Pitching a new or existing product, company spokesperson or useful tips are all successful ways to secure media coverage for your brand year-round. But there is one strategy you can use to secure immediate media attention-it just requires vigilance and a bit of strategic thinking.
Over the past 2-1/2 years I have run more than 1,375 miles, not just to stay in shape, but to enable me to eat Five Guys burgers and fries whenever the spirit moves me.
Working in the consumer products industry nothing really surprises me. However, when I saw the product, “Bye Bye Monster”, I was completely baffled. Really… a product that gets kids to believe there are no more monsters under their bed? Are your kids afraid of monsters?
PSAs are not just for non-profit organizations. According to Ray Salo who pioneered the concept of “co-sponsored” PSAs, deregulation during the Regan administration provided a key opportunity for for-profit organizations to “co-sponsor” PSAs. For the last 10 years, Salo Productions has been developing co-sponsored PSAs that allow for-profit brands to increase awareness by acting as a credible source for the public on a key topic.
In the movie Flashback, Dennis Hopper’s character tells his young protégé "when we get out of the '80s, the '90s are going to make the '60s look like the '50s".
Tom Hanks has nothing on me. Yeah, he was cast away on a deserted island for four years, but did he lose his iPhone? Did he survive a week without checking his email at every convenient moment? Did he suffer the inability to check baseball scores or the ESPN Fantasy Scoreboard? Did he know what it was like to not use a TV Guide app and have to actually flip through the channels to find a program? Did he go to his favorite coffee shop (Starbucks) unable to check in on Foursquare? Did he experience the anxiety of not being able to text friends and associates whenever the spirit moved him? Did he have a clue what it was like to be shunned by the mobile Facebook and Twitter communities? Did he stare into the eye of a QR Code knowing he could not scan and download?
You have not had any media training but suddenly a key media outlet is on the phone or at your office requesting an interview. Use the guidelines below to get you through an unexpected opportunity in a pinch. 1. Be professional at all times. Interviews are not conversations.
1. Unless you are an Olympic swimmer... no strike that. Any man who wears a speedo or mankini at any time for any reason is a googy. 2. Unless you are under the age of 30 and/or hiking a 20-mile trail and you find yourself wearing a backpack, you are a googy.
I have no special insight into the plans and/or capabilities of Specific Media, the new owner of MySpace. But after reading Scott Martin's assassination of MySpace in USA Today, it got me thinking about why an incredibly successful entertainer and a very successful digital media company would plunk down $35 million on a "big social loser" and a "pariah of social networks".
If you conduct publicity and media relations, you probably have a decent media list, including editors for Good Housekeeping, Today Show producers and local and national industry beat reporters. But beyond the obvious must-haves for any CPG media database, expanding your list to reach untraditional contacts can have a major impact on your brand. This is of course if you pitch media contacts the right story, but that’s a different post all together.
Cleveland
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