It seems that everyone is fixated on the economy and it doesn't matter if you're pitching to a trade title or a lifestyle mag, everyone is selling in the same story: "We can save you money", "How to cope with your impending redundancy", "Why this service is what you need to fight the downturn". It's not an easy time for PR. But just because everyone is writing the same story doesn't mean you have to.
It's time to add more snap and crackle to the Crunch. Interviews with journalists can be time badly spent if you're giving them nothing new. Go deeper with your analysis of the market, think further into the future and predict how behaviours of consumers and businesses will change. Go beyond telling it like it is.
PR agents can do their best to set up the interview, pitch the hell out of your customer win, inundate key titles with product launches but a spokesperson shouldn't agree to go into a meeting with a journalist unless they understand how what they're going to say will appeal to the readers and appear in print.
If you're a household name then your comment on what we already know can make a headline (John Major says there'll be job losses – yeah, that's no surprise) but otherwise you and your PR need to try much harder.
Tough times bring out the very best and worst. And that's what journalists want to write about. How is your sales team coping with the slump? What are you experiencing which you never have before? Michael Gonzalez, a PR guru and killer media relations expert, says it’s time to take risks. “If you are too nervous to say what hasn’t been said then you are not in a good position to handle press interviews. If your latest press missive doesn’t pass the ‘so what?’ test then don’t waste your time. Stretch your research to the point that it uncovers what’s really valuable. Stare far into the future to predict the aftermath. That’ll give a journo something worth writing about.”
If you have a PR team on a monthly target for the number of press releases distributed or coverage achieved, it's time to look again at your goals. Opportunities abound to make a name for your business during this stressful business climate. But it'll take you and your PR specialists more than the normal approach to create a tasty morsel that the press will crave. Book in a brainstorming session and cook up some genuinely original angles.
