Mia Fileman 0:05
This is Got Marketing? – a podcast with ideas, strategies, and tactics to help small businesses create smarter marketing. I’m Mia Fileman, a professional marketer, and the founder of Campaign del Mar. In this show, I chat with creatives and strategists about the different aspects of marketing, but without the fluff. Let’s dive in!
Hello, friends!
Campaigns are no small undertaking and often represent the biggest concentrated investment in your marketing, so it’s important they work and are well received. Brands hit the jackpot when their campaigns manage to generate a ton of free media.
In today’s episode, we are going to look at some examples of campaigns that generated free media and share how smaller brands compare their campaigns. Joining me today is my PR mentor and publicist, Odette Barry.
Odette is a digital marketing and public relations specialist based in Byron Bay. Odette teaches small business owners how to uncover their stories and be seen in all the right places through her nine-week “Hack Your Own PR” program. She has trained hundreds of small business owners, including me – teaching us the power of publicity to scale our businesses.
Hi matey! How are you?
Odette Barry 1:27
Pretty good! That’s a really lovely intro that you’ve nailed there.
Mia Fileman 1:31
Which I pulled straight off your website.
Odette Barry 1:35
Well, feeling very honoured to be here. Thank you so much for having me!
Mia Fileman 1:40
Thank you for joining me.
Free media at any time is, of course, very welcome, but free media during your campaign is better. Campaign periods are when brands experience their biggest sales uplifts and free media makes those peaks even higher.
Campaigns are usually when brands are splashing out for paid media, but it’s when you combine earned, owned, and paid that there is a multiplier effect. Generating free media off the back of a marketing campaign is therefore desirable, but campaigns mostly tend to fly under the radar, and some generate a ton of free media, but not the kind that you would want.
What I really want to know from you first up is – is there such a thing as bad PR?
Odette Barry 2:31
Absolutely. There is, yes.
I think that it’s somewhat of an old wives’ tale in the PR landscape that all PR is good PR, but given PR is the work of winning hearts and minds of people, I really do think that that’s an incredibly irresponsible approach to just go with all PR is good PR because we know that negative press has long-lasting effects on our brands and on our bottom line. I think that old mantra is very much not relevant today.
Mia Fileman 3:18
Yeah, and all the press recently around, say, Harvey Norman and their dealing of the jobkeeper or the jobseeker – not entirely sure – and then how they were just rude to their customers on Twitter and then did the most grownup thing they could possibly do which is to shut down the Twitter account, I think has definitely had a negative effect on their brand value to the point where several people – myself included – have now vowed that we will never shop at Harvey Norman again.
Odette Barry 3:52
Totally. I’m also part of that camp. It’s really interesting how little people think of their customers and how people will feel and what impact that could have. We’re in an era where people have really woken up to shitty behaviour and they’re not going to stand for brands that don’t put their values forward in everything that they do. We’re used to corporate entities behaving badly, but when it’s so apparent and shoved in our faces, people will vote with their money. They will make it really easy to look elsewhere.
We live in an environment where we are exposed to so much choice that we don’t have to put up with the bad behaviour of brands out there.
Mia Fileman 4:43
Absolutely spot on.
In a minute, we’re going to discuss campaigns that generated free media, but what are some of the typical reasons that campaigns go on to generate that media attention versus the ones that don’t?
Odette Barry 4:58
Well, I guess this comes down to what we talk about when we talk about PR in general – campaign or business or someone that’s just trying to achieve coverage anyway. There’s a couple of key things that we always talk about in the recipe for a winning media story.
Generally, timeliness is a really big part of the conversation. A lot of the campaigns that do really well have a relevance to what’s going on in society right now. It might be seasonal. It might be pandemic related. It might be an emerging trend in health consciousness or around a social movement. Campaigns that have that took of timeliness is definitely something that really gets things across the line.
Often, when we’re pitching, particularly for TV – and campaigns tend to have a lot of airtime in the visual realm – it’s really trying to pull on the heartstrings. Things that are emotive, that make us feel something, genuinely make us shed a tear.
I beg to say that absolutely nobody watched that Qantas Fly Away ad and didn’t shed a tear. Even when I watched it back preparing for this interview, I was like, “God, damn it! Another little tear rolled down my cheek!” But making people feel moved is really what gets campaigns across the line.
And then, doing something that’s wildly out of the box. Obviously, this is something we love to do with all PR, but it’s not always relevant. When we have campaigns, we have that opportunity to really think big, think wild, and do things that are a little bit unusual – running through the preparations while looking at the “Bring Chris to Cowra” – great out-of-the-box thinking and building a big Chris Hemsworth, of course, has both the coupling of a beautiful emotive story, out-of-the-box idea of something extremely large, and it’s also got the celebrity affinity.
The celebrity affinity is one of the other things that really gets campaigns across the line.
Mia Fileman 7:22
Yes, I completely agree with all of that.
A bit of controversy never goes astray. Speaking to cultural societal or political issues such as the #metoo movement. That celebrity or influencer piece always tends to get a bit of airtime.
Look, I think Qantas – no matter what their campaign was – would have made the media just because they’re a mega brand. However, the recent campaign – what was it called?
Odette Barry 7:58
Fly Away.
Mia Fileman 7:58
Fly Away. That was so perfectly timed. It really read the room.
I think the other thing that often secures great media coverage for brands is when two brands collaborate. You know, if the star power of one of them on their own isn’t enough, when they come together, that’s often enough to get it over the line.
A recent example is that Lady Gaga collaborated with Oreo – the sandwich cookie – which was very out of the box to your point. It’s that really creative, non-obvious collaboration that the media were very, very happy to write about.
Odette Barry 8:43
A similar collaboration that comes to mind is that KFC and Crocs collab. So absurd. So gross. But they also had celebrity influencers like Flex Mami who was very current and trending at the time. That was the kind of thing that was all over all of the lifestyle media channels.
Mia Fileman 9:07
I don’t get it.
Odette Barry 9:09
Yeah, you don’t have to. I think we’re outside of the target audience.
Mia Fileman 9:13
Yes, I don’t eat KFC, and I would never be caught dead in Crocs.
Odette Barry 9:19
Slightly terrified to say that my 14-year-old son just received Crocs for his birthday from his friends on the weekend. It made me feel very old.
Mia Fileman 9:28
Yes, totally.
Let’s have a look at some recent campaigns that went on to generate a ton of earned media. I think the most notable example has to be Ocean Spray and the TikTok star Nathan Apodaca who created a viral TikTok video. He was on his skateboard, and he was drinking a bottle of Ocean Spray cranberry juice, and the music was Dreams from Fleetwood Mac. I’m sure all of the listeners have seen this. This video went viral, but actually, the media coverage around it was so impressive. Wouldn’t you agree?
Odette Barry 10:16
Totally. I think one of the things that I really enjoyed about this one was, obviously, the celebrity response was delicious and just seeing how many people re-enact it. That’s the beauty of duets on TikTok. That’s that technology that allows that space for things. It’s built for things to go viral.
But looking at that as a campaign across media, obviously, I mean, the jury is out on whether that was intentional. I know we’ve talked about it at large. Your response is definitely that, if that was a brand-led campaign, they would have absolutely butchered it before it got to TikTok.
Mia Fileman 10:57
Exactly.
Odette Barry 10:59
This is going to sound like a really poor description, but let me try and say this out loud, and then we can dissect it. I feel like the video itself that’s the thing, but then there’s the stories that sit side-to-side of the thing.
You know, the beautiful thing with viral media campaigns is that you get the story about the thing, the story about the things that sit side-to-side of that, and that might be the impact of what the campaign was, the humans behind the story, and then there’s again the response to the humans and the impact. We’ll unpack that, but there’s obviously the stories about Nathan himself – like, the fact that his car broke down and then he was gifted a truck by the cranberry juice. Sorry, it’s totally gone out of my brain.
Mia Fileman 11:57
Ocean Spray.
Odette Barry 11:59
But then, there’s all of the stories about Fleetwood Mac and then how much that TikTok video has increased the Spotify downloads. If you look in the news search for TikTok Ocean Spray video, there are stories about it that have been published within the last week. It’s still being talked about because of this incredible viral impact.
I always think that great campaigns and great viral things don’t get fixated and obsessed on the message and the campaign itself being spoken about, but they’re happy to bridge out beyond the thing itself to explore where the conversation goes naturally because it’s a natural conversation that people are fascinated with. Anything that is cooked in a marketer’s oven is going to have limited bandwidth in how viral it can become if we don’t give it some breathing space to be organic.
Mia Fileman 13:02
Yeah, I think you nailed that, actually.
We have to allow that once we’ve launched our campaign and it is in the public domain, it’s going to take on a life of its own. This is perhaps where the adage “there is no such thing as bad PR” comes from because you have to relinquish some of that brand control and be okay with the fact that the story is not about Ocean Spray’s latest line extension and what product and flavour. It is about the fact that they gifted Nathan Apodaca a cranberry red – of course! – pick-up truck and that Mick Fleetwood made a resurgence in his Spotify downloads. All of that is beneficial to Ocean Spray.
Of course, stories emerged about the fact that Ocean Spray is actually run not by a conglomerate company like L'Oréal or Nestlé or Unilever but a cooperative of 300 cranberry growers, and then that became the story, and that’s a great story to tell.
Odette Barry 14:06
Yeah, totally.
You know, I was talking to a friend of mine who’s a publicist recently. She was talking about working with a major global tech brand and how challenging it was when they pitch stories to the media because it was brand, brand, brand, brand, brand, and there was no story in it.
This is the one thing that I really love about smaller businesses. They have his great opportunity to be nimble and experimental and not tied up in being obsessed about brand message. You know, what a beautiful story for us to learn about the coop. When would that have become global knowledge?
Mia Fileman 14:54
Exactly.
You’re so right about the agility of smaller brands – even a coop of 300 farmers – because how they responded to the TikTok video is what generated all of that earned media for them.
Here’s the play by play. First, the video on TikTok. Then, the CEO of Ocean Spray did his own skateboard version which got a bit of buzz, but nothing too major, but it was written about. Then, it came out that Nathan was skateboarding because he didn’t have a car. That’s when they quickly mobilised and gave him the pick-up truck full of Ocean Spray. That is the image, if you Google “Nathan Apodaca TikTok,” you will see him sitting in the back of the truck full of Ocean Spray. Then, they pulled Mick Fleetwood out of retirement. He did a version on his skateboard with Ocean Spray.
Odette Barry 15:56
I believe he was in a wheelbarrow, just to clarify.
Mia Fileman 16:00
Was it? Okay. Thank you.
Odette Barry 16:02
Having looked at the behind-the-scenes video of that one, it is the most deliciously perfect LULZ.
Mia Fileman 16:08
Yes, okay. Great. Well, I will do that as soon as we stop recording because that sounds like something that would be up my alley.
It’s really seizing the opportunity. I mean, I’ve worked for some major brands. We work on our campaigns 12 months in advance. Our marketing plans are fairly set. Being able to just jump when an opportunity like this comes up and make the most of the moment is probably not something that’s within the remit of a lot of these global brands. There’s just too many approval processes and it just wouldn’t happen in time.
Their ability to seize the moment is what generated them so much media coverage.
Odette Barry 16:52
Yeah, and I think that’s something that we’ve talked about together – from a thought leadership PR perspective as well, right?
As a professional service, you have lots of knowledge and expertise that you can share with the world. If you think of the media landscape, we talk about newsjacking – that’s you jumping quickly when you see a story that’s relevant that you could comment on. That’s what I love most about small businesses being able to put their story out there because you do have that nimbleness that those big corporate organisations just don’t have the bandwidth to move with.
Mia Fileman 17:31
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What’s next? Shall we talk about “Get Chris to Cowra”? That was epic.
Odette Barry 18:16
It’s a pretty good one. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Mia Fileman 18:20
Do you want to take us through it?
Odette Barry 18:24
My blow-by-blow might not be quite as accurate as yours, but the Cowra Tourism Organisation commissioned a digital video production company to produce an ad for Cowra – for the region, for people to visit coming out of lockdown with the pandemic.
Their concept was “Bring Chris to Cowra.” Chris Hemsworth – being a good bloke, a top bloke, according to them – the video is a blow-by-blow of two people within the tourism office, chatting and brainstorming on what they might do if they invited and got Chris Hemsworth to come to Cowra.
It’s a key message bonanza – the video itself. It’s beautiful. Just brainstorming the ideas of what they would see and talking through all the benefits and beautiful places that he could visit. You know, the big call to action is that they’re going to build a big Chris Hemsworth equivalent to the Big Banana or the Big Pineapple.
This video itself has been literally picked up on most major media networks across Australia. I just can’t imagine that they thought they were going to do as well as they actually did.
Given the quality of the interview they did on Today with Karl Stefanovic, I would imagine they definitely didn’t think that they were going to do a lot of media interviews because they were two real Aussie country folk that really were not TV-friendly at all. They had the mayor and an amazing gentleman – I forgot the name of him – who had led the campaign concept. Of course, Chris Hemsworth responded via social media and said that he absolutely would be out there.
For me, when you think about what the recipe for success was here, it’s obviously got the celebrity affinity which helps to get things across the line, but it’s also beautifully emotive. Australians are so connected right now to the suffering within our regional communities. It was really down-to-earth and accessible. It didn’t try and say that it was more than it was – you know, from the footage across the campaign, the meals within the pubs. There was nothing special going on in any of those plates in terms of being the most exquisite meals. It was just saying exactly what it was.
I think that warm, funny, playful tone just really hit the perfect mark, but I think the timeliness of it as well in that people are just going to be coming out of lockdowns, but also the timeliness in terms of the suffering that our regions have experienced with drought, flood, and fire. It really pulled on the heartstrings of Chris Hemsworth as well as being a cause that he was willing to dedicate his energies to.
Mia Fileman 21:49
Yes, so well said.
Obviously, those two people on sunrise need to book some media training with you as the first step, but that’s also what I found great about this campaign. They could have gotten professional actors, but they didn’t. It was authentic by definition. It was very clever copywriting, actually. There was a lot of innuendo and double-entendres and just very Aussie humour, but the acting was shitty. It was not good acting, and that’s what made it really real, actually.
What I love about it – especially as a campaign marketer who thinks that small businesses should be running marketing campaigns – is that it didn’t cost a bomb. It’s testament to the power of marketing campaigns that you can do it on a shoestring budget. The fact that has now been picked up by, as you said, so many news outlets – in fact, Karl Stefanovic has said that he’s going to go to Cowra and film from there.
Odette Barry 22:57
And (22:57 unclear) everyone a beer in the town.
Mia Fileman 23:00
I’ve lived in Australia most of my life, and I don’t know where Cowra is. Everyone is now asking that question.
Odette Barry 23:13
It’s eight hours from Melbourne. It’s three hours from Canberra. We got the key messages from the video.
Mia Fileman 23:18
Yes, I was just going to say it’s close to Canberra and I go to Canberra all the time and have never considered Cowra, but now a lot of people are saying, “I wouldn’t mind going to Cowra.”
I also think that they were very, very tactical about Chris Hemsworth. He is a good bloke. If there was anyone who was going to respond, it was him. That was actually quite brilliant. He did, of course.
Odette Barry 23:46
He’s also very well-loved by the Australian media landscape.
Mia Fileman 23:50
And every woman.
Odette Barry 23:54
Also, in my research for this interview, I read many Men’s Health articles about his diet and workout regimen. Thank you for taking me down that rabbit hole!
Mia Fileman 24:06
Well, I bet that was the most enjoyable research you’ve done recently. A really brilliant example of how a small business can create a campaign that generates such a ton of free media.
Odette Barry 24:24
Yes.
One thing that I would caveat that with by saying is that, you know, it has to be a perfect storm to get that type of excellent response. I wouldn’t bank all pitches to Chris Hemsworth as being a wild success.
Mia Fileman 24:45
Correct. Absolutely. Now, that is a very important caveat, I think.
Odette Barry 24:52
Just ask Chris! He’ll be fine!
Mia Fileman 24:56
I do, however, think that this campaign will be taught in universities as a case study of how it can be a perfect storm and how perfect it can be.
Odette Barry 25:09
You can plan.
Mia Fileman 25:10
You can plan that. That’s right, yeah.
From regional New South Wales town of Cowra to Nike – the biggest athletics apparel brand in the world.
Odette Barry 25:23
I haven’t done much research on this one. Is it all right if we skip this one?
Mia Fileman 25:26
Sure. No problem.
Odette Barry 25:28
Sorry. I have had a bit of a look at it, but I just feel like I don’t have enough research to back it up. But Qantas or Burger King?
Mia Fileman 25:39
Yeah, sure. Either one, yeah.
Odette Barry 25:40
Is that all right? Sorry.
Mia Fileman 25:41
No problem.
From regional city in Australia to major brand Qantas. The recent campaign was called Fly Away. It featured an original rendition of the Tones and I track “Fly Away.” It really pulled on the heartstrings. It made vaccinations relevant to their brand so that we could all go back to flying which is, I think, a really nice way to bring in a societal and political issue without trying to shoehorn it or culture-jack it.
What are your thoughts on this one?
Odette Barry 26:27
Yeah. Look, I think Qantas has got a very celebrated history in doing a great job of their video campaigns. I think you’re totally right. They totally normalised a conversation around vaccinations in a way that showed their position quite tactfully.
I thought, you know, the line between the nurse and the traveller saying, “Where are you headed?” was just such a normal conversation that typically a traveller might go to their GP to get their travel vaccinations or anti-malaria medication or whatever it is. It was just like the modern version – today’s version of that. You know, everything being so hyper now. I think there were so many lines within that video campaign that really just tugged on the heartstrings of right now.
When the farmer was on the phone – you’re going to make me choke up – when he just said, “It’s okay. I’m going to see you soon.” How many times have we used that line in the last two years? I feel like that’s a conversation that we’d all had. And then, “Where are you headed with the nurse?” The “clear for take-off” is a line that we haven’t heard for so long. I felt like the copywriting for this was so tight as well in those iconic terms or phrases that we have heard and haven’t heard that are relevant to today.
Mia Fileman 28:12
Yes, I think that there’s a real problem at the moment with brands thinking that they hold more importance in the lives of customers than they actually do. We saw this play out spectacularly with Gillette and “The Best A Man Can Be” campaign where they tried to enter a very important conversation that they had no place in, really.
Men don’t think about Gillette and their Mach 3 razors in the way that Gillette may think that they do. They are not an important brand. We need to stop confusing apathy for loyalty. “Well, I’m at the shops. I’ll just quickly grab a Mach 3.” That’s apathetic. That’s not brand love. I feel that that has backfired very badly for some brands who have tried to culture-jack or shoehorn trending conversations and put themselves in the conversation when they really don’t belong.
However, Qantas absolutely belongs in this conversation. They are how we are going to go and see our loved ones overseas. They are literally our national airline. It just felt relevant to them. I think that that’s the key thing that brands and brand custodians need to take away. Really assess whether you belong in this conversation – whether it’s natural or authentic. If not, stay away! There are more important voices that need to be heard around these big issues rather than our shaving brand.
Odette Barry 29:53
This where I think we have a point of disagreement because, as much as I do appreciate that you need to be in the right place to have a conversation and you need to be informed, I know I’ve said this a million times, but I do feel like, at the beginning of change, things feel tokenistic.
Sometimes, people are going to get it wrong, and it doesn’t quite hit the mark, but people are getting involved in conversations that do need to be had. Sometimes, it’s not quite perfect, but it is starting to normalise conversations that might have previously been kept in the shadows.
Mia Fileman 30:38
I definitely see your point, and I’ve had this chat too with Melissa Packham around “is there a place to agitate your audiences in order to promote positive change?” I guess my argument go that is that I believe in a marketplace of ideas. I really don’t like when brands try to take the moral high ground. It’s like, “This is bad. This is good. It’s us versus them.” You can see this in the political landscape. This has not been positive. It just creates this huge divide between us and them.
What I really like is when brands can reach across the aisle and listen and be open to new ideas and understand that these conversations should not be sledgehammers. They should be gentle and take time. Unfortunately, the Gillette “The Best A Man Can Be” campaign was a real sledgehammer.
Odette Barry 31:42
Yeah, I do agree with that.
Mia Fileman 31:46
Qantas Fly Away was everywhere – Sky News, AdNews, Smart Company. I think they were always going to get press, as I mentioned earlier, but really tapping into exactly how we were feeling right now was the secret to that campaign success.
Odette Barry 32:09
Totally. I think that’s the success to all great PR campaign or not is looking at what’s relevant to right now. That’s being aware of how people are feeling within the collective and understanding what global events are happening so that you can time your conversations so that it is meaningful to what people are doing right now. I’ve never seen a campaign so heavily shared on social media as that Qantas ad.
Mia Fileman 32:41
Absolutely textbook.
Lucky last – Burger King “Mouldy Whopper.” I’ve spent about 10 years working in fast-moving consumer goods, particularly food. It would never occur to anyone to photograph one of their products decaying slowly over time and literally being mouldy. It was the most unappetizing thing you’ve ever seen, but that’s exactly what they did – a slow-motion decaying of a Whopper. Termed the “Mouldy Whopper.”
This campaign generated a ton of media. It also won a Cannes Lion award which is, I guess, our equivalent of the Oscars. You know, advertising, marketing, global recognition for being a fully excellent campaign, and it was. Why do you think this particular campaign was so successful?
Odette Barry 33:49
Because it had the talkability to it.
When we think about creating impact and creating conversations, this is where it’s at. I think it was a terrible campaign. I understand why it won. I think it won for advertisers and the bro marketing crowd. I don’t think it won in the hearts and minds of consumers.
I think people who care about preservatives already didn’t eat their food. People that don’t care about preservatives won’t think about the ad. They won’t even look at it. I feel like it missed the mark in terms of connecting with the people that matter. It just continued to turn people off because I don’t think anyone really is thinking the rest of their food – preservatives or not – is a quality dish that they want in their ecosystem.
I feel like it was an ad that was designed to get media coverage and that’s about it.
Mia Fileman 34:56
I have a different perspective on that. I think this was a switching campaign – encouraging people to switch from McDonald’s to Hungry Jack’s or Burger King because McDonald’s does use preservatives. This was within the category of fast-food users – not you and me who are outside the category unless I have a big night and then bring on the chicken nuggets!
Odette Barry 35:20
Long road trip.
Mia Fileman 35:22
Yeah.
It was really about encouraging people to consider an alternative to McDonald’s who is the market leader and Burger King is the challenger brand in this situation. Actually, I think it was quite successful from that standpoint.
Grilled have done something similar with KFC where they’ve launched a “HFC – healthy fried chicken” in direct competition to KFC. They are encouraging people to take a healthier – not healthy, but healthier – alternative to KFC by transitioning to grilled. I think it’s quite tactical, actually.
Odette Barry 36:08
I appreciate that. I just don’t know how effective it would be at switching anyone because I think that anyone that’s eating that food is not looking at it as “this is something that I’m eating” knowing that it’s going to have some health benefits. That’s just not part of the equation at all.
Whether they’re going “should I have McDonald’s or should I have Burger King? I’ll have Burger King because it’s healthier” I just don’t imagine that’s something that anyone in that category is thinking about, but again, like you said, that’s not me, so I’m not inside their heads.
Mia Fileman 36:48
I definitely take your point about the fact that there are definitely some campaigns that win awards, that get great media coverage, but does it actually move the bottom line? Does it actually change behaviour and change market share and earn them new customers or retain existing customers? Or is it just creativity that wins advertising agencies prizes? I know that there are so many campaigns that we hold up as like, “Oh, that was so clever and so creative!” but it actually didn’t do anything in terms of bottom-line stuff.
Odette Barry 37:24
Yes, and one thing that I love about you, Mia, is your love affair with ads.
When we do our morning yoga session, you will stop to watch the ad and comment on what a great ad it is whilst everyone else will be hitting Skip to try and get through it. We’re all a little bit different in our love affair with ads.
Mia Fileman 37:44
Absolutely.
Look. My love of campaigns is real. It runs deep. I can’t change it.
Odette Barry 37:51
It does. It’s authentic.
Mia Fileman 37:56
I would love for you to share some implications for small business.
How can smaller brands engineer situations or circumstances where they can incorporate earned media – specifically PR – as part of their campaign strategy.
Odette Barry 38:17
I guess the main thing that I would be saying is making sure that you do your research to understand what the conversations are outside of your campaign because, yes, there are places that will run a story about a campaign itself, but if we think about who our end consumer is, they’re not a marketer who wants to learn about a campaign. They’re normally an end consumer of that product who, by and large, probably doesn’t care at all about the back end of our campaign itself.
We really need to think about the supporting conversations that we can seed out around the time of our campaigns. Mapping out a broad ecosystem of conversations that make sense to people and also baking that into the campaign from the beginning.
One thing that I think is a step that is very commonly overlooked is ideating your campaign with a journalist – at an outlet where you might pitch it to – to road test whether it has any news relevance. Now, as a publicist, that’s a luxury that I have that I can throw down an idea with a journalist and say, “What do you think?”
But don’t underestimate your ability to ask a quick question to a journalist and fire off a question and say, “If we were doing XYZ, would that be something you might be interested in talking about?” Just throwing it out there because that news relevance is potentially going to give you millions of eyeballs of reach. It’s a step that I wouldn’t skip over if you’re going to invest a couple of thousand dollars in building a campaign or $10,000 in producing a video.
Really thinking about what is newsworthy about your campaign is incredibly important and planning that in the beginning, planning those sideways conversations to think about what’s the human interest aspect associated with your campaign, and then thinking about your timing. How far ahead do you need to be priming your relationships with media to ensure that there’s going to be some emails opened as a first instant but some receptivity to the stories we’re pitching?
Of course, mapping out what embargoed conversations and exclusives you might put on the table. Are there any particular outlets that are more relevant to this conversation? Is their audience the one that you want? Then, embargoing those conversations nice and early, pitching it out, offering the exclusives to those top outlets, and then mapping out your secondary outlets for after a story has been released.
Mia Fileman 41:05
Super! Such great advice!
Consider the PR strategy in the planning phase so that your campaign is newsworthy and make sure you bake that into the campaign strategy and really think about that. Also, there is a misconception around the fact that campaign is one message. That’s not true. A campaign is one theme, but there are many messages around that theme. Exactly like you said – while the journalist may not share your advertising like they didn’t share my gurus’ video, they were very happy to write about the bigger issue of gurus and online bro marketers and all of that which did the exact same result. I still got the media coverage and I still got great media coverage around that even though they didn’t play the video.
Odette Barry 42:00
Yeah, and those sideways conversations are really probably one of the most valuable things you’ll do because it allows you to go and speak to outlets about what they’re interested in rather than just what you’re interested in talking about.
Mia Fileman 42:18
Exactly.
Well, Odette, I think that everyone should do your program. I loved it. I did not believe that it was possible for me to be published in over 40 media outlets in the space of about 18 months, including Social Media Examiner, Mumbrella, and The Guardian. That is all testament to Hack Your Own PR. I think I’ve sold it pretty well, but feel free to add anything else that you’d like to add.
Odette Barry 42:50
I think that you’re such a testament to what the program offers. You know, for small businesses, for entrepreneurs that don’t have that $5,000 a month to spend on having a publicist work on their behalf, it’s a nine-week program that introduces you to the likes of the editor of Smart Company, the editor of Sydney Morning Herald’s business section, to The Project, to Channel 7. It’s teaching you how to have those conversations and how to get those stories across the line, but it’s also those nice, warm introductions to allow you to start building those opportunities for yourself.
I’m grateful that you came on the journey with me and have been such a bright shiny star.
Mia Fileman 43:40
Such a teacher’s pet.
Well, it has been an absolute pleasure chatting with you. Thank you so, so much for your time!
Odette Barry 43:46
Thanks for having me!
Mia Fileman 43:52
Thank you!
You listened right up until the end, so why not press that subscribe button and keep the good marketing rolling? You can also connect with me, Mia Fileman, on Instagram or LinkedIn. Feel free to send me a message! I’m super friendly.
