Pitch the Media To Your Clients

 
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But shouldn’t it be the other way around, you say?  Not necessarily.  Bulldog Reporter’s Sally Falkow recently spoke with marketing guru Seth Godin, who said:

The main challenge for PR is that the Internet has made the model of pitching the media redundant. The best PR people are those who are counsellors to their clients, not publicity hounds. The way to win now is to represent the new media to your clients, not the other way round.

It’s true that when you really know a certain publication/writer that you can speak to your client with confidence about what will work best for both parties.  In essence, you are pitching the media outlet to your client.  Try that on for size!

Show PRNewser Some Holiday Love!

 
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It’s barely 9am ET and a quick traffic check shows that you folks are up early today. On a Friday, nonetheless.  Keep at it, early birds! 

While we’ve received a few notes about PR and media related holiday parties this week, we’re looking for more.  Send us a tip about your party.  Where/when is it? How’d it go? Open bar not ”open” enough? You can always email us: prnewser at mediabistro dot com, or send anonymous tips here.  Happy holidays!

Stand Up While You Pitch

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Sometimes we stand up while we’re on the phone or doing something in our cube. Maybe some folks in the office think we’re crazy, but it’s good for our health, and now we can prove it. Lifehacker reports:

A recent study at the University of Missouri-Columbia reaffirms that a sedentary life increases your risk of diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity, but the study suggests that even if you get in the recommended 30 minutes of activity 5 days a week, sitting for the remaining 15 and a half hours of the day is still trouble. The solution? According to the article, just standing up more frequently throughout the day to type or do chores can do wonders for your health and double your metabolic rate.

We think this will be especially valuable after Thanksgiving weekend. Get that metabolism going!

BlabberMouth PR Rebrands to Spite Itself

(This photo is not of BlabberMouth PR’s Patti Hill)

The “seriously fun” BlabberMouth PR agency launched CameronWeeks PR to address the needs of its more staid clients in IT, biotech, and economic development, according to a press release.

BlabberMouth polled an astonishing 10,000 executives on the question of its quirky name, and received a more astonishing 50% response. The results showed people in fields such as fashion, retail, gaming and advertising preferred the BlabberMouth name, while executives in other fields prefered something more classic. According to the poll:

• 55% of executives enjoyed the name
• 30% would work with BlabberMouth “in spite of its name”
• 15% “would avoid working with a professional services firm called BlabberMouth”

When we asked the top BlabberMouth, CEO Patti Hill how she got such a large response, she told us “The survey only had one question. I had many, many people email me personally saying they couldn’t walk away from the survey out curiosity what that *one* question might be.”

BlabberMouth used ConstantContact to conduct the survey, and amassed the database through six years of conferences, summits, and board positions.

A sampling of the emails Hill received are after the jump:

WIRED EIC to PRNewser: My tastes are arcane and geeky

Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of WIRED magazine, Long Tail blogger, and best-selling “Long Tail” author created a minor stir in the PR world yesterday when he published the email addresses of over 300 “lazy” PR people guilty of invading his In box. There are a lot of ‘info@’ and other newsletter-type address on the list along with dozens upon dozens of brand-name tech PR shops, some with multiple addresses.

Instead of adding to the flurry of opinions, we contacted the man himself who kindly responded with further context to help the shamed understand. He did after all, say ‘sorry’ in the subject line, and did not use full names and full pitches to in his spammers-delight list. By the way Todd, though we appreciate your honesty, we don’t think lobbing a generic pitch via Facebook ranks alongside the Edelman/Wal-Mart story.

We can’t go in to PR lessons here. Read Anderson’s note and take it to heart. There are real reasons to pitch him, and there are slews of other editors, writers and contributors you could try first. The commenter who complained about the staff directory is really missing it. The magazine has a masthead, and many of their contributors have personal blogs…nevermind, no lessons.

Since Anderson’s Gladwellian transition to Long Tail superpundit, he’s busier than ever. We were pleased he took the time send his comments to PRNewser (quick disclosure: I did PR for Wired in ’03-’04). We hope they help:

Jason, Happy to chat about this. Some thoughts for starters: Of course many pitches have “worked”, which is to say that I have a great relationship with many PR people, mostly because they’ve taken the time to get to know my interests, read what I write, and otherwise contact me with ideas that are relevant. The best of them do such a good job at working with me on things I’m following that I think of them as friends and colleagues.

Wired EIC Chris Anderson: Sorry PR people: you’re blocked

And we thought CNET’s CEO dropped a bomb. That statement is nothing compared to the firestorm Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson just unleashed. 

Sick of getting pummeled by spam, Anderson published a LONG list of PR people who will be permanently banned from his inbox.  The list includes both agency and internal folk.  Are you on it?  Check it out here. (Thanks for the tip, Kyle.)

Weber Shandwick to Rep UK Snowsports

Brits know how to ski? While soccer is the sport of choice our friends across the pond are also serious about their winter sports. And not only has Weber Shandwick begun to publicize Snowsport GB ‘s showing in the International Ski Federation World Cup and Europa Cup, they’re even having an effect on the team:

Mark Simmers, chief executive of Snowsport GB, the trading name of the British Ski and Snowboard Federation, said: “The opportunities Weber Shandwick can create for us, not to mention their enthusiasm, have given the team a boost – and can put them at the top of their game.”

Now if that ain’t a perfect quote for the latest round of the agency’s sales materials, we don’t know what is. However, after the postponement of several races last year because of high temperatures and little snow-pack, how long will the snow last in the Alps?

Maybeline Names Julia Stegner New Spokesperson

The German supermodel joins Christy Turlingon and the girls at Maybeline. And the best part, it looks like she lives in our hood! From the press release:

When she is not traveling the world for work or charitable involvements, Julia can be spotted playing basketball, her favorite sport, on the outdoor courts in New York, or riding her bicycle in her East Village neighborhood.

Ok, Julia. Lets see what kind of skills you got. Tompkins Square courts. Tomorrow. Noon.

Are Things Really That Bad In Denver?

Mile-high city, step up to the plate. From The Denver Egotist:

We admit our list of recommended PR firms and freelancers in the Denver-metro is looking pretty deflated. Alright, it’s flat dead. Got any suggestions for PR wizards we should let the rest of the city know about? Throw ‘em down below.

Here are some that we know about. Madison House (actually in nearby Boulder) is a large music agency representing artists such as Taj Mahal, Los Lobos and String Cheese Incident. Pushkin Public Relations counts YMCA of Metropolitan Denver and the Colorado BioScience Association as clients. Then there is JohnstonWells, who has something on their “Areas of Specialty” section called Cocktail Talk:

Cocktail Talk is a signature program of JohnstonWells that is designed to help members of an organization—whether they’re staff, board members or volunteers—be effective ambassadors for that organization.

We think most agencies call this media training or voice training. Or at least something better than Cocktail Talk. Are we being to harsh?

Dan Klores to continue ‘The War’

PR Week reported today that DKC will continue their work with Ken Burns and his insta-classic PBS series “The War” by working on regional events, with PBS affiliates, and by driving veterans and their families to upload oral histories to the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project using the PBS StoryShare web tool.

This is a huge PR buy for PBS, with Klores Managing Director Joe DePlasco leading the account with a staff of four (an SVP, VP, AS, and one other). It seems like relatively easy sledding for DePlasco, whose name is strewn all over articles about the plan for a Nets stadium in Brooklyn (DKC represents Forrest City Ratner developers). The only controversy over the Burns film was the drumbeat to include Latino and Native American subjects in the final cut, which added to the quality.

According to DePlasco’s note to PRNewser:

“We have a great team in place on this. Working with me are Dave Donovan, Cassin Donn, Brian Moriarty and Jared Seeger. We’ve had the benefit of two years for this campaign. We started screenings quietly over a year ago and since January or so we’ve done events–screenings, discussions, outreach–in over 50 markets. Dave, Cassin, Brian and Jared had the good fortune of traveling the country with events pretty much everywhere.

Oh, the publicity…In the last two weeks Ken was on Today, the Early Show, Letterman, Jon Stewart (last night), Bill Mahr (tonight), ABC This Week, etc. The press has been great.”

The work is a natural fit for DKC, whose namesake is a solid filmmaker in his own right.