By Melissa A Vitale You don’t need to look much further than the homepage of any major news outlet or magazine publication to see just how much the social climate of 2020 has impacted headlines. Between a still raging global pandemic and looming economic recession coupled with the tipping point of racial injustice in America, today’s headlines are rightfully more crucial to the social construct than the Tiger King recaps that filled our newsfeeds back in March. Add on top of that media layoffs across publishing houses around the country, it’s no surprise to me that the first question I get asked by many brands is “is now a good time for Public relations?” As you’ll note in many of my blog posts aimed at responding to a question, this one is not a clear-cut answer. If you’re a brand who has nothing newsworthy coming up in the next year (product launches, partnerships, expansions etc) and are hitting your sales and awareness goals, you can rightfully skip PR right now. However, if you’re hoping your forthcoming products will garner the attention of press, your collections will be included in gift guides, or that your executive insight will be included in upcoming industry trend stories, you’re going to want to get a publicist, like ASAP. With cancelled events returning trade show and corporate sponsorship budget to brands, many are weighing if a PR campaign would be a beneficial use of the unused dollars. While PR is never measured in sales, PR can be a crucial element in creating a digital sales funnel that drives as much sales as other realms of marketing and advertising. While we’ve had patches where we wouldn’t consider “breaking,” since a majority of resources have been devoted to covering first corona-related stories and then racial-justice fueled topics for the last three-four months, we have arguably been in a breaking news cycle. During breaking newscycles we see a number of trends but the two biggest that emerge is a slow-down of evergreen stories, and an uptick of demand for reliable sources. Journalists don’t have time to follow up with experts when their to-lists triple overnight. They instead tap the sources that have multiple experts at their fingertips: publicists. With media layoffs plaguing our industry, we’re also seeing a higher demand for sources both as remaining staff writers have an influx of coverage and with now-freelancers losing their outlet’s directory of sources and tapping into their own network. In order to captivate and hold the attention of the stressed media industry brands will have to continually refocus the newcycles on their story and mission and make sure their executives are regularly on the minds of journalists working on trend stories. Publicists are trained to make brand and executive storylines fresh no matter the newscycle. While not impossible by any means, with such demand coupled with the strain and pressure on media, it’s going to be harder for brands to garner coverage sans publicist. Those with extra marketing budgets from disrupted sponsorship or events and still developing new products and brand partnerships should take advantage of many public relations firms lowering minimums or offering sign-on deals. For Vice Brands looking to explore cost effective public relations packages, learn more about MAVPR’s services via: melissaavitale.com/services.html
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By Melissa A Vitale I really wish I had balls the size of some of the people who seek me out for PR services. I've never gone to buy something, was quoted and asked to either get the item for free, or with promises. The new one I've gotten recently was being asked to pay in a different way than I quoted. My public relations agency, as it every one of the 7+ firms I've worked for over my tenure, bills retainers upfront. To be under publicist representation means your brand can be in rooms with editors at places like New York Times, Forbes and Rolling Stone in a matter of days. If you want to retain the services and representation of a publicist, you need to pay their retainer. I was recently asked if I could forego my retainer to pay milestones. Supposedly I would still get the same amount of my monthly retainers in these milestones but understanding that those milestones could take months to cultivate, wanted me to work pro-bono until those milestones are hit. I don't go into a store, buy something and then when I hand over my payment say "Hey, can I test this out first and then I'll pay you later once I like it?" If you want something you have to pay for it. There are many creative avenues where you don't pay until you get the results. Public relations is not one of those fields. Public relations agencies already have meetings set up with journalists and editors before a client signs on board. We also have tons of tracking programs, email programs and other physical and digital supplies that make our press strategy possible. Many firms also have employees. Rent, program subscriptions, supplies of mailers, tracking programs and media databases typically charge monthly. Employees have monthly salaries. When a client signs with a PR firm, they get added to these systems on day one. Paying in milestones leaves the door open for a brand to abandon a campaign with no cost to them. If you want the representation of a publicist, you need to pay for it upfront. Say I had three potential clients who said "oh we can pay milestones, just rep us we'll pay when we see results" it means I'm footing the bill for these brands' desires for public relations. To learn more about what we do, visit: https://www.melissaavitale.com/about.html
By Melissa A Vitale Absolutely no brand is immune to slow coverage cycles. Well, unless maybe you're working with Elon Musk, an A-List celebrity or you have unlimited budgets for PR stunts. (And if you're a VICE brand and that applies to you, please contact me ASAP - we can do some GREAT work together). I always make it a point to mention that PR is not immediate. Even though a brand pays my retainer, we're not giving anything to journalists. They maybe get a free sample. Journalists and editors are humans too. They have lives outside of their jobs. They have families, friends, other projects, side jobs, vacations and commitments. They don't exist to cover brands for their marketing goals. They serve their audiences and advertisers. Just because a brand wants press coverage doesn't mean the editor, outlet, or journalist has time or resources to cover the brand. A journalist may be excited about a brand today, but won't be able to profile them for six months. Every outlet is beholden to advertisers and audiences for dictating their coverage. Not publicists and brands they represent. Sometimes, outlets are only allowed to cover niche subjects like VICE industries once every six months! If a particular magazine covered cannabis in June and a CBD brands starts in July, they may not have potential to be considered for four months at that specific publication. Another thing to consider: budgets! It's no secret subscriber-ship has decreased across the board. There's only so much money to pay journalists & there's only so many editor salaries a publishing house can afford. Sometimes, editors love a brand, but already planned out their commission budgets for the coming months and need to pause on evergreen brand profiles. It's the publicists constant pitches, calls, networking and schmoozing that keeps a brand relevant in the time between coverage opportunities. (Read more about how PR can take so long) There are certain times of the year, Summer and January mainly where coverage can slow down. This does not mean that your campaign is failing. In fact, these months are often some of the most crucial to a campaign. One story could take 6 weeks to cultivate. So a placement in March means the end of January was when it was secured. I once had a brand with two placements in July and August but 11 placements in December... many of those placements in December were secured in July and August. The brands that are consistent with PR are the ones that will overcome slow months of coverage with explosions of press mentions in surrounding months. Okay that all makes sense. But if I didn't get any results this month, do I still have to pay my publicist? Unless your contract states that you do not have to pay without results, withholding payment from your publicist will hurt your campaign. Many publicists stop outbound pitching efforts if payments are overdue past a certain time. This could put a stall in the traction. Even if you're without results one month, you of course need to pay your publicist! The results in PR are held in the hands of editorial departments. So if newscycles are slow one month, that doesn't mean your publicist doesn't have to or doesn't deserve to eat. They still did the work. If you're only paying when there are results, than your publicist is investing in your PR plan. Unless you've gone 3+ months with results below the expectation, I would suggest talking with your publicist about what's going on but if it's a slow month sandwiched between stellar results, this is just the PR game and is very typical. A slow month of results does not mean a bad campaign. PR is like a duck, on the surface, clients see results but there's a lot of hard work going on beneath the surface. Slow months just mean your publicist is working extra hard. For Vice Brands looking to explore cost effective public relations packages, learn more about MAVPR’s services via: melissaavitale.com/services.html
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