Following up on the previous article on managing press relations, let’s focus on how it happens on the ground. As mentioned in the earlier article, and also pointed out in a comment, the biggest task for the brand is to get the journalist to write the article as a marketing pitch, and no as a bland news item. The example we took in the last one was ‘Now fly for Rs. 500’ v/s ‘Low cost airline launched’. Here is a case of a permanent conflict between the two parties.

The journalist, driven by the principles of professional writing, should make the content crisp, and most importantly, impartial. However, the marketer obviously wants the communication to be exciting for the reader. How to resolve this?

The most effective approach, in my opinion (based on my internship experience), is to try and make the journalist an evangelist for your brand/ product. If he really buys into the message that the marketer wants to deliver, the job is done. The journalist’s output would more often than not be the marketing pitch that the marketer wanted to be delivered. The important question is “How”.

Let’s have a little bit of mechanics of the press release before going deeper into the specifics of selling it to the journalist. I experienced press relations for the promotion of a new business launch. What I’m sharing is not based on any theoretical knowledge, but on the practical experience during my summer internship. Thus, what I’m going to share now might be different in some cases. Now that we’re done with the disclaimers, let the gyaan begin.

The process generally kicks off with an invitation to journalists. This is followed by an interaction between the journalists and one of the senior management personnel¹. During the interaction, the company personnel take the journalists through a presentation. At this stage, the journalists are given what is called a Press Kit, which contains everything required for preparing a write-up in the newspaper/magazine. It generally consists of technical details about the project (new product launch in my case), some pictures etc for the article and a background on the company.

So now we come back to discussing the specifics of making the journalist an evangelist. The whole experience given to the journalist at the time of press conference should make sure that he goes back saying, “Oh Man! That was something. This <new product> is really worth it.”

Start with the environment. The complete look-and-feel of the press conference venue is to be planned not for an interview with a CEO, but for selling the idea to a customer. It might sound a little confusing. Let me give an example. It is normal to expect a CEO’s meeting to be held in a conference room. However, if one wants to impress the journalist about a new type of shoe, the retail showroom might serve as a better venue. This example leads us to the next ‘must have’: in case of an innovative product, the journalist must be made to experience the product for himself. One can harp about the latest technology which gives the consumer 35 benefits over the existing product… but the impact of making him feel those benefits himself is beyond comparison.

Let’s talk about the write-up on the product, which actually serves as a mock article. Again, one option is to state bland facts, and hope that it comes out well. Alternatively, make the write-up keeping in mind that the aim of this news item is not bare information, but generating excitement. Further, knowing that the write-up serves as the mock article, the subtleties need to be taken care of, as that is what is going to affect the journalist at a subconscious level. The tone of the article, the choice of words etc need to be in line with the brand. I’ll again give an example from my internship. <example removed for confidentiality reasons>

As we see, the process becomes pretty straightforward once the objective has been defined as ‘selling the idea to the journalist’, rather than ‘giving him information about the idea’. If the CEO (or whoever is addressing the press) forgets for a moment about his designation, and puts himself in the shoes of a salesman, and gives the journalist the treatment reserved for a customer, the brand is more or less, home in terms of press relations.

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1The interaction can be of two types: a press conference, or a one-on-one. A press conference is one where a few journalists are addressed together in one place. We see this often in case of the sports teams’ press conferences. A one-on-one, as the name explains is a one-to-one interaction between a journalist and the company official. The selection of one of these two depends on the power equation between the two parties, the marketer and the agency that the journalist represents. For example- if an established hotel chain opens up a new hotel with some specialty features, it will probably address the regional newspapers in a press conference, but the national ones in a one-on-one.

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