Tag Archives: Ad Agency Publicity

Ad Agencies: Add Patch.com to Your Media List for Local News

Special thanks to Joan Stewart’s “The Publicity Hound” e-newsletter for bringing Patch.com to my attention.

Patch is a community-specific news and information platform that covers more than 600 communities and neighborhoods in the United States. And it is still growing.

Headquartered in New York City, Patch is run by professional editors, writers, photographers and videographers who live in or near the communities it serves.

The website’s map makes it easy to find out whether your community is covered. If so, or if you are pitching a story for a client in another community covered by Patch, you simply e-mail your news tip, calendar event or announcement to the appropriate contact. You also can participate in discussions.

When making a pitch it’s important to keep in mind that Patch focuses exclusively on local news and events.

Joan invites readers that have gotten news placed on Patch to share their experiences at her blog.

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

 

Ad Agencies: PRWeb’s Redesigned Site Aims to Improve Online Visibility

PRWeb’s redesigned website has some great improvements intended to enhance visibility for news releases, provide users with educational resources and make it easier for them to navigate throughout the site. The upgrades include:

• An updated news release template that is more visual, more interactive and purportedly performs better online.
• A news center dedicated to giving news releases industry-leading visibility. According to PRWeb, “Readers and search engines can find your story faster, which means more traffic to your website.”
• Expert resources that include a long list of ideas for news release topics, legal news guidelines, white papers, webinar archives and a ton of information about using video
• Best practice case studies featuring customers who’ve achieved “amazing” results, so that users can learn how their peers are using PRWeb in innovative ways.

Of course, the number of news release pick ups and the volume of traffic to sites will continue to be the criteria of success for users. It’s too early to tell how effective these changes will be, but they seem to be promising. I’m looking forward to trying the re-engineered PRWeb site with my next release, and see if I notice an uptick in responses.

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.

HARO Helps Ad Agencies Get Media Coverage for Clients

HARO, which stands for Help A Reporter Out, is a free newsletter that is e-mailed up to three times a day to subscribers, containing an average of 15-30 leads from reporters seeking sources for stories.

The leads are organized into categories (Business & Finance, Health/Fitness, Lifestyle, Technology, etc.) with specifics about each story, what information the reporter is seeking and contact information.

It’s a must read for ad agencies wanting to make sure their clients don’t miss important opportunities for coverage. To learn more or to subscribe, visit: http://www.helpareporter.com

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

A Way for Ad Agencies to Measure Publicity

Ketchum Public Relations has a one-page “scorecard” to help simplify the media measurement process. The Ketchum scorecard is a grid that rates coverage on a point scale based on the following:

• Prominence of client mentioned
• Prominence of position
• Source of item (i.e. did it come from the company’s PR efforts or elsewhere)
• Quality of primary messages
• Quality of secondary messages
• Format of presentation (a feature story with photos vs. a mention of the company)
• Exposure index (how much exposure a story gets in a given media vehicle)
• Favorability index
• Audience reach

While this level of analysis may not be practical or necessary in many cases, it does provide a helpful way to provide clients and senior management with a useful tool to measure the effectiveness of their PR activities.

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

Dealing with Ad Agency Critics

“It is not the critic that counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds.” – Theodore Roosevelt

A corporate PR executive who worked for a controversial company once suggested dividing one’s critics into two groups:  the reasonable and the unreasonable.

The reasonable critics are people who have legitimate concerns and put forth constructive criticism in an effort to bring about improvement.  These are people an organization can and should work with whenever possible.  Sometimes, reasonable critics can even be won over to become allies.

The unreasonable critics, on the other hand, are never going to be happy, no matter what you do.  They will be suspicious of your motives if you try to work with them, and any action you take will be found to be deficient in some way.  You can waste a lot of time and energy dealing with unreasonable critics, and at the end of the day nothing will have changed.  They’ll still hate your client or cause, so the best thing to do is simply ignore them.

 Plus, by trying to work with these folks, you risk giving them more credibility than they deserve and raising their profile. 

These days, advocacy groups and bloggers can put major companies in a spin.  If one of your agency’s clients is under attack, start by evaluating which category the critic falls into before taking action.  You may find not responding to the criticism is the best course of action.

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

Agency News Releases Do Get Published Verbatim

Several years ago, a well-known New Jersey PR executive wrote the following in a national public relations trade publication:  “Virtually never, however, are releases reprinted verbatim by any responsible publication.  It’s just not done, and I defy anyone to show me where this has happened.”

 Not one to let a challenge like that pass, I sent a few samples of news releases I sent out that were printed verbatim in newspapers.  The releases represented several industries, and as I noted in my cover letter, I have notebooks stuffed full of similar articles.  I also noted that there wasn’t a geographical bias, either, as the samples I sent covered papers from California to New York.

 I never heard back from the executive, nor to my knowledge did he ever acknowledge publicly that someone had proven his assertion wrong.

 As newsrooms shed jobs and try to keep up with less staff, it’s still true today that a well-written news release can easily be reprinted entirely, or with very minor edits, in consumer and trade publications.

 While this wouldn’t fly at The New YorkTimes, smaller papers tend to lack the resources to do as much original reporting as they might like, and they seem to appreciate a well written, newsworthy release from a trusted source.

 This does not mean, as some have suggested, that journalism is in a state of decline, or that such newspapers are irresponsible.

 Over the years, I’ve worked to develop good relationships with editors and reporters where my clients have operations, as do all good PR executives.  I believe we are viewed by many media outlets as extra sets of arms and legs that bring valuable news items to the table.

 As long as advertising agencies get their facts straight, focus on relevant topics and not try to pass off advertising disguised as “news,” they can provide an important service to these papers—and help their clients look good in the process.

 Normally my objective with a news release is to generate enough interest among reporters so that they will want to schedule an interview and do their own stories.  But, when staff limitations prohibit that, I’ll gladly take a reprint of my release any day.

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