This Week in PR Takes - Week 27

Take of the Week:
To know me is to know that I love 80s slapstick comedy movies (I cannot wait for Naked Gun and Spaceballs to come out!), and I felt “inspired” by Brandon’s brief yet powerful take that echoed Allison Carter’s take last week:

The best way to get press coverage for your company is to not pitch stories about your company.

Once you realize that, everything changes.

A pitch shouldn’t include the idea of a journalist or reporter being a part of a company’s campaign, because that puts the focus back on the company. Instead, a certain announcement should be reframed to show why that reporter’s audience should care about the news at hand. Perhaps it’s a newly launched product that solves a problem or perhaps it’s corporate/M&A/funding news, but the pitch should not focus on why it matters to the company - it’s why it matters to a specific audience.

Brandon is spot on, once this minute yet crucial detail is unlocked, everything will in fact change.

The Rest of the Takes:

- Even though this newsletter is mostly about external comms and PR, from time to time an adjacent take lands perfectly. Jen wrote about the most preferred channel for internal comms, and it’s probably not what you think. It’s also a good reminder that the idea of a captive audience is a really powerful strategy.

- Similarly, Sara wrote about what happens when marketing teams execute on the easy tasks, and this could be paralleled into a conversation about PR/Comms teams as well. It’s good food for thought, do we spend time moving the boulders or the pebbles?

- Another week, another take on AI and PR. This time Mirko drops some knowledge on AI-generated pitches.

- Is silence sometimes the best Comms strategy? Dustin certainly thinks so

- Katie wrote about the importance of AI, but in the PR workflow. 

- I am such a believer in the “trades” that I am going to keep on including Carly’s takes around their importance. Make sure the people in the back can hear, Carly!

- Sofia’s take on PR being the long game doesn’t need a set up, I just highly recommend you all read it!

- I once made a similar mistake as Joanna laid out here, sometimes when we ask the wrong question it means we get the wrong feedback. Years ago I had asked a newly hired Head of Legal to review something and the feedback was inundated with “red ink.” It was difficult to delineate what was purely personal opinion and what was actually a legal question, and I often channel that moment when asking for review/feedback.

That’s it for this week’s takes, thanks for reading.

-Brian

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bkramer/