• Share of Voice: how much coverage Brand/Product A got compared to Brand/Product B
• Medium: the different media segments that generated coverage eg. print, broadcast, online etc
• Type: what type of coverage was generated eg. a feature, column, mention, review etc
• Category: the category of media the coverage appeared in eg. capital city daily, national newspaper, supplement, trade mag, online news
• Date: when the coverage appeared
• Location: the location of the media outlet if specific to an area eg. by state
• Outlet: ranks the media outlets by volume of coverage
• Journalist: ranks the reporting journalists by volume of coverage

The following charts highlight some different publicity results over time. 

NOTE:  CLICK ON THE CHARTS TO GET THE FULL VIEW, OTHERWISE YOU’LL BE SQUINTING AND THINKING HOW CRAPPY THESE CHARTS ARE.  ALSO, BRAND AND PRODUCT NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED.

1. This shows that the majority of coverage for the client has come from product reviews or basic brand mentions.

2. This shows the same results as the above but over a period of one year.  The chart shows a spike in product coverage heading toward Christmas which correlates with an increase in press features such as Christmas buyer guides etc.  It also shows that the client leverages value ads off the back of its media spend.

3.  This shows that the coverage in regional / suburban press significantly outperforms other media categories.  There’s also a spike in lifestyle and trade publication coverage in January as a result of a specific campaign around a new product launch.

4.  This chart shows that over a two month period, Audi outperformed competitors in terms of share of voice in the media. 

 5.  This charts shows how different products in the same company are performing over time in the media. The significant spikes are the result of product launches or specific media sampling campaigns.

6. This chart shows the rise and fall of reach, based on circulation, over time.

When you build up a body of data like the above, you get to clearly see the results of your efforts and you get insights on how different elements are performing which in turn allows you to adjust your strategy and invest where you need to. 

Posted by Renee Creer

It’s not wise to have a narrow view of the media (or anything for that matter!). While glossy magazines and metro newspapers are big alluring publicity targets, they’re not the be all and end all. So give some thorough consideration to the unsung hero that is regional press.

As Rural Press states on its website: “Regional newspapers have unique properties in terms of reach and acceptance in the market, making regional newspapers the most personal medium of all. The desire to be kept informed on local issues is reflected in the 4.8 million regional Australians who read a regional newspaper each week.”

It may not be as sexy as a double page spread in Vogue, but this often overlooked channel holds gems of publicity opportunities that can add value to a PR campaign for numerous reasons:

• Relevance - by tailoring stories to local areas, readers get a more specific story that matters to them. This isn’t always easy to do, especially if you have a national or international brand, but using local spokespeople, issues or statistics will help readers relate to the product/service.

• Breadth - regional papers usually offer a better sized article with more information and a greater likelihood of a picture. This of course depends again on the relevance of the story (and other competing factors), but regional newspapers have been known to print whole press releases verbatim if it’s right for their audience.

• Reach - with a newsworthy on-target press release, you could see your story being syndicated across other newspapers within one publishing group. That’s a great way to increase your exposure without having to tweak the press release multiple times for specific locations.

Had any great experiences with regional press? Please share them!

Posted by Helen Lear

Is it just me or has PR been slammed more in the last month than in the last few years?  The industry appears to be copping it from all sides.  We’ve had:

• Neil Shoebridge’s AFR piece titled How to lose clients and annoy reporters.  He argues that the PR industry is awash with incompetent people and outlines his top and deady PR sins.
• Jason Whittaker’s guest post on Mumbrella titled Precious PR hacks and why they do their clients no good.  Here, Whittaker has had enough of PRs telling him how to do his job.
• Ed Charles, journalist and blogger, named and shamed a PR in this post after he and other food bloggers were spammed via a contact list of bloggers Charles published online.
• Heated industry debate, in B&T magazine and online over Brisbane agency, Publicity Queen, and their promise of guaranteed publicity.

And that’s not the extent of it. So what does one in PR say or do about all of this?

We consider ourselves an agency of smart, professional people who know the media and have good relationships with journalists.  We have, on occasion, f#*$ed up, gotten it wrong, and done dumb stuff.

There are always two sides to any story or coin and may we state that the stupid and incompetent are not just confined to the PR industry!

Rather than scrap it out school yard style, we’ve decided to outline A NEW MANIFESTO FOR PR because if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

We promise to:

1. Not be idiots or self important show ponies

2. Not pitch stupid, irrelevant stuff to media outlets, journalists or bloggers

3. Continue to comply with spam laws

4. Limit blanket distributions where possible

5. Keep a sense humour

6. Get to know the media or blog’s scope and where journalists’ interests lie

7. Build reciprocal, positive relationships

8. Play nice

9. Make PR as relevant and exciting as possible

10. Always strive to be better at what we do

11. Follow up and keep our word

12. Set a positive example

13. Educate younger staff and clients on the right way to do media relations

14. Not make claims that we can’t justify or promises that we can’t keep

15. Do our research

16. Beware of fibbers and phonies

17. Try to fix things when they go wrong

18. Be patient and reasonable in the light of differences

19. Ask and learn more about how journalists work and what they need

Like to contribute?  By all means, add to the list.  Or follow this conversation on Mumbrella.

Posted by Renee Creer

In the words of Freddy Mercury: “Is this the real life?  Is this just fantasy?”

The title of this post is a PR ‘fantasy made reality’ by the intro of a website called The FULL STORY.  And not just for PR but for any business; we’d all like our news published our way.

One of the best things about the internet is the ability to self publish at low or no cost.  No longer do we have to solely rely on media outlets to filter, edit and publish information on our behalf.  As long as you’re not a complete techno failure you can get your voice out there.  This of course has many implications on the credibility of information but that’s another post for another time.

In their words The FULL STORY (…bit of extreme capitalisation there) website is a media and information release portal where individuals and organisations can post breaking news and information or their side of the story on issues of local or national importance for FREE.  It’s a public platform to correct misinformation and selective reporting by providing a different perspective on an issue already on the public record.

The website states it was developed in response to the frustrations organisations and individuals face when things are incorrectly reported, omitted, taken out of context etc.

I scouted around the site and I’m not quite sure it hits the mark.  Companies are posting their news but there is no context to it.  Are people just using it as a news portal or are they publishing in response to incorrect or biased news?

The site would benefit from an option to add historical or background information to the releases or even links to the offending news pieces so the context is clear.  Then we could all follow stories as they unfold because let’s face it, we all love a good bun fight.  Then the site could develop as a news version of Not Good Enough or Wikileaks. 

However if the website is simply a portal for news that didn’t make the cut on mainstream news sites, The FULL STORY might end up a bit ordinary, because quite frankly, it might be missing what makes news ‘newsworthy’ in the first place. 

Companies can already publish their own news on their websites or blogs, or release news to wire services or news aggregators.  But in any regard, The FULL STORY is a useful outlet for people (especially SMEs) wanting to either get their side of the story out or even for news devourers wanting to confirm both sides of a story or issue that interests them.

I’d love to hear what others think about it?

Posted by Renee Creer

You don’t know this but today is the Birthday of Stellar* Analytics; it’s officially 1 year old!  We’ve been pretty quiet about our new baby but after 12 months of getting to know it, we are ready to unleash it!

Stellar* Analytics is our custom measurement, analysis and reporting tool.  It’s also a sophisticated online media centre which has pretty much saved our sanity here at Stellar* - but more on that later.

Any good PR professional knows that measuring and evaluating campaigns is essential however right now, in light of economic pressures, it has never been more important.  You simply have to be able to justify budgets and demonstrate value.  That’s why we’ve invested significantly in this tool.

For clients, Stellar* Analytics is a valuable reporting tool for senior management which measures and analyses media outputs (both offline and online coverage) and collates the results in customised reports that provide:

• A benchmark for client, competitor or category / sector coverage
• Tracking of editorial share of voice / mindshare for products, categories, brands and more
• Evaluation of key messaging and of campaign reach
• Insight into journalist and media outlet outputs
• A long term measure of marketing / PR ROI
• Detailed market intelligence and both qual. and quant. insights

We do all of our publicity reports via this tool and customise each report to individual client needs.  We also do specialist reports based on specific briefs (competitor analysis for example).  The media outputs we measure not only include press clippings, but cover websites, blogs and broadcast.  And did I mention the charts?  Stellar* Analytics offers over 50 different charts which slice and dice the coverage in more visually pleasing charts than one person should ever see. 

He’re what our clients say about it:

“Stellar* Analytics is a valuable tool.  It helps us create more accurate programs and more targeted campaigns which has enabled a better ROI.  It’s great to see PR measured and evaluated in such a comprehensive manner.”  Hayden Isaacs, Communications Manager,
Brown Brothers Milawa Vineyard

I just LOVE Stellar* Analytics!  Where has this been all our lives?!  The PR report is now so comprehensive yet easy to understand for all levels of the business.  It’s a fantastic measurement tool.” Anna Logan, Marketing Manager, ghd hair

For our agency, Stellar* Analytics is a sophisticated online media centre which looks after all of our day-to-day needs.  It’s a:

• Media contact database and contact management system
• Press release distribution and tracking service which uses HTML email templates
• Online media monitoring tool of both national and international sources
• Account activity tracker and project management system

So essentially, we now offer online media monitoring which is on par with other major service providers but at a fraction of the cost.  We also have the capability to include images and links to external content in our press releases and we can track opening rates and link throughs. 

Ok, I think I’ve said enough, so Happy Birthday Stellar* Analytics and if you want to know more please comment or email me direct renee@stellar.net.au

Posted by Renee Creer

Today something happened that made me appreciate why journalists loathe PR people who ’slack pitch’ them.  Let me explain.  This morning I got an email from a PR person who was pitching their client to me for a possible story on the Stellar* blog.

·      Firstly, the email was addressed to the sender with my email BCC’d, so it was a group email.  Immediately I’m thinking:  if you don’t know me, don’t group email (read spam) me.  At least take time to introduce yourself, especially if you’re pitching an idea to me.  Granted sometimes this is not possible, but make those times few and far between and if you have to group email, the pitch better be right on the money.

·      Secondly, the email started like this: ‘Thought this might be a good fit for your blog’. Lazy, lazy, lazy.  Tell me why it’s a good fit.  Explain the connection and angle, don’t just cop out with that kind of statement.

·      Thirdly, after the intro, the sender had done a copy/paste of a section of the press release which consisted of two nonsensical paragraphs about the client which I actually had to read several times to even begin to understand the copy, let alone what the point was.  You’re supposed to be a communications specialist, please try and write copy that makes sense and is grammatically correct (I know we all have the odd slip up).  The PR blurb was then followed by the line: ‘Let me know if you are interested’. 

After coming to terms with the epic fail that was this pitch email I was left struggling to understand:

A.  why this was emailed to me, and

B.  how it was possible for someone to read our blog and think this story was relevant?

I was also keen to see who was behind the pitch so I linked to the sender’s blog where I found a post with publicity tips.  The post said that time should be spent creating an angle specific to the media outlet because this would show the journalist that a message has been tailored for them which would, in turn, dramatically increase the likelihood of getting coverage.

Yes indeed.  Perhaps there is a need to revisit this advice.

This, however, was only the beginning for the sender’s website write up contained some pretty impressive claims such as being Australia’s best PR agency along with other unsubstantiated feats.

All I can say is that if Australia’s best PR agency is sending slack pitches like the one I received, the industry is in trouble!!

While this is a scary example, I think (hope?) PR professionals are moving away from this kind of approach.  And I’m pretty sure the agencies still standing at the end of this economic crisis will be the ones that think as strategically about their method of media liaison as they do when developing client proposals.

Posted by Renee Creer

I’ve never been fond of vermin; dirty, shifty little things they are.  Somewhere in Sydney there is a rat spreading a rumour about our client, Justin Hemmes from Merivale.  If you have any information, please call 1800-rat or leave a comment.

Posted by Renee Creer

We’re in the business of blowing other people’s horns.  We’ve become so accustomed to this role we often forget to blow our own.  However, today we got this email from our client, The Wine Society, so we’re using it to blow our own horn:

“Thank you for all your hard work and dedication.  If people cannot see that Stellar* Concepts is the best PR agency in the known universe then there is something wrong with them.  I cannot wait to send around your PR update for the Young Winemaker of the Year because people will fall off their chairs” Eva Gero, Events Executive, The Wine Society

The finalists with MC, Jean Kittson

This is a big wrap.  It could be a slight exaggeration but who are we to disagree with a client.

What did we do to achieve such lavish praise?
For the second year we supported The Wine Society’s annual event, the Young Winemaker of the Year Award, with a publicity campaign.

What did we deliver?
This year to date we achieved 97 clippings nationwide and in NZ with a couple of big, juicy features still coming (see Sunday Magazine in Syd and Melb in Dec).  This equates to a circulation figure of 2,551,984.

Is this a lot of coverage?
Yes, yes indeed.  This is a veritable mountain of coverage.  If this coverage was a wine bottle it would be the size of a Melchizedek.

Why was this campaign so successful?
The story had national and international scope - so wide reaching appeal, while still being community centric (good for community press) + it allowed tailored, personal messages for specific media outlets.  Also, it was a newsworthy, topical event with a high number of participants which again, increased the appeal.

What was the business outcome?
Publicity helped drive a stronger field of entrants and attracted sommelier judges making the quality of the event greater.  It also helped to increase entrant numbers (up on 2007) and generated greater awareness around the awards program and The Wine Society itself.

I’ll drink to that!

Posted by Renee Creer