The Publicity Hound’s Blog  

Eighteen ublicity Hounds have tips for Anne Deeter Gallaher of Camp Hills, Pennsylvania. Her client is breaking ground for a new clinic addition. It houses a family practice with nine physicians that have 30,000 patients. She wants alternatives to the routine and boring groundbreaking ceremony.

From Lisa “Chase” Patterson of Jersey City, New Jersey:

Sometimes the best lure is something for free. Free eye and ear exams, free check-up coupons. Is the new area being dedicated to someone famous or well-known in the area? Looking into the history of the township may even give you ideas of medical people who have done great things in the community. Will they be breaking ground in the spring, in time for a huge Easter egg hunt or maybe a medical scavenger hunt? Maybe they can have an art contest with the local children for art to hang in the new building.

From Kristy Nied of Phoenix, Arizona:

Develop a compelling media kit, packaged in a First-Aid box, that contains  fun facts about the company (number of patients, square footage of the expansion, additional construction facts), interesting physician bios for profile stories, current health trends, and a rendering of the addition.

From Karen Busse of Indianapolis, Indiana:

When I worked for Community Hospital, we were planning an open house for a surgery center. There is a band that is based here that is popular. So I planned a concert with the Everly Brothers. It was in the late afternoon, and people were invited to bring their picnics etc. for a summer concert. There were door prizes and the only way to enter for those was to go to the health fair which was located in the surgery center; i.e. tours, etc.

Read all the responses

Posted In: Publicity for Niche Markets
posted On: 3/31/2005: 1:00 am: By Joan
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Keep your eyes open this year for things you can add to a “Best of 2005″ or “Worst of 2005″ lists which you can then submit to the media at the end of the year.

The media love these end-of-year briefs. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

–An expert who speaks on anger management can write “The 7 Worst Temper Tantrums of 2005.”

–An ad agency can create “The 10 worst TV commercials of 2005.”

–A fashion expert can submit a list called “The 10 Best-Dressed Celebrities of 2005.”

Any list that includes cities, such as “The 10 Best Cities for Gen-Xers”
virtually guarantees publicity in each of those 10 cities.

Best and worst lists are only one of several kinds of briefs you can create. Learn them all and start incorporating them into your publicity campaign with the CD or transcript titled “Briefs, Fillers & Surveys: How to Write them and Why Editors Love Them”

Posted In: Pitching the Media, Press Releases/News Releases
posted On: : 12:55 am: By Joan
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What do you do when you’ve been hammered by the almighty Reader’s Digest?

That’s what happened to the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin when an article in the December issue placed the Mustard Museum on its list of “5 Museums Not to Plan Christmas Around.”

“Want a fun vacation?” the article asked. “Maybe you should skip these #145;educational’ destinations.”

Barry Levenson, curator and CMO (Chief Mustard Officer), says that as far as he knows, no one from Reader’s Digest visited his museum or any of the other places on their hit list, including the Macaulay Museum of Dental History or the National Museum of Funeral History.

“It was a cheap shot because the Mustard Museum might sound dull to the uninformed,” Barry said. “But it is also the home of America’s Mustard College, POUPON U, and there’s nothing boring about POUPON U.”

So what did he do?

“We took ‘em on! We sent a press release making fun of Reader’s Digest and that got us some terrific publicity, including a story on a Madison TV station and other media websites. We sent out an email newsletter to our base of 15,000 mustard lovers. Many of our friends are bombarding Reader’s Digest with scathing letters. Some have cancelled their subscriptions.”

If you’ve been slammed, don’t hide from it, Barry says.

“We’ve heard from hundreds of people who can’t believe what Reader’s Digest wrote about us,” he said. “We could have ignored the piece but it has worked to our advantage, rousing the troops in support of the Mustard Museum.”

As for those who are willing to take Reader’s Digest at face value, Barry says: POUPON THEM!

What would you do if you found out that someone was spreading rumors, innuendos or bad news about you either on the Internet, or in other media outlets? Crisis counselor Judy Hoffman says you might have to act fast, and your first instinct might turn into a decision that gets you into even bigger trouble. Learn all your options, including the things you can start doing now to save yourself misery if anything like this ever happens. Read about you’ll learn from the CD or transcript “What to Do When Someone Damages Your Good Name.“

Posted In: Crisis Communications, Press Releases/News Releases
posted On: : 12:43 am: By Joan
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You volunteer to do PR for your church, and the job includes generating publicity for–groan–the annual spaghetti supper.

A morning drive-time radio show in your community would be the perfect place to promote the event. It’s a fun show and everybody listens to it because the deejay is a real character.

But what can you say about your church spaghetti supper when it’s no different from the spaghetti suppers at the 47 other churches in your city?

Lots, says radio talk show host George McKenzie. First, do a little research. Plug "facts about spaghetti" into Google. Then start compiling a list of the most interesting things you find.

Next, call the local radio station and ask who is responsible for booking guests on the morning radio show. Call your key contact and offer to do a tongue-in-cheek segment on fun facts about spaghetti. Offer a few examples of what you’ve come up with and then, just to keep things interesting, throw in a few outlandish facts you’ve made up.

George says the pitch might sound something like this:

"You know, there are some recently discovered facts about the history of spaghetti that your listeners would probably be interested in finding out. For instance, did you know that spaghetti was originally an American product? Columbus discovered spaghetti when he came to America in the 1490s, and it was the staple of the Native Americans at the time. In fact, spaghetti grew on trees."

Imagine motorists in their cars at 7:30 a.m., listening to this and thinking to themselves, "Is this for real?"

"When you get on the air, it’s the same thing," George says. "You read your list of facts about spaghetti and you say ‘Did you know that?’

"The ‘did you know that?’ phrase is big and that’s what you’re shooting for. Any time you can get somebody to say "Gee, I didn’t know that’ or ‘That was interesting,’ you’ve caught their attention."

The kooky deejay can make the segment a hoot for listeners. And because he’s a pro, he’ll eventually ask you to mention your upcoming event that ties into the fun facts. You then tell listeners about the spaghetti supper, including the time and date and where to get tickets.

In other words, George says, "The best way to promote the dinner is to not promote it." Think of another clever angle or hook that will let the deejay really have fun. A pitch like this probably won’t work on stations in major markets. But smaller stations might welcome it.

Can you get free publicity if your company sells toothbrushes? Of course you can. At Halloween one year, a dentist George knows gave away a free toothbrush for every child who traded in their Halloween candy. Even if the kids thought the trade-in wasn’t worth it, the dentist still got free airtime on George’s station.

George knows lots of other tricks. He explains them all on the CD titled "How to Get onto Drive-time Radio Shows."

Posted In: Nonprofits, Radio Publicity
posted On: 3/28/2005: 10:11 pm: By Joan
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Anne Wear of Greensboro, North Carolina says her friend, a videographer, needs ideas on how to market his business. He has almost 20 years of experience behind the camera and also works as an audio person, grip and teleprompter operator.

From Jan Cannon of Boston, Massachusetts:

Some lawyers videotape depositions. They might be an additional market to reach via local law newspapers, postcard mailings or networking.

From Lori Erickson Trump of Indianapolis, Indiana:

The videographer should contact large churches in his area. Congregations of 750+ members often need professional videotaping for services, holiday programs and large public events. Churches may even refer him for weddings held in their facilities, another lead that will bring him easy income. He may want to network with bridal and formal wear shops and event venues where business conferences and company parties are held. Also, high schools and colleges often hire freelance videographers for dances and graduations.

From Harry Hoover of Huntersville, North Carolina:

Shoot B-roll outside of local corporate headquarters that are decorated for the holidays and turn the footage into individualized video holiday greeting cards. Do donuts with specific corporation footage at front and back-ends, then in the middle include footage he has shot from other corporate events, sporting events and focus groups. Maybe get local elected officials on tape saying nice things about the companies and edit this in. Do the same for local ad agencies and PR firms. There are a lot of them in the metro area. Send the greeting cards to the top dog at the targeted organizations. It will eventually find its way to the appropriate people.

Here’s a link to the area agencies.

Read all the responses.

Posted In: Business Promotion, Publicity for Niche Markets
posted On: 3/26/2005: 7:44 pm: By Joan
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