Dick Grove
It’s Still the Story That Counts
12.05.11
I read a really good article recently by Jack Neff in AdAge, How Little Brands Land Big Bang for Their Buck, that is worth perusing for two solid points….a story with a strong narrative can build a brand…and this kind of strong narrative is usually easier for the small entrepreneurial start-ups than the corporate behemoths.
“The common thread through all these no-cost, low-cost marketing success stories is a good story, one that bears repeating and fares well both in social and PR-fueled traditional media. Almost by definition, such stories are easier for bootstrap entrepreneurs to come by than, say, 65-year-old detergent brands. Many of the brands, from Terracycle to Method, Seventh Generation, Honest Tea and Stonyfield Farms, all have taken on the air of social movement.”
Having made a career and built a PR business working with such “bootstrap entrepreneurs” (a couple mentioned here) I can vouch for both points of Neff’s thesis. The story is what counts…and the smaller and more flexible the company, the easier to find and tell it.
That’s my opinion…what’s yours?
Categories: Grove Report, pr marketing, pr news
Dick Grove
Giving Thanks…Ready or Not
11.24.11
There are a lot of things I don’t like about a lot of the holidays that we are forced to celebrate in this country…too much commercialism, of course, too little sincerity, and perhaps a tendency to forget what it is even we’re supposed to be celebrating…whose birthday, again?
But Thanksgiving is my one big exception. Short of it being a reminder that yet another year is too rapidly coming to a close, and that it seems to lately fall on times of really tough economic stress and political rancor, Thanksgiving is just a wonderful reminder of the really cool, good things in life…family above all, loyal friends a close second, the ability and capability to feel another sunrise and another sunset, to laugh, to cry, to touch emotionally and to be touched, to learn a new word or a new fact, and to make a positive difference…no matter how modest or late.
And I, indeed, am thankful yet again for each of these cool, good things…May your Thanksgiving be as blessed as mine.
Dick
Categories: Behind the scenes, Grove Report
Dick Grove
The Long Tale of PR
11.13.11
I hope we’d all agree that the most effective communications programs in today’s Internet dependent world are those that incorporate and fuse all the different elements and platforms available to the modern PR practitioner. In a recent interview of a top executive at Weber Shandwick this point was again well stated…
“Through the rapid rise of social media, Weber Shandwick has helped clients tell stories in multiple formats (text, graphics, photography, audio and video) and to insert those formats into multiple vehicles (blog posts, news releases, FAQs, slideshows, whitepapers, videos, rss feeds, emails, etc.) and to drive those vehicles into multiple destinations (Facebook, websites, blogs, Twitter, events, seminars, YouTube, Slideshare, Scribd, etc.). Obviously, not every story requires video or needs to be tweeted or otherwise splintered. But a lot of them can be brought to many more lives than in the past, when we lived in a media world of words and pictures to and from a handful of sources.”
I couldn’t agree more and woe be to that PR firm or client who ignores the possibilities and benefits of a completely integrated communications approach. Who, as my old coach used to say, “is stupid enough to go into tough game with half of your best players sitting on the bench?” Who indeed. But my concern is not with how a client’s story is conveyed and what formats and social media vehicles are put on the field to do so, which I believe we can all agree upon…but rather the content of the story itself. Too many times in this business, and more so now than ever, we fall in love with the shiny new vehicle and frankly forget that it still requires fuel. That fuel is the story itself. This WS executive points out that “that having a good story and telling it well are a big part of their job.” Is this new?
I am reminded again of how even the largest global PR firms continue to rediscover as if for the first time that which has been obvious to those of us who have labored for years in the non-traditional world of “pay-for-performance” PR. Typical of the behemoth PR firms, they’ve given this revelation a catchy corporate title, “Content Fusion.” Nice name and pretty succinctly covers the subject. But is this just another case of the large agency blowing its own horn by stating the obvious and driving up its own hourly fees with its own corporate speak? I hope not. The WS executive goes on to say, “– A company talking about itself must say something new, preferably fresh and not in a way that’s rote, bland, or inane.” That would indeed be revolutionary…not to the hard working PR types that get paid on actual results, but certainly to the media on the receiving end of all those previous “rote, bland or inane” press releases that this firm and others have been mass distributing for years.
Good story telling isn’t just a part of a PR pro’s job…it is the most important part, and has been since the first publicist reached out and tried to grab the media’s attention. There is nothing like a good tale to draw us into a story and make us want to continue to know more. The media…traditional, blog posts, video, online content distribution in various channels … is no different. They’re people just like the rest of us, and all love and respond to a good tale. An interesting and provoking beginning transitioning into a journey of discovery winding eventually to a satisfying ending…good or bad. Sound familiar? And all wrapped around something truly newsworthy and aimed at audiences eager to read, watch and become engaged. This may not be new, but it is smart.
That’s my opinion…what’s yours?
Categories: Grove Report, pr marketing, pr news, Social Media Marketing
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