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Slow burners

Many marketing organisations like to switch PR on and off, to coincide with short-term sales promotions. This makes it extremely difficult for PR people, who often achieve their best results when they are able to deliver a consistent message over a long period.

One of WHAM's greatest successes was the weekly 'Wool Market Preview' it initiated for the Wool Exporters Council. When the column was discontinued after 10 years, this was regarded by some national media as a news event in its own right. It would be hard to find a modest-budget PR campaign which did more to raise the profile and enhance the reputation of an organisation than this one.

The trick is to provide the media with expert or specialist information to which they would otherwise not have access.

For example:

  • A national recruitment agency might decide to regularly do a salary survey. Everyone in the workplace is interested in this sort of information, so news releases based on the survey data are likely to be well-received by the media.  On the other hand, a column offering tips to would-be employers and recruits would also appeal to many daily newspaper readers, but it might be difficult to get media 'buy-in' because competing companies would almost certainly demand equal space.
  • The NZ dollar is constantly in the headlines as it dives and climbs against the greenback. Yet none of the country's financial institutions is providing the media with dollar-watch commentary ... an opportunity going begging.