Author Archives: Don Beehler

Social Networking Helps Ad Agencies Reach Customers

USA Today has a story in today’s edition about the growing social-networking wave, and the innovative ways in which marketers are using this technology to engage customers at a new level. Once example the article cites is from Ford Motor Company.

Rather than using a typical ad campaign and dealer promotions to introduce Fiesta, Ford gave its new subcompact to 100 top bloggers to try out for six months.

According to the article, “Once a month, they’re required to upload a video on YouTube about the car, and they’re encouraged to talk — no holds barred — about the Fiesta on their blogs, Facebook and Twitter.”

The bloggers are free to say whatever they want about the car, so there are risks with this tactic, especially if a lot of them don’t like it. But it certainly makes for an authentic, no-spin promotion.

Years ago, I worked for a P.R. agency whose clients included Saturn Corporation. When Saturn decided to enter the market in Japan, we held a ride-and-drive for Japanese journalists near Saturn’s headquarters in Spring Hill.

For the better part of a day the journalists test drove the cars around the Middle Tennessee area. As with the Ford bloggers, there were no restrictions placed on them and they were free to write whatever they wanted, so the concept is not new.

One important difference is that social media creates instant connections. Companies also have opportunities to build ongoing relationships with customers and get immediate feedback from them.

“Increasingly, consumers don’t search for products and services. Rather, services come to their attention via social media” notes Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics, a new book about how social media have changed how companies do business.

Adds Shel Israel, author of the forthcoming Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods. “Companies have no choice. This is where their customers are going.”

Times and customers have changed, and ad agencies need to change with them.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

P.R. Agency Finds Itself in Paper’s Crosshairs

It’s always interesting to see how PR principals handle criticism of their firm. Usually, it’s their clients that are under fire, but on occasion the news media will turn a critical eye toward the PR firm itself. Such was the case Sunday when The Tennessean ran a front-page story on the main section titled “How a P.R. firm to (sic) powerful tarnished its image.”

It’s hard to know how much of this negative story was due to Editor Mark Silverman still smarting from prior suggestions that the firm coaxed favorable coverage about the civic center from The Tennessean, or whether the paper really thought this story deserved such prominent coverage. Maybe it was a combination of both.

The firm, McNeely Pigott & Fox, is the largest PR firm in Tennessee, and it has represented some prominent Democratic leaders, including Karl Dean, Nashville’s current mayor. The major point of contention was the amount the agency billed the city to promote a proposed downtown convention center. The firm ended up resigning the account.

“…the firm hired to help temper criticism wound up fueling it with an open-ended contract that sent a whopping $458,000 bill to the city in just over a year,” The Tennessean reported. “It was a stunning fall that has raised questions about the entire convention center project, Mayor Karl Dean’s oversight of it, and his close association with the P.R. firm that helped get him elected….”

Well, I have to agree that sounds like a lot of money, and I’d be happy to promote the convention center for a lot less. In fairness to McNeely Pigott & Fox, it’s not clear the extent of work the agency did for those fees and how much time its staff spent on the project. But, whenever you get into large amounts of money going out of government to a firm with significant connections to many of the key players, it’s bound to raise some eyebrows.

Dealing with the perception of having taken advantage of the city through cozy connections is, in my view, the biggest challenge McNeely Pigott & Fox faces.

How effectively it will counter this criticism and weather the storm remains to be seen.

It’s worth noting that The Tennessean article disclosed the firm worked with the paper in 2007. No word on what McNeely Pigott & Fox charged the paper for its services, and whether The Tennessean was happy with its work.

I can’t help but wonder if the firm had a crisis management plan in case something like this happened (the article said, “They never saw this crisis coming…”), and if so how well it’s working for them now?

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Ad Agencies Face Increased Accountability for Results

According to an article in Ad Age, a new GlobalSpec report found that “Twenty-nine percent of the respondents said they already spend more than half of their marketing budget online. And 48 percent said online marketing will account for a bigger proportion of their total marketing outlays this year than was the case last year.”

Getting quantifiable results was a key reason for this trend, due to increased pressure to demonstrate returns on marketing investments.

Obtaining clear, definable results is going to be important even after the recession ends. For ad agencies that deliver, that’s a good thing. But for agencies that are slack in reporting quantifiable results – or have less than stellar returns on their clients’ investments – the message is clear that they will need to make some changes if they are going to survive.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Self-publishing Is a Good Option for Ad Agency Principals

Ad agency principals who either are in the process of writing a book or are seriously thinking about writing one should consider self-publishing. (In the interests of full disclosure, I’ve represented both traditional and self-publishing concerns.)

Self-publishing is one of the fastest-growing industries and with good reason.

Traditional publishing houses are difficult to crack, and you can spend months pitching your book with nothing to show but a string of rejection letters. They’re typically more interested in established authors who are proven money makers, and the chances of a large publisher testing the waters with a new author are pretty slim.

Self-publishing gives you greater control with a higher royalty. Costs are relatively inexpensive, and you can get your books on the market faster. And with print on demand digital technology, you don’t need a lot of storage space.

Ad agencies with specific niches are especially good candidates.

According to Aaron Martin, director of self-publishing and manufacturing on demand at Amazon, “A lot of…niche content is doing fairly well relative to the rest of the economy because it’s very useful to people who have a very specific need.” Mr. Martin was quoted earlier this year in a New York Times article about the growth of self-publishing.

Of course, there are drawbacks to self-publishing, but on balance I believe it is a better option for most new authors than traditional publishers, and is something that could be beneficial for agency principals who already know how to market a product.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Can Ad Agencies Buy Favorable Media Coverage?

In my previous post, I referenced a column by Tennessean Editor Mark Silverman in which he wrote, “Our stories and opinion columns cannot be bought.”

Is Mr. Silverman correct or is that just wishful thinking? Can reporters really be paid to write favorable stories? Since presumably they would be paid under the table, how would he know?

If people in other professions can be bribed, why not those in the news media? Codes of ethics get broken all the time.

It seems to me the better way for Mr. Silverman to have made his point would have been to say that the paper has a policy prohibiting stories and opinion columns from being bought, and they work very hard to enforce it.

Because the truth is, he can’t state with absolute certainty that none of his reporters has ever quietly taken cash or gifts to tone down or slant a story.

Having said that, in my 25 years in journalism, agency and corporate PR, I’ve never seen it happen, nor have I ever gotten so much as a hint from a reporter that he or she would “adjust” a story for certain inducements. I’m not saying it never happens, just that I’ve never experienced this as a journalist or as a public relations professional.

Many years ago, while working for a large PR agency, I was involved in a retail promotion that drew huge crowds into a client’s store. The store was part of a national chain that previously had relied exclusively on advertising.

Our PR team found several angles that were of interest to the news media, and we were successful in generating a lot of publicity for the store, which resulted in the large turn out. In addition to the pre-event coverage, we had several reporters onsite.

I’ll never forget when one of the chain’s VPs asked me how much we paid the reporters to show up. I politely explained that we didn’t pay them anything, nor would they have taken our money if we had offered. The reason the reporters were there was because we had been successful in communicating to them that this was a good story worthy of their time.

That’s the way I believe it works with the vast majority of reporters. There are legitimate reasons to be critical of the way some news media outlets operate, but taking “cash for coverage” is not one of them.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Paper Opens Its Doors to Readers

A Nashville TV station’s recent report about high fees a PR firm charged the city for its attempts to obtain favorable publicity for a planned new convention center evidently touched a nerve with Tennessean Editor Mark Silverman.

In a column titled “Tennessean coverage isn’t for sale,” Mr. Silverman noted that the TV report and subsequent comments on blogs “suggested that the firm coaxed favorable coverage about the civic center from The Tennessean; some bloggers and story chat participants even suggested that a Tennessean staffer was paid to write positive reports. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our stories and opinion columns cannot be bought.”

I’ll have more to say about paying reporters for favorable coverage in my next post, but for now I’m going to focus on another aspect of his column.

Mr. Silverman went on to explain how his paper works with PR firms and its commitment to ethics. He also described the lengths the paper went to in raising questions and digging for facts related to the convention center proposal. You can read his full column here: http://tennessean.com/article/20090809/COLUMNIST0113/908090331/1748

What especially caught my eye was the last paragraph, where he made an offer I wish more newspaper editors would make to their readers: Anyone interested in seeing how news decisions are made is welcome to attend a news meeting. All a person has to do is e-mail him to make arrangements.

I hope there are many who take him up on his offer, which he says he’s made before, because it would be an enlightening experience for those not familiar with this process. Reporters likely will be on their best behavior with outsiders observing them, but seeing how stories are chosen and what factors play into the news-selection process can only help strengthen relationships with the paper’s readers.

I applaud Mr. Silverman for his openness and his efforts to educate readers. Sounds like something a PR person might come up, doesn’t it?

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

A Helpful Tool for Ad Agencies: RadioGuestList.com

RadioGuestList.com is a free service that matches guests with expertise on particular topics with the hosts who want to interview them. Radio talk show, podcast, online radio show, satellite radio and TV program bookers and producers use it to discover new talk show interview guests.

You can be notified when a show is looking for a particular type of expert by signing up at http://www.radioguestlist.com. When the site gets a request from a talk show host, you’ll receive an e-mail with details. It’s up to you whether you want to respond to the opportunity.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Google Alerts Alert Ad Agencies to News

Google Alerts can help ad agencies keep on top of news in particular areas related to them and their clients. I have one set up for each client so that I know what is being said and where there may be opportunities for follow-up stories.

You also can keep track of what is being reported about your agency and your clients, as well as competitors. Best of all, Google Alerts are free. To set up your own alerts, go to http://www.google.com/alerts.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

Ad Agencies Need to Know the News

Ad Agencies can improve their odds of getting media coverage by making sure they are on top of the news within their areas of expertise.

Monitoring news Web sites, blogs, tweets of key industry influencers, publications and other sources of information for stories to which your agency can provide insights or offer commentary can pay big dividends.

For example, if an organization releases a study that relates to one of your agency’s areas of expertise, send a brief note to your media contacts alerting them to the study and adding your perspective. Be sure to include your contact information and the times in which your or your colleagues are available for interviews.

In addition, comment about the study on your agency’s blog and tweet about it on Twitter.

Anytime your agency can provide expertise about a breaking news story, trend or a just-released study or survey is a good time to make a pitch to the appropriate news media.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.

How Ad Agencies Can Generate Publicity

One of the best ways for ad agencies to generate media coverage of themselves and their clients is to become a trusted source for reporters.

As a starting point, come up with a list of topics that your agency and clients could address. For local news media, offer to meet in person so that you can learn about the types of stories they are interested in covering and discuss ways in which you could contribute. For reporters outside your immediate area, a simple letter or e-mail will do.

Your topics will identify your areas of expertise, which will come in handy when reporters do a related story. They are always looking for knowledgeable sources, so if you respond promptly to their inquiries and provide insightful information, chances are you’ll be included on their short list of contacts.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to small- and medium-sized advertising agencies and businesses.