When PR is Good its good when its bad is bad…so how do we fix it?

Over the past few years in the region I have heard so many times why PR doesn't work and why so many CEOs have a bad taste in their mouth at the mere mention of public relations.

Truthfully, there are 1,000 reasons why PR doesn't work and there are also countless reasons why it does. I recent read a piece on the top 10 reasons why PR doesn’t work
The client doesn’t understand the publicity process
The scope of work is not detailed and agreed upon by both parties.
The client has not been properly trained on how to communicate with the media
The client thinks PR people have magic wands and coverage just appears
The client and the PR person or firm are not a good match.
The client has not gotten results quickly enough and ends the relationship too soon.
PR people don’t explain the kind of publicity placements a client will most likely receive.
Clients don’t realize that what happens after you get the publicity coverage is sometimes more important than the actual placement.
Clients get upset when the media coverage is not 100% accurate or not the kind of coverage that they wanted.
Clients won’t change their schedules for the media.

Well then, let's just hang up our hat trying to refine our client services or management brown-nosing, as we've finally figured out how to strip PR down to such a basic sense of parity, that if we could get these top 10 questions answered or figured out, that we could solve the industry-wide plague of bad PR. This really seems to make sense to those that subscribe to the belief that there's no such thing as bad PR. Nevertheless, PR is not a commodity - but bad PR is available anytime, anywhere.

A good friend and client of mine, seemed to capture it more accurately - at least for those of us in a world that demands we prove value and worth using metrics outside of whether or not we get along with people, trained our spokespersons well, or explained the publicity process so that executives could have something other than running a business to worry about.

Some PR agency’s don’t understand the product or brand
PR people are seen as spinners, blocker, or gatekeeper to access the CEO
The agency don’t know how to communicate with bloggers or social media.
The agency prefers doing a few big traditional media over lots of smaller online media & online channels.
The agency doesn't understand SEO, SEM, widgets, blogs, tags, social networks, pictures, video, or other online & viral methods
Most PR folks have no clue what the hell Web 2.0 is

Ask anyone what's wrong with PR and you'll unintentionally draft the manifesto of varying top 10 lists that will form as the foundation for revolution in the communications business. Call Guinness while you're at it. I'm sure we'll break some records.

Rather than highlight what's wrong with PR or why it doesn't work, let's talk about how to fix it. No matter what business you're in, there are a few things that can help you succeed in, manage, or measure PR. This list is a game changer and can serve as the foundation for improving PR and elevating its value among those who have been burned by previous experiences.

PR for PR People.

If you expect to represent anything, whether in an agency or in a company, spend a significant portion of your time figuring out why it matters to people - on your own time. This is the difference between PR and good PR.

Figure out who your customers are and where they go for their information.

Read the blogs, magazines, newspapers, forums, newsletters, etc., that reaches them and understands how to translate what you do in a way that matters to them. People within your target markets share experiences, pains, and wants that are unique to each group. By reading, you're participating. And by participating, you're better staged to engage more effectively than the rest of the flacks.

Don't speak in messages, spark conversations based on the unique requirements of each market segment and the people within them.

Traditional PR still matters, but also embrace social media. This is the future of PR, understanding how it works and what it takes to participate will ensure that you're experience is relevant to the communications needs of businesses over the next decade.

Attacking the "audience" with PR campaigns no longer works in new media. You have to engage with people through the diverse segments that represent your target market.

Once you understand what it takes to make the story more compelling to the varying markets and the influencers that reach them, then and only then, think about press releases. One press release doesn't carry across the entire spectrum of customers any longer. Figure out the core value proposition and then write several different flavors based on the needs and pains of your target customers and how you help them do something better, easier, more cost effectively, that they couldn't do today.

Set goals with the client team of the company you represent. Based on the previous points, you have to ensure that your activities align with their business strategy.

Communicate progress regularly, document milestones, and showcase successes. PR often suffers from a lack of "PR for the PR.


The Clients

Understand first, what PR is and isn't. All too often, businesses expect PR to perform miracles simply because they confuse it with advertising, online marketing, media buying, search marketing, etc. PR can't guarantee legitimate coverage in industry publications - no matter how tight the relationship

While I won't compare PR to each branch of marketing, I will say that PR IS NOT ADVERTISING. Reporters and bloggers don't stop what they're doing to write about your company, just because we send them a press release. They're bombarded by PR people all over the world. Stories are cultivated. If we respect them, do our homework, and help highlight the value of a story, coverage is imminent. If you want guaranteed exposure, buy an ad.

Don't under value PR. PR, when done right, is extremely valuable to company branding, which has immeasurable benefits in the long haul. Customers have choices and if you're not consistently vying for their attention, it's pretty easy to fall off their radar screen when they evaluate options.

PR is not a switch. It doesn't go off and on whenever you have the time or budget to throw at it. The market moves too quickly.

In most cases, coverage doesn't just happen. PR is like farming. The more seeds you plant, along with the time you spend watering, caring for, and feeding them, your crops will grow in the form of coverage over time. While some things such as news, etc., force information out quickly, other stories take time. And when they appear, they help raise brand visibility, drive some people to buy, and they also spark others to consider writing about it - which in turn also influences the cycle to replicate. Don't assume all of this coverage happens simply because you are a popular company.


Understand that PR is only an umbrella for the specific communications initiatives that will help you reach complementary, simultaneous goals. For example, corporate branding and product marketing require different campaigns.

No matter what industry you're in, realize that the most popular blogs, newspapers, or magazines are only one part of the process. This means that you have to embrace new media, it represents the early adopters and pragmatists.

Engage in social media. We live in a "social" economy and the only way to succeed in it, is to participate. Blog about industry-relevant topics, not just company accomplishments. It's not a new tool in the marketing belt. It is a new opportunity to engage customers and cultivate relationships.

Embrace online video and watch how creative, genuine, and cool content becomes incredibly viral. Words can carry the message so far, but video is also an opportunity to showcase the product while entertaining viewers. Podcast new updates, customer successes, ideas for new product uses, etc. Bookmark and share relevant links using the popular social tools available and don’t forget to cultivate user generated content.

Meet with your PR team regularly to communicate realistic goals and measure progress. Paint a real world picture of what success looks like each month and listen to the reports to see if they are indeed attainable. You get out of PR what you put into it.

Agree upon metrics in advance. All too often executives lose sight of what PR is designed to do. The right coverage is invaluable, even when it doesn't translate into visible hits, traffic spikes, or sales.

Realize that a proactive, intelligent and consistent PR program will contribute to the bottomline. It shouldn't be solely responsible for company success or failure.

Take our online Music Publishing and Copywrite Protection Survey

GCI MENA is conducting a survey on Music Publishing and Copywrite protection and we would love you to take a few minutes to answer our questions.

Thank you in advance from the GCI Dubai Team





Click here to take our Online Survey

Danny Higgin's Grey MENA's Chief Creative Officer is GCI guest this month and asks "what's it like to be Bill Gates"

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE BILL GATES?

Or Steve Jobs, Phil Knight, Coco Chanel, Colonel Saunders, Giorgio Armani or Larry Page and Sergey Brin?

Most of us in our business lives marry a culture much as we marry not just our spouses but also their families. Some of us go through several of these cultures in the course of a career. And each time we do so we live by and are judged by that particular culture’s rules and perspective and understanding of reality. Welcome to the corporate life.

But what’s it like to be completely entrepreneurial in spirit, action, work and life?

Like Bill.

Unlike Bill most people in a corporation move to the cultural drum beat set by the long gone founder of the corporation and preserved by the modern guardians of that corporate culture, who, much like religious police, keep a watch on people’s behaviour and how they observe that corporation’s customs and codes.

But in a globalising world where innovative new technologies and companies are springing up from Lebanon to Laos, Korea to Kuala Lumpur this cultural conservatism is exactly the type of behaviour likely to bring a corporation to it’s knees.

‘WE DON’T DO THINGS THAT WAY AROUND HERE.’

‘Why not?”

‘BECAUSE IT’S JUST NOT US.’

‘Why not?’

BECAUSE IT’S NOT HOW WE SEE THINGS.’

‘Why not?’

‘BECAUSE IT WOULDN’T SUIT US.’

‘Why not?’

Which involves a mind-shift away from the ‘ this is the way things are done around here’.

A recent example is Sony Corporation, of course. Internally somewhere along the way Sony started acting like an old corporation. Full of notoriously autonomous divisions fighting internally (which always takes the focus off the real battle). And look what happened: Apple snuck up and completely broadsided them with the introduction of the iPod in the portable music player category, a category that Sony essentially invented. But Sony was still slow to react and took ages to roll out sleek Walkman models to challenge the iPod. By which time that horse had well and truly bolted. And that is only part of Sony’s problems now. Low-cost rivals in China and South Korea are quickly climbing up the technology ladder, creating brands as they go. How does a once dynamic company like Sony suffer such a fall from grace?

It happened to IBM of course. But they made a good show of becoming more dynamic in the early 90s. After years of losing the game to smaller more nimble players, IBM finally got it’s act together and refocused and restructured internally and started to compete with the upstarts and reclaim it’s leadership position. This internal focus was, as it often is, reflected in a more concise and focused communications platform, in this case manifested in the big leadership thought of ‘Solutions for a Small Planet’. Since then IBM has lost momentum again suggesting that its internal conservatism had not been sufficiently eroded and it slipped back into an Old World corporation. But let’s see what the Chinese can do with the computer division.

So how to grow cultures that remain vibrant and innovative and fresh and exciting as they were in the early, hectic, uncertain days of their lives?

Apple managed it. Although even they had their problems in the 80s and early nineties when founder Steve Jobs had left. Apple was pretty much on the operating table at the end of the eighties with a prognosis of 50/50. Jobs came back and bought his driving, striving entrepreneurialistic spirit with him and revitalised the company.

How? The secret as both Gates and Jobs know well is to nurture cultures of intrapreneurs.

In fact we may well be entering the age of the ‘intrapreneurials’ and ‘intrapreneurialism’. For those of you not familiar with the term, it is the notion that corporations should employ the type of individuals who would act like entrepreneurs within a large corporation.

Intrapreneurialism is what helps such large companies as Apple continue to innovate and respond to market conditions as if they were start-ups.

Likewise Microsoft. In truth Microsoft is a slightly different example since they have so much muscle they can buy entrepreneurs and switch them into intrepreneurs.

As time passes I think there will be one company who will be seen as the granddaddy of progressive corporations. 3M. Started around 1903 as a mining business its founders decided to create an entrepreneurial culture to develop ideas. And as 3M grew it moved to an intrapreneurial model. Harry Heltzer who died a few years ago at aged 94 was the embodiment of the 3M culture. Originally employed as a manual laborer he went on to invent one of the company’s most profitable products – reflective signs for motorways – and became one of 3M’s top executives encouraging and passing on the spirit of intraprenerialism. Anyone can have a great idea at 3M and move the corporation forward. And importantly gain from that.

And one of the new kids on the block who are almost a direct cultural descendent of this culture is Google. In February this year the magazine Fast Company highlighted the top 50 smart companies and Google was, not unsurprisingly, at number one. And then Fast Company went on to look at just how Google was so successful. And without mentioning the concept of intrapreneurialism it was evident that this is at the core of Google. A culture, which creates individual freedom hand in hand with accountable responsibility.

It’s competitive out there and worse everyday. The need to continually assess the way we do things as corporations has never been more important.

Because the future isn’t certain since it doesn’t exist. It needs to be created.

Just ask Bill.

Can Social Media be a great PR Tool….hell yes!

The world is collapsing in terms of distance, its changing how we're working together, building brands, how we're communicating with each other and learning about each other.

If you don't already use social media to talk to your customers, you’re already behind the power curve; Your customers' online conversations increasingly control your brand, so you had better join in the conversation yourself.

Like others, I define social media as a conversation between authors and fact-finders and their audience. Unlike common media, newspapers, television and radio, social media brings others into the story. It has given a stronger voice to the public, empowering individuals to promote and discuss ideas among others while leaving a personal imprint on history. When former Sen. John Edwards threw his hat into the ring as a candidate in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, he was flying in a private jet high above the nation he hopes to lead. From his airplane, he watched his announcement on the popular video web site YouTube, which was playing his recorded address over the Internet.

On one side of the presidential candidate sat a photographer from Flickr, who was uploading photos to the online photo-sharing web site. Nearby sat a videographer recording scenes to be uploaded to YouTube. A blogger was reading real-time responses about his announcement and a few members of the print media were also there.

Among them all sat Robert Scoble, one of the most popular bloggers ever to enter a journal on the Internet. Aside from the print media reporters, all of those seated with Edwards were part of a revolution known as Social Media.

I’ve had several recent conversations with clients wishing to build their businesses and brands, encouraging them to sign up for and engage in social networking tools, such as LinkedIn and Facebook.

This is the time of year when the phone rings more than ever with clients making New Year’s resolutions; they want to be more proactive outside of just press releases and events. I tell them lets go and develop a social media strategy and plan – most of them laugh nervously down the phone.

But studies show social media is now growing at an alarming speed and can be a great marketing and PR tool, for both agency and client alike. In the past few months I have used Facebook to connect with a local broadcast journalist as a friend and pitched a media opportunity that came to fruition last week and found a panelist for a roundtable workshop through a blogger and Facebook friend.

The use of online tools to build communities and develop relationships with people who may be friends, customers, business partners, clients and colleagues is an important part of the way many people live and do business today. The use of social networks can be very powerful and as a result I’ve connected with dozens of new people interested in doing business, but also interested in joining our company.

I’ve already been testing Facebook Flyers and found it a great way to target specific groups by sending a specific message to a specific type or community of people at a specific time.

Flyers and the like effectively allow for individuals (not just media companies or organizations) to promote their cause. This I think will be the next new phenomenon. Think about it! if I care about green something or other, rather than just give money to a charitable cause and hope they do something - I take out ads on facebook / myspace for like minded folks and drive them to action. It’s real grass roots initiatives like these, that will make change.

I recently went to an event in London which was an important reminder that social networking includes getting out and being part of the community in person, not just online! It was great fun to meet people and some really impressive entrepreneurs, to have exciting conversations with marketers about what social media strategies they can apply to help build their brands.

To understand the power of social media offerings levied by open source Internet communication, you can look to the very top, or right down at your own keyboard for a start.

That’s why I believe that social networking communities are increasingly pivotal in how brand reputation is shaped and how companies manage change. As the public relations industry evolves, social network engagement will enhance our work in change management, brand marketing and corporate reputations.

Public Relations Measurement … It's All About Being "SMART"

Ever since the dawn of public relations, PR practitioners have worked hard to identify a link between PR and ROI (return on investment). Professional communicators have been using PR to deliver their messages for decades, and eventually, those professionals are scientifically proving how to generate ROI from their PR activities by linking them with sales revenues. ROI objectively measures the economic benefits of public relations against its associated costs and relative to other forms of marketing. As time passes on, PR consistently outruns other forms of marketing and at a fraction of the cost.

Accountability is the key issue facing the PR industry today. The ability to prove value and ROI may be the crucial issue on getting approval on a budget or not. Given the variety of possible public relations objectives,

ROI is not always about linking PR investments directly to sales generated. For example, if the PR objective is to generate web traffic, then Cost per Click-through may be the best metric. If the objective is to change perceptions, then Cost per % Point of Change may be measured and calculated. Likewise, if the PR objective is to stimulate product trial, Cost per Trial User may be the most meaningful metric.

As the above intro implies, the days of counting press clippings are over, and no longer can PR practitioners rely on press clippings to prove whether or not they have achieved the objectives of their PR campaign. Business executives are more concerned with changing attitudes and behaviors, which are reflected on sales and revenues, website hits, or any other measurable tool rather than compiling press clippings.

The question that arises is: "How would PR contribute to a business?"…

In order to answer this question, a PR program must include clear, pre-defined, and measurable objectives. Yet before the goal-setting phase, PR practitioners must identify the type of results to be achieved through a PR campaign or program.

All businesses need to set objectives for themselves or for the products or services they are launching. What does your company, product or service hope to achieve?

Setting objectives are important, as it focuses the company on specific aims over a period of time and can motivate staff to meet the objectives set. As there is now true ROI measurement, this added with other matrices can really help clients to get a clear understating of the impact of their PR campaigns.

A simple acronym used to set objectives is called SMART objectives, or what we call the "GCI Method". SMART stands for:

Specific – Objectives should specify what they want to achieve.

Measurable – You should be able to measure whether you are meeting the objectives or not.
Achievable - Are the objectives you set, achievable and attainable?
Realistic – Can you realistically achieve the objectives with the resources you have?
Time – When do you want to achieve the set objectives?

Today, it is imperative to measure the ROI of PR by linking public relations impacts to business results… only by clearly being SMART.

Are there really any new ways to engage a target audience in the Middle East – GCI Dubai seem to think so!

We are in the midst of an economic boom in the region with Public Relations coming into its own. Clients have a much better understanding of what PR, public affairs and investor relations can do for their business and see the value of results driven communications. Now the time is right to embrace PR, CRM, and Event Management – but can they all work hand in hand in the Middle East? – Well, we think it’s a really good combination as all disciplines cross each other’s paths regularly. Executed correctly the mix builds a deeply personal relationship between a brand and a consumer, and treats that consumer as an individual.

One of the major ways companies in not only Dubai but in the Middle East can differentiate themselves from their competitors is to provide a unique experience. Not as easy as it sounds in the region, as there is a lot to take into consideration when planning a marketing campaign. This unique experience is the aggregation of all those moments of truth the customer goes through interacting with the brand and the image it portrays to the world, we call it embracing the Hand in Hand approach – a communication tool developed by GCI, which enables the clients to produce a cohesive message whenever their customers engage with the brand. To make this experience really work you need to be innovative and the implementation needs to be doable. Campaigns the western world takes for granted need a lot of thought, foresight and planning to produce truly measurable results here in the region. Sometimes even the best ad campaigns can’t cut through the noise of the competition, unlike Hand in Hand, which is not only capable of specifically targeting an audience, but also engaging consumers.

For their part, clients must be willing to learn more from agencies and they must reorganise themselves around what they learn. A great PR agency isn’t hired just for campaigns. It can help clients develop deep customer insights, as the Middle Eastern consumer is becoming more and more sophisticated. The clients who have used the tool we have developed have ‘stolen a march’ on the competition and their customers have remained loyal to their brands, products and services.

At GCI we have recognised a trend and have invested heavily, ensuring we offer only the most advanced PR, CRM, and Event Management solutions. In short, this drive for market and branding strategies – in a new economy with new metrics – is creating a shift in expectations. The slick ad is less important than customer insight and brand experience and we think that successful ad agencies will continue to build their relationships by constantly proving they provide customer insight.

At no time in the past have customers been so smart, gotten information from so many new sources, and been so cynical about the media. This means that a PR agency, and certainly ones at the level of GCI with consultative, technical and integration skills, will rise on their ability to help clients understand their customers and help them reach their business and communications objectives.

Online conversations—are you engaged and can you survive an online crisis?

Quite simply, Yes. Are you geared up to handle a crisis unfolding online? We take a methodical approach of listening to online conversations (e.g. blogs, forums, newsgroups, social networks, etc.) to understand what’s being said about brands and products to make an informed response. We are ready to participate in the conversation, amplify the positive, correct misinformation and address issues, are you? We cannot afford to sit back as a crisis unfolds. There’s a digital explosion in the region and unless digital media is embraced and online conversations monitored at best you’ll be left behind, at worst gain a damaged brand/reputation and decreasing sales.

Before the Internet, companies had the relative luxury of managing crises in 24-hour news cycles. Today, crises escalate instantaneously as hundreds of thousands of posts on blogs, within forums, social networks, newsgroups and wikis are created every half second.

We call this phenomenon the “half-second news cycle.” Traditional crisis management approaches, developed prior to digital media, must be adapted to manage crises effectively. The days when stories took hours to print are over. Today, news is published as it occurs. Bad news persists punishing companies slow to react. Living in a “half-second news cycle” offers both tremendous risks and unlimited opportunities for communications professionals. To avoid risks and leverage rewards, we must be prepared to engage a new set of rules.

A number of crisis situations initially escalated online include the well documented Kryptonite Lock crisis. In 2004, Benjamin Running had brand new bike wheels stolen and set out to figure out why. He discovered he could open his “break proof” Kryptonite Lock with a plastic pen and posted his findings in a major bike forum. When Kryptonite’s call center was not responsive, Mr. Running posted video proof online. As a result, the smart mob spread the news rapidly and eventually it ended up in mainstream media. Twenty days later Kryptonite announced a recall and replacement program and a loss of $10 million. Funnily enough now Kryptonite monitors online conversations and has relationships with digital influencers.

Companies must understand online conversations happen around their brand and be able to respond rapidly and transparently via the same digital media channels through which news is spread by smart mobs. Smart mobs are groups of people organized by communications and technology who co-operate in order to achieve a common goal, such as attacking a corporation on an issue important to them. Communications professionals need to develop strategies and tactics to respond early. Business issues and corporate crises can and do escalate instantaneously online and the impact on reputations can last indefinitely. Why? Because we live in a digital world and need to wake up to it or face the consequences. The Internet and digital media have dramatically compressed the time companies have to respond. With the diversity of communications channels, PR teams must confront the increased complexities of protecting their clients.

But how? Here are some new rules to manage crisis situations starting with 24/7 monitoring of digital media—continually monitoring online discussions of their company. You can run, but you can’t hide—ignoring a crisis undermines the company, the smart mob can quickly organize global boycotts and protests. Transparent CEOs—Bloggers and other online communicators tend to post their thoughts based on what they know and believe. They value straight forward, honest information and abhor “corporate speak” and PR double talk. Share the facts as they are gathered—It’s no longer an option to wait and gather all of the facts, the online community won’t wait to interpret the facts and can quickly determine how the story plays out in mainstream media. Break glass and blog— Often the most effective strategy is for a company to share its point of view through its own blog. Embrace the Smart Mob—left to their own devices, bloggers and online influencers will create and prolong conversations you don’t want them to be having. Post, post, post—Once a company decides to enter the online conversation, it must commit to making regular contributions. Nothing draws the ire of fellow bloggers more than a blog that includes outdated and irrelevant information. Clean up search results—The Internet represents a permanent repository for crisis information. We must ensure information includes key messages about the issue.

Your customers are online, be where they are. Your customers are talking about you, listen to them. 84 million blogs and counting. Expressing an opinion is as easy as creating a MySpace account. Customers want candor, transparency and straight talk. Your online reputation impacts sales and media coverage, learn to proactively manage the conversation. News cycles can start from anywhere, a single blog post can have as much power as a print news story. Consumers are now publishers and content providers influencing purchase decisions.

Now ask yourself can you really afford not to engage?