About six months ago, a graphic designer friend came to me with a new client opportunity. His client was an author and coach who had been in business a couple of years but really wanted to take it up a notch. I was intrigued, but after meeting with him, decided not to take on the account. The primary reason? Unrealistic expectations.
As anyone in the PR business can tell you, the number one reason businesses first think of using public relations as a promotional tool is "it's cheaper than advertising". While it may be true in one sense, in that you aren't paying for editorial space, an effective public relations program still requires investment.
So what kind of investment are we talking about? Well, let's just take this book author I mentioned. He said he had spent about $15,000 with a PR firm out of New York to promote his book and for that, he was able to land speaking slots on regional radio shows all across the country. Hmmm....not bad, I thought! But he was not satisfied. His program was so phenomenal, he said, that he should be able to get on the Oprah Winfrey show, something the New York PR firm had not been able to do in their three months on contract with him.
Although this potential client is the only person I have ever discussed Oprah with (after all, most of my B2B clients are far more interested in being featured in their industry trade journals than on a national talk show with a predominantly female consumer audience), my ears perked up last week when CNBC announced they would be hosting a special called "The Oprah Effect" in which they would highlight companies featured on Oprah and how they got there. Just about everyone knows that products endorsed by the talk show superstar end up with phenomenal sales (not to mention overall brand recognition), but what is the secret to getting on the show?
It really comes down to a core business value: investment. The companies featured on Oprah haven't just magically appeared there. A consultant featured on The Oprah Effect charges $500 per hour to advise clients on what to do to get on the show and grooms them on how to look good if they land a spot. But even she says "there are no guarantees". Several companies had been in business for quite some time and it wasn't until they generated a celebrity client base that they were noticed by Oprah. One company's PR person pitched the Oprah show for seven years - sending them huge boxes of product samples each time - before they finally were able to land a spot. And once they got on the show, they felt obliged to spend another $15,000 on 400+ samples for the staff and studio audience. The result? Over $1 million in sales in the following 30 days.
The folks who have had great success with public relations know that it involves more than just issuing a few press releases here and there. It takes time to build relationships and product familiarity with editors and show producers. It requires investment into packaging of media materials - including free products - to capture a journalist's attention. And it requires strategy and creativity to put together long-term campaigns that will work.
What value do you put on your PR programs? Are you investing what it takes to reap the greatest reward from them?
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
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