PR Insight: Pitch Power: Crafting the Pitch for Real News

(Dit is een kopie van een helaas verdwenen artikel van Internet Day)

By Peter Fuller

Editor's Note: This is the third article in a series. If you need to catch up,
Part I: http://www.internetprguide.com/pr_insight/article/0,3029,10123_940801,00.html
Part II: http://www.internetprguide.com/pr_insight/article/0,3029,10123_949181,00.html

Review

This is going to be fun - seriously.

In the last two articles we covered what the pitch is and the various audiences that need to be considered when writing one. This time, we roll up our sleeves, dig deep into the soil of writing and build the pitch.

Assessment

What have you got?

Is it a product launch, company launch, new CEO or other bit of news? Or are you being pressured to get ink and "maintain momentum" during a news vacuum. Unfortunately, most PR people report into the VP of marketing or the Senior VP of marketing. These marketing-only gurus are hard-core numbers people who analyze data and see the world through spreadsheet-colored glasses. They have little understanding of news cycles and how tough it is to get ink when the company has news, never mind when it doesn't. Much to my own chagrin, I've heard the words "maintain momentum" all too many times from the lips of people who just don't get it.

For example, just two weeks after my firm had finished a whirlwind press tour, which resulted in a 90 percent hit rate (90 percent of the reporters we met wrote about us) for one of our clients, the client's competition started getting ink. The client, who worked for a VP of marketing said their boss was concerned that we had "lost momentum" and wanted an immediate plan to reinvigorate the media relations efforts. The impetus for the "ink" the competitor received came from a press release announcing the 1 millionth unit shipment of their product. The journalists had just covered us two weeks prior and had spent face time with us a week before that. Now the competition had released news and, naturally, that was being covered. It's not that hard to understand, but it is very common for spreadsheet gurus to think all reporters work for them and feel betrayed when a reporter "switches sides."

To make things easy, we'll cover both scenarios. The first one, dubbed the "Real" News pitch is covered here. The second will be covered in the fourth column.

"Real" News Pitch

For this example, we'll launch WidgetWonder, a brand new product from Generic, Inc. The product is Generics' first foray into the Widget business. It has steep competition from WidgetWonk III, a product that's been on the market for two years, has sold 1.2 million units, undergone three substantial improvements since its introduction and has 80 percent market share. At stake is a $2 billion market.

Step 1: Review Your Assets

First, be positive. It's not easy being the underdog, but being No. 1 is even harder. WidgetWonder is a new product playing in a lucrative, proven market with a monopolistic competitor and an established press corps. WidgetWonks I, II and III have done your work for you by creating the market and all the goodies that go along, like assigned beat reporters. WidgetWonder's mere existence makes it part of WidgetWonk's story.

Step 2: Be Realistic

What irks me more than anything else is when small companies want to act big by refusing to acknowledge the competition or adopt an aggressive messaging platform. When you're David going up against Goliath, the best weapons you can wield are Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (better known as FUD). If you don't have the stomach for it, then donate your PR budget to charity; otherwise you're just flushing your money down the proverbial drain.

In the case of Widget Wonder there:

  1. there is no name recognition
  2. there is no market share
  3. there aren't any customers
  4. there are probably only a few distributors in place.

Step 3: Acknowledge Your Story

That's right, acknowledge that the only story you have and the best avenue for coverage is to launch a FUD campaign against WidgetWonk. To get the ink, you'll have to put your competitor in the headline and bury your own product in the body copy.

I crafted a release for one company that said: "New Product Enables Drag-and-Drop Web Publishing without HTML, Java or XML." Using the product name in the headline would have diminished its chances for coverage because the product name had no real value to the story at this point. By not placing it in the headline, we effectively peaked curiosity and lead people to read the release.

One caveat of caution here is to make sure that FUD claims against a product or company are backed with fact. A FUD based on deceit will kill your story and seriously wound your reputation. Third-party verification, if it can be had, is the best weapon in your arsenal.

Step 4: Plan Ahead

To get third-party verification, advanced planning is necessary. Typically, companies have beta releases of products or "review" copies available for members of the press in advance of the product release. Before those are ready for release, however, analysts can take a first look at concepts, market data, and feature sets and then provide feedback that can be used in press releases or as part of a review kit.

When possible, we recommend a three-phase product launch depending on the amount of time between the "release to manufacturing" date and the "product ship" date. Typically, the span between the two is no longer than six months.

Six Months Before Launch: Meet with analysts either before the release to manufacturing or sometime around that timeframe. Make sure you have a prototype, Flash or video demo of how the product works and what it will look like. If the feedback is positive, secure permission to use them as references when speaking with journalists. Some will allow it; others may be prohibited by company policy or may ask that you become a paying client.

Three months: Research long lead-time publications, such as monthlies, and begin securing meetings with their writers and editors. Let them know the information is under "embargo" and meant for inclusion in the issue that meets with your release timing. Bring a draft press release, prototype market research and analyst quotes with you.

By this time, a beta product may be available for beta customers. Pick the companies most strategic to your story. The bigger the company, the greater chances of coverage if the beta test is successful.

Please Note: Make sure you - the PR person - reviews the beta product contract to ensure that it stipulates that the company testing the product agrees to be used as a public reference in press releases, published case studies and as a resource for journalists to call if the test is successful. It seems like a small thing, but many companies, especially smaller ones, send such contracts to their attorney to craft or review. Attorneys, by nature, aren't PR savvy. Several times, I've had the misfortune to work with a beta customer that had a successful beta test, but refused to talk about it in the press citing "competitive" reasons. In other words, they liked the product so much it was considered a competitive advantage. Without a good beta contract in hand, there isn't anything that can make them talk.

Craft the final press release (discussed next) and conduct a press tour two weeks prior to the product's launch. By then, you'll have the product, press release and a beta case study in hand.

Step 5: Craft the Release

In Widget Wonder's case, a good press release headline might be: "New Product Goes Head to Head with WidgetWonk III, Offers Advanced Features for Less." Based on the points already mentioned, this headline clearly states the market, latches on to WidgetWonk's established press corps, and begins to lay the foundation for an aggressive FUD campaign by directly attacking WidgetWonk's price and feature set.

In the body will be the quote from the analyst, a paragraph briefly mentioning the beta test with the largest, most widely recognized company you could rally (hint: if the company is publicly traded, referencing its ticker symbol will get the release distributed to investors and reporters who subscribe to that company's information), and the typical quotes from company leadership about providing consumers with a choice and plans to eventually eat WidgetWonk's lunch.

Here's a sample release:

New Product Goes Head to Head with WidgetWidgetWonk III, Offers Advanced Features for Less

For the first time in its six-year history, the WidgetWonk product line is finally getting some competition. And it's from an unlikely source-Generic, Inc. The Seattle-based manufacturer of bicycles has announced today that is introducing WidgetWonder, a product that is feature rich, but much less expensive than WidgetWonk III.

"WidgetWonder has twice as many features as WidgetWonk III and is competitively priced to aggressively take market share," said Sally Jones, analyst with AnalystFirm, Inc. "We expect the early adopters to take a serious look at WidgetWonder and for the product to have 10 percent market share within 18 months."

WidgetWonder does X, Y, and Z, as does Widget Wonk III, but adds three more features-A, B and C. Priced at $39.95, it will debut $15 less than WidgetWonk III.

"We've been using WidgetWonder for two months now with amazing success," said Carrie Jones, executive vice president for General Fortors (NYSE: GFI). "It has increased productivity within our core test group by 34 percent. As a result, we've decided to give one to each of our 10,000 employees."

WidgetWonder will be available in stores on March 1. Pre-orders are available through its web site at www.ww.com.

"We like the WidgetWonk product, but knew we could do better-much better,' said Margaret Generic, CEO of Generic, Inc. "We're proud that our engineering team developed a better product that can be manufactured at a reduced cost, thereby offering consumers the quality they deserve, but have been without."

Wrap-up

Although we used a product launch as an example for crafting a "real" news release, the strategy is extensible to any other piece of news you may have. First and foremost, be realistic when assessing the your news. Consider your audience (discussed in the first two columns) and the related news cycles. Then follow the steps above to craft news that will be covered.

Next, we'll cover how to keep "momentum" in the absense of real news.

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