2007 November

Pizza Hut jumps on Witherspoon’s comment

11/15/2007 By Joan 1 Comment

Kudos to Pizza Hut for jumping on celebrity Reese Witherspoon’s innocent, but not-so-nice, comment about pizza delivery drivers and turning it into some fun publicity.

The actress told a journalist that her 4-year-old son, Deacon Phillippe, wants to be a pizza delivery driver when he grows up.

“Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it’s hard to see how it could be a career as such,” she said.

Pizza Hut responded immediately. Sandi Karrmann, identified as the “Chief People Officer” for the pizza chain, wrote a letter to the boy, offered him a job when he’s older, and even sent him a package of gifts. It included a Pizza Hut uniform “that’s just your size,” writes Karrmann, and a mini-delivery car “for you to polish your driving skills.” She also sent gift cards for Pizza Hut pizzas.

“We have delivery drivers who have worked for us for 10, 15, even 20 years!” says the letter. ”And the same Pizza Hut drivers who deliver hot, fresh pizzas right to your door have gone on to become successful business people, doctors, lawyers and, yes, actors.”

That, my fellow Hounds, is brilliant. As I stated in “Special Report #50: How to Piggyback onto Celebrity News to Promote Your Product, Service, Cause or Issue,” tying anything you’re promoting to the stars is one of the very best ways to generate publicity because the public’s appetite for celebrity news is insatiable.

Thanks to Publicity Hound Andrea Swinton of Toronto for pointing it out and sending the link to the article.

Filed Under: Business Promotion, Celebrity tie-ins

Authors lose during writers’ strike

11/13/2007 By Joan 2 Comments

An article in Publishers Weekly says the Hollywood writers’ strike is affecting authors by suspending production of the late night talk shows that publicists rely on when launching a book to a national audience.

Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart, for example, had interviews scheduled this week with Karen Greenberg, author of The Torture Debate in America; Robert Reich, author of Supercapitalism; CNN talking head Lou Dobbs, author of Independents Day; and former UN Ambassador John Bolton, author of Surrender Is Not an Option. Instead, cable shows and the networks are offering reruns.

“It’s not as if our business is going to collapse,” said Paul Bogaards, executive director of publicity at Knopf publishing. “But we publicists are desperate to get our authors in front of readers and these are lost opportunities, especially as we enter the holiday shopping season.”

Another way to get authors in front of a national audience is via National Public Radio, which features hundreds of authors each year on a variety of shows. Lissa Warren, who has booked dozens of her author clients on NPR shows and was a guest on a teleseminar I conducted called “How to Get Booked on National Public Radio,” says NPR is especially kind to authors. That’s because NPR has a more upscale, well-educated audience.

She recommends authors and publicists use the search box at the NPR website to find programs that have featured guests discussing certain topics. If a show is a good fit with your area of expertise, start pitching.

Filed Under: Authors & Publishers, Pitching the Media, PR Consultants/Publicists, Radio Publicity, TV Publicity

Google Alerts leads to ‘Good Morning America’ gig

11/13/2007 By Joan 1 Comment

What’s a valuable, time-saving tool that every Publicity Hound should use?

Publicist Renee Young can tell you. Her client, Dr. Amiya Prasad, a New York City plastic surgeon, appeared on a two-minute segment on this morning’s “Good Morning America” as a result.

Google Alerts is a nifty service that notifies you as soon as something appears online about your area of expertise.

Renee created a Google Alert for “plastic surgery” so she could pitch her client and piggyback off related breaking news events. Google scans news stories, blogs, websites, videos and even user groups to find information related to “plastic surgery” and emails her whenever it finds something.

Yesterday, Google alerted her that Donda West, mother and manager of hip-hop star Kanye West, had died, possibly of complications from cosmetic surgery.

“I dropped what I was doing and got on the phone to pitch my doctor as an expert to the national morning shows and local television news,” said Renee, of Renee Young & Associates in Scarsdale, New York. “Three hours later, I was in my client’s office with a crew from Good Morning America.”

Here are other ways to use Google Alerts:

–To find bloggers who are writing about your topic, so you can post comments at their blogs, or pitch them. (See “How to Pitch the Best Bloggers & Create a Publicity Explosion.”)

–To find journalists who cover your area of expertise. Once you know the name of the journalist who wrote a particular story, you can do even more research on them before pitching. How? By creating a Google Alert for their name.

–To get up to speed quickly on hot topics.

If you haven’t created Google Alerts yet, get going.

Filed Under: Pitching the Media, TV Publicity