LT Public Relations

After reading today’s USA Today article, “Marketers Face Pressure to Deliver With Super Bowl Ads,” the immediate reaction here at LT Public Relations was, “DUH!”  When a company is bold enough to spend $3 million dollars on one :30 second ad (that’s $100,000 a second!) during Super Bowl XLIII, they should be facing enormous pressure to deliver, especially during these extraordinary economic times–and have a measurable ROI at the end of the day to justify that price tag.

With all this said, we are extremely confident that with the same $3 million budget, a host of strategic public relations efforts would have much, much, much more impact than that one Super Bowl ad. 

Therefore WE’RE CHALLENGING any one of these companies that are advertising on this Sunday’s Super Bowl to spend that same $3 million with LT Public Relations and we will deliver significantly more positive buzz about your product, service, or company than that one $3 million Super Bowl ad. 

Give us six months and we will SHOCK and AWE our way into your hearts–but most importantly, your target audience’s hearts. Just as important, we will clearly measure the impact of our PR efforts and the resources spent to achieve the marketing/business objectives set forth. . . and will successfully deliver on the goods. 

Up for the challenge?  I know we are!  Contact us . . . .pr@ltpublicrelations.com

www.ltpublicrelations.com

Today’s (1/29/09) news about the U.S. Postal Service possibly cutting a delivery day (going from six days to five days a week) is a sign of the economic times.  Trimming a day from its weekly delivery service means that millions of customers will be stripped of receiving valuable information that they have come to expect.

It’s a tragedy if it ever comes to that, but it made us think about the importance of receiving (or not receiving) information on a regular basis that matters most.

Cutting mail service is similar to a company cutting communications (or cutting their public relations efforts) during challenging economic times.  When your audience/customers comes to expect ongoing communications–and you suddendly trim it down–there will be ramifications.

At LT Public Relations, we’re witnessing some companies trim their communications efforts during this bad economy.  We believe it’s completely the wrong thing to do–and as mentioned in previous blogs–we strongly believe companies should ratchet-up their communications efforts during this time.

Similar to postal workers cutting the delivery of valuable information (e.g. mail, letters, etc.) to their customers, stopping a company’s communications to its customers during troubled times is a bad move.  There are other ways to cut cost, but cutting lines of communications is problematic.

Yes, you’ve heard us blog about this before–but the postman, er, public relations professional always rings twice.  

Hard to believe that with the current economic conditions and the credit crunch that there are still banks lending money.  But the truth is, there are many well-capitalized banks (especially community banks) that are willing and eager to lend qualified bank customers money.

The recent BusinessWeek article, “Why Banks Still Won’t Lend,” examines the current situation from the larger banking perspective. However, the broader story is that the majority of banks are healthy and ready give money–especially to those looking to capitalize on the historically low mortgage rates.

Here are two related banks:

• Illinois Bank
• California Bank

For those banks willing to go on record and say they’re well-capitalized and have a robust lending department, LT Public Relations suggests screaming it from the roof top that your bank is lending money. 

Let your customers know, let your community know, let local business know, let the media know . . . .”Our Bank Is Lending Money.”

Now is the time.  Make it happen.

Whether it was intentionally planned or not, today’s (1/20/09) Barack Obama Inauguration was the largest spectacle of all time.  Larger than any Super Bowl, crisis (e.g. Sept. 11th), man’s first steps on the moon, etc., etc.

A truly amazing feat for something that wasn’t necessarily advertised, wasn’t a tragic event, or something that wasn’t a clash of two powerhouse teams.  It’s an inauguration that has taken place 56 times in this country’s history, but nothing to the extent of what we saw today (January 20, 2009).

How did this happen?  This was a campaign based on many things–but none more impactful than an onslaught of strategic public relations campaigns and modern word of mouth initiatives . . . all leading to the climax of today’s inauguration.

LT Public Relations will be examining the Barack Obama public relations phenomenon and presidency in the coming months to see if it truly delivered on its promise. . . which is the true pay-off to a successful public relations campaign.  They need to deliver on the goods promised, or this presidency, its party, the campaign, and regretfully, our country will unfortunately see negative public relations of sizable proportions.

LT Public Relations recently completed a extensive media tour for a bank client in the Midwest (yes, it was cold this week!).  During one meeting of the media tour, we met with one reporter and two managing editors.  Unbeknownst to us, they were going to write a front page story on our client and the CEO.  Fine!

During the meeting, some expected and irregular questions arose (subject matter is irrelevant for today’s blog).  The CEO was prep’ed ahead of time and knew he had to be on his guard and choose his words carefully when responding to the questions.  Also during the meeting, a photographer came in and started snapping shots of the CEO. A little odd, but fine.

We learned that there was indeed a story in the works and knew that a photo would accompany the story.  But we didn’t know exactly when the story would appear, and had no clue on the tone or make-up of the story. . . However, we did call the editor after the meeting to gather more information, but he was vague with details.

Now the question(s) . . .

• Do you tell your entire staff that there is an upcoming article that they should be prepared for prior to the story appearing? 
• Do you simply send out the article when it appears and let them draw their own conclusions of the tone?
• Do you not send the article?
• Do you send the article, with an opinion on the content of the article?
• Who (if any) distributes the article to the staff? 
• Should you allow for comments or invite staff to discuss the article?
• Does sending the article (a good or bad article) open-up an unnecessary can of worms?

Each scenario is different, and there are many things to consider before making a decision, but ultimately we feel it is critical to communicate to your staff–especially on matters that will be discuss amongst the public and customers.

The article came-out just ok–wasn’t great, but wasn’t bad.  It did, however, have many quotes taken out of context (surprise, surprise, huh?). LT Public Relations advised that immediately once the article appeared, the CEO send a general/factual (with no opinion) note to the entire staff informing them of the article (including the link and/or pasted article in the note). We recommended instructing the staff that if they receive any inquires regarding the article, or have comments they wish to share, that the CEO would be available to meet with the customer individually. 

Bottom line . . . the staff should be informed.  Especially in the likely event a customer asks, “did you see today’s article?”  The staff should not be caught flat-footed, but armed with insights on how to handle incoming inquires.

Agree? Disagree?  We would love to hear from you . . . pr@ltpublicrelations.com

A media tour is defined (broadly) as an effort to meet with the industry’s most influential reporters, usually at their office, to discuss the imminent launch of a new product or service, discuss topical industry issues, and build a rapport with the target media. 

This “tour” is literally a tour from one media outlet to the next over a course of 1-5 days and typically includes a company executive, a public relations representative and the reporter(s) from the media outlet.  *No more than 2-3 company representatives (including the PR rep) should be in attendance.

Media tours continue to be an effective public relations strategy to connect with the industry’s most influential resources–the reporters.  And the media usually welcome the opportunity to meet with a company executive (bonus points for bringing the CEO) to receive inside knowledge on new offerings, trends and topics affecting the industry.  It’s a win-win meeting . . . usually.

Although media tours are usually nice meet-and-greet meetings, the company spokesperson/executive must be prepared.  This is the job of the public relations rep., but it’s important to underscore the value of preparation prior to meeting with the media.  Also, determine ahead of time what it is you want to accomplish.  It could simply be to cultivate an ongoing relationship with the reporter or to intrigue the reporter to write a story about an upcoming announcement.  Regardless, be clear and set objectives for each meeting to ensure you hit the mark.

Preparation for a media tour also means having ALL details of the meeting confirmed–the devil is in the details.  Confirm the appointment, location, date, time, length of meeting, etc. Also, make sure the company’s spokesperson/executive has all the requisite information necessary prior to the meeting, including background on the reporter, media outlet, past articles, typical tone of the reporter’s article, etc.  This is crucial information to have before the meeting to ensure everyone has a good idea of what to expect.

Bottom line, the media tour continues to be an important component of your public relations efforts–and it should happen periodically.  LT Public Relations recommends conducting a media tour at least every 6-9 months–and for each major announcement.

There is a whole host of additional important steps you should take during the media tour (you didn’t think we’d tell you everything in one blog, did you?).  We’d be happy to share more–just contact us at pr@ltpublicrelations.com or 503-477-9215.

Happy touring!

In the public relations industry, Microsoft is known as a “PR machine.” The company has always taken an aggressive, strategic and bold approach to marketing its products through the many channels of public relations. 

The biggest reason for their PR success has ultimately been that their products are stellar and competitively unmatched. Good products naturally breed good PR. 

Enter Windows Vista and Microsoft Zune. Two well-hyped products that have recently taken-it-on-the-chin for being sub-par.  Still stellar products–but not at the gold standard of Microsoft. For basic summary sake, the main reasons for the consumer bashing for Vista and Zune, respectively, is 1) it has too many bugs and is an IT nightmare 2) it’s not iPod.

Microsoft is well aware of their public perception issues for both products (and others) . . . good PR is knowing exactly the current public perception of your products and services–and then being able to embrace or address accordingly.

The Vista PR problem is too complex and overwhelming to address in one blog, so we’ll leave it alone.  The PR problem with Zune, on the other hand, can be addressed quite simply . . . Microsoft entered into the MP3 world way too late, and against a competitor (Apple’s iPod) that was too strong and had a firm grip on that sector.  Also, this week’s news that Zune was tripped up by leap year didn’t help the PR problem.

Not sure if it makes good business sense to continue with Zune if Microsoft continues to face a severe up-hill climb, lose money, and be plagued with bad publicity.  That decision is for the smart Microsoft folks to decide.

However, to develop (or re-establish) a solid footprint on the MP3 market–and ultimately generate good PR–a smart choice is to completely reinvent the media player market.  This means doing more than having a few more functionalities than the iPod–or looking cooler (tough to be cooler than Apple these days).

From LT Public Relations’ perspective, to generate buzz and get folks to buy a product, you must be different.  Zune just isn’t that different–and the public is responding (negatively).