Some Thoughts On Traditional PR

One thing has surprised me more than anything else since diving headfirst into the dodgy world pf self-employment in September 2005; the value of Public Relations.

Now I’m at risk writing this because I have been pretty critical (especially at the earliest stage of my consulting career) of PR and secondly because I probably don’t know enough about PR even to write this post.

My simple understanding of PR – the practice of placing a client in as many relevant media channels for increased exposure and brand awareness. When I worked with TomorrowToday.biz the brilliant team at SimonSays Communications handled all our PR. They landed a few articles in prominent mags, one or two TV appearances and radio interviews for me. These all helped add impetus to my marketing efforts.

Once I left TT.biz though, I no longer had SimonSays to fall back on. Strangely, but probably due to the fact that I was still making enough noise online, requests for interviews still came in, and continue to do so. Here’s the surprise though…

TV, although it’s seen as a pretty effective channel and coveted for it’s coverage, so to speak, has never generated even one single lead for us!. Perhaps I’ve been on the wrong shows at the wrong times, or perhaps I’m just not very compelling on TV (a very likely possibility), but I’ve enjoyed far more tangible business benefit from magazine features, profiles and newspaper articles.

That said, as much as I’m a digital child and an advocate for social media, I cannot say enough about the value of appearing in respected traditional print media. On Monday Cerebra is going to be interviewed for a feature in one of SA’s leading financial publications and I’m far moe excited about this than my next interview on CNBC.

By far the most valuable marketing platform for us as a company, and me as an individual, has been public speaking at industry conferences. Almost every big deal in the Cerebra account drawer at the moment can be traced back to a talk at a conference or workshop…

Your thoughts?

  • http://www.protocolinpractice.blogspot.com Karen Lotter

    I think it has a lot to do with the personal thing. People often find television inaccessible, “that guy’s on TV so he’s out of our reach” whereas at a conference or workshop they can meet you in person and chat to you.

    I guess the perception is that you are actually out there doing the work, not just sitting in an office, so you’re a good guy to hire.

  • http://www.barbarawinter.com Barbara Winter

    I’ve been a speaker for over 30 years and have found my most effective marketing tool is ME. Having said that, I also believe that media interviews and stories add credibility as well as visibility.
    I do seminars on Establishing Yourself as an Expert and talk at length about letting others (radio, television, the Internet) sing your praises as part of a bigger marketing effort.

    But the bottom line still is that YOU are your product and so, as the previous poster said, meeting you in person is your most powerful marketing tool…unless you’re a jerk, of course!

  • http://manticoreblog.wordpress.com Simon G

    As someone who used to manage the marketing for an IT company, for a business organisation TV is not the best platform IMO to get coverage. Much better to target some of the key business journos. The problem is that those journos get bombarded with dozens of press releases every day. The simple fact is that PR and advertising now are not as easy as they used to be.

  • http://www.yuppiechef.co.za Andrew Smith

    A big factor has to be reach. You can’t compare TV to Print with broad brushstrokes. CNBC Africa is a very new channel on DSTV, and the daytime viewership is probably tiny. A highly focused trade magazine could have many more of your target audience as readers.

    The reason that TV is covetted (ie in Shane’s post on Ideate) is that the potential reach is very high. I would much rather have an insert on Carte Blanche than a full-page article in “Kite Flyer’s Magazine”.

    On the other hand, I would rather have feature in the Sunday Times than an interview on SABC 2 on a Tuesday morning at 10:30.

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