Category: Public relations

Pointless press releases

Posted on by Brian Lee

A local company (name withheld) distributed a press release today indicating that it was a sponsor of an annual event that took place one month ago. Here are the first two paragraphs:

Madison Opera recently staged the 12th annual “Opera in the Park” for the city of Madison. This free annual event is a grand musical celebration that presents highlights from the upcoming Madison Opera season, opera classics and Broadway show tunes. “Opera in the Park” is performed at Garner Park, a Madison city park that features a natural hillside amphitheater. The event is an accessible and inviting experience for everyone from first-time opera goers to long-time opera enthusiasts.
XYZ Company has been a major sponsor of “Opera in the Park” since its inception in 2001. Sustaining financial contributions are given to help make the event possible each year. Donated equipment rentals and many hours of audio expertise perfect the awe-inspiring sound and romantic atmosphere that “Opera in the Park” audiences love.

What is the news value of this press release? I can’t imagine any editor, reporter or blogger would read beyond the headline, let alone decide to do a story on this. Plus, as a sponsor, this company already received recognition.

I caution clients to avoid distributing press releases unless there is obvious and significant news value. Otherwise, all you’re doing is conditioning the media outlet to ignore you, and that will hurt you when you do have something important to say.

If you have to pat yourself on the back, like this company did, then do so in a blog post for your company website and add some personal thoughts. That’s where this “story” belongs.

Finally, don’t get me started on how bad the lede is.

Augmented Reality: Engaging or Intrusive?

Posted on by Brian Lee

Can technology become more realistic and interactive without growing more intrusive?

It seems every aspect of modern life is being integrated with technology, and with it, people are losing privacy and human interaction.

In public relations, this next technological step is augmented reality, which is the use of computer-generated data to reflect real-world images. AR allows consumers to learn more about a place, object or brand simply by holding a smartphone or tablet above it. For example:

So far, augmented reality has mostly been used for mobile apps but has had success in a variety of campaigns this year. The World Wildlife Foundation and Coca-Cola allowed European museum visitors to see the effects of the melting ice caps and President Obama virtually high-fived voters during his campaign.

AR changes the constraints regarding where and how customers can consume messages and interact with brands. It allows for deeper, more realistic relationships between brands, campaigns, products and consumers.

The goal of public relations is to build a relationship between brands and consumers. In my opinion, the ability to bring brands to life and create interactions with consumers is thus a great opportunity.

Augmented reality changes public relations only by make interactions more life-like. I don’t think there is any or much fear of intrusion with augmented reality because it is projecting a message and creating a consumer experience that gives the consumers control of where to access this augmented reality and when to end the engagement.

The importance of accreditation in PR

Posted on by Brian Lee

The Public Relations Society of America announced this week that it’s planning to enhance the profile and prestige of the Accredited in Public Relations (APR) Credential.

In an article titled, “Should PR pros get accredited?” on PR Daily, I talk about how accreditation helps separate the contenders from the pretenders. That’s because public relations is an experience-based profession, meaning that you learn more on how to do it outside the classroom than inside. As a result, it has a low barrier to entry, and anyone can claim they “do PR” without an education of the basics.

Let’s take a look at media relations (e.g. pitching), what a lot of people associate PR with. Many so-called PR practitioners will promise only media coverage for their clients. But all accredited professionals know that media coverage alone is not a goal or objective, it’s simply an output.

Thus, it’s unfortunate that a few bad apples can spoil perceptions about the profession, an example being Facebook hiring a PR firm to plant negative news about Google. I’m hopeful that as more professionals earn their accreditation, the perception of PR–both internal and external–will be much improved.