Monday, December 31, 2007

Re: [prpoint] Media reporting - seeking your views

Dear Mansi
 
I totally agree with Meera that in our profession educating a client is very crucial and for that the PR Agency needs to know the media trends well and should be able to apply different tools of communication to meet their client's objectives.
 
We have one more interesting case here to mention. Our of our clients from Pune -- hotel industry had plans to launch their outlet in one of the tier II cities.. At that time we never had our own person operating from that particular city. The client was insisting on bringing a celebrity to launch with the basic objective of getting more media coverage.  We insisted that we  --will launch it through the Press Conference and then the client is free to advertise, call celebrity , do promotions or may use whatever tools they need but the news must be disclosed to the Press first through a news conference.
 
 We even made it clear to the client that if it is not done in this manner then the entire exercise will not be worth the management time and expenses etc and we will not be interested in taking it up. It is this confidence that we got this account even though the client knew many PR and event firms.
 
From the news point of view we positioned it as first of its kind fine dinning experience for the city and highlighted some of its popular cusines  and the road map ahead with the USP and advantages to the customers. The Press Release was very rich in its content and offered  lot of  news value to the readers.
 
We took references from Pune reporters and editors for that city ( we were new to the city with absolutelu no contact there) and went personally with the references.Instead of giving just an invitation we did explain the concept to the editors and talked about the hotel USP and its advantage to the customers without really disclosing the actual news part in it.
 
No gifts were given and personally two visits were done followed by phone calls till the date of the Press Conference.( 4 day media activity) The entire effect was so powerful that even before the Press Conference practically all media houses in that city knew that this kind of hotel is getting launched in their city and there is lot of news to it. Recall was very high even before we actually disclosed the news. We got 100% attendance with 100% coverage .The entire  Press Release got carried with the hotel logo even though we never asked anyone to carry the logo .
 
60% of the publications scanned the logo from the brochures and gave it more mileage.  Please remember all these contacts were new for us. There was no rapport with the media there only references from Pune media helped. It was managed without gifts and without any celebrity.
 
It the approach and the right methodology which worked for us and our client in that city which was new for both of us .It is doing great business in that city ans on the first day even though it was 350 seater there were traffic jams and crowd outside the hotel.
 
 
With Regards
Pradnya
ICE PR ,PUNE
 
--- Original Message -----
From: Meera
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 10:13 AM
Subject: RE: [prpoint] Media reporting - seeking your views

My view :

As PR consultants we are hired to deal and manage the issues that effect and impact our client. One of the basic requisite for doing this is to have a clear understanding of how media works, what are the trends in media coverage etc . This is knowledge we bring to the table. Often, we cannot be judgmental on the ethics followed by external parties ( our opinion on the same does not matter) , we need to know how they function, and from there on create a plan which would give results to clients. In this case the stand taken by many publications that they will not mention a brand name in an event coverage has been prevalent since a few years. The agency's role then is to guide the client on the deliverables possible on holding an event and spending money on celebrities. The client should be briefed on a) the media relations and media awareness aspect of the event and b) media coverage.

One may not gain a client when this is clearly stated, as some clients do only want media coverage. It is better to not gain such a client rather than lose it for non performance.

Regards

Meera T

Aarohan Communications

01, Ground Floor

Neha  B Wing

Chincholi Bunder Road

Malad West

Mumbai 400064.

Tel : 022 - 28776735/022-32406058/ 022-32429942

Email: meera@aarohancommunications.com

URL : www.aarohancommunications.com

Mobile: 9821156976

From: prpoint@yahoogroups.com [mailto:prpoint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Mansi PR
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 12:45 PM
To: prpoint@yahoogroups.com; prpoint@gmail.com; Image_Management@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [prpoint] Media reporting - seeking your views

Dear friends,

I want to know your expert opinion on an issue.

One of our friends retained a PR company at Chandigarh (also a dear friend of ours) to handle the launch event of his Restaurant. The owner of the restaurant also retained an event manager and booked a TV celebrity for the inaugural show.

As usual, the PR company invited the media for the inaugural event. A reporter from Times of India also attended the event, enjoyed the hospitality, went away with the gift happily and filed the interview of the TV celebrity without even mentioning the name of the restaurant or the owner ("The TV Celebrity was here to inaugurate a restaurant in the City").

My question is : Is it ethical on the part of the TOI reporter to file the interview of the TV celebrity, without giving credit to the restaurant, when :

  • The TV Celebrity was arranged by the Restaurant owner
  • The restaurant owner spent heavily on the fee, food, lodging, travel etc. of the TV Celebrity
  • The interview took place at the restaurant premises

Kindly enlighten me on the issue.

Warm regards.

Raman Johar

Mansi PR

Chandigarh

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