Thought Starters: How A Little Creative Thinking Helped 2 Companies Achieve A Win
Introducing Hackonomics,” the campaign hinged on a report conducted by RAND (sponsored by Juniper) about the hidden economy of the hacker universe. Juniper wanted to take a fresh look at hackers to reveal the motivations and operations of the hacking community. The result was a first-of-its kind economic analysis of the cyber black market and the impact it had on targeted businesses.
Juniper built an integrated campaign that leveraged PR, marketing, government relations, sales and digital and social media. Tactics included webinars, a new website dedicated to the campaign, online ads and social media initiatives. Juniper briefed policymakers, made the report freely available in 10 languages, and distributed it across RAND’s customer base.
Here are two of the most creative elements of the campaign:
- Juniper illustrated the complexity of the hacker market by drawing the comparison to a thriving metropolis, highlighting its interconnectedness. An interactive presentation enabled viewers to see the hierarchical job functions, businesses, schools and even law enforcement roles held by active members of the cyber black market.
- An interactive timeline highlighting notable milestones and hacks over the years was shared with the cybersecurity community ahead of the report’s release to encourage conversation. Brilliantly, Juniper intentionally left key milestones off the timeline, which encouraged community members to contribute their own milestones and share the history of security hacks more broadly among their contacts.
According to Juniper, the campaign nearly doubled its share of voice over a three-month period thanks to 17,000 blog views, 1,250 executive summary downloads, and over 300 global articles, including feature placements in newswires, as well as the Financial Times, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and The Daily Telegraph (UK).
Hijacking the Super Bowl
The second cool PR campaign is one of the most creative and effective uses of a limited budget that I’ve seen. In 2015, Volvo was preparing to launch a new, updated version of its XC car amid slumping sales and stiff competition from larger, more popular brands like Mercedes Benz, BMW and Lexus.
Looking for ways to tap into an affluent, millennial audience, Volvo hit on the upcoming Super Bowl, whose audience fit the mold. But the carmaker’s budget for the product launch was enough for only about one-third of one second of Super Bowl airtime.
Their solution is a textbook example of hijacking the “Volvo Interception” campaign.
While their competitors lined up to buy multi-million dollar ads for the big game, Volvo began using its social channels, other ad buys, and traditional media relations to spread the word about its campaign.
The idea was simple: Every time a competitor’s ad was broadcast during the Super Bowl, viewers using the hashtag #VolvoContest on Twitter could nominate someone to win a one of 5 new Volvo XC60s.
It worked brilliantly. The Interception campaign drove 70 percent year-over-year sales increase for the XC60. That was the highest February boost in the car’s history. The hashtag was tweeted over 55,000 times, more than any other auto-related hashtag.
The Interception campaign achieved great results by capitalizing on other brands, effectively stealing their attention and breaking through the noisiest media day of the year.
Creativity Trumps Relationships
You’ve heard it before: PR is all about relationships. It’s a tired phrase but still true. Success hinges on having a solid working relationship with key journalists, analysts and influencers.
But even more important than relationships is the ability to craft a creative pitch or campaign from a hodgepodge of information about your client their market position and history, competitive differentiators, target audience, audience influencers, budget, and a million other factors.
As the Juniper and Volvo examples show, creativity trumps relationships, and in many cases can even overcome extremely limited budgets.
The examples also illustrate the power of integrated campaigns. Combining social media, traditional media relations, marketing and advertising can exponentially magnify the impact of a good idea.
What great ideas in marketing or PR have you seen?
Five Big Changes in Media Relations and How HIT Organizations Can Adapt
A recent webinar sponsored by Cision explored several changes in media relations over the last few years and offered tips on steps healthcare IT (HIT) organizations should take to prosper in this new reality.
The webinar was led by Michael Smart, a PR pro who says he has trained more than 7,000 communicators in his career, and is based on a white paper he wrote. Smart notes that, in his own observations, he’s seen far too many organizations chase the “Holy Grail” of coverage in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal to the detriment of smaller, lesser-known publications that in some cases could deliver even more value to clients.
Refreshingly, Smart also offered among the sharpest denunciations I’ve come across of the corporate scourge known as multi-tasking, stating, “I hate multitasking. It’s this thing we were all excited about 10 years ago until we realized it’s awful, much like kale. I seriously think it destroys potential and it’s killing a lot of PR pros, and so I’m on a mission to defeat it.”
Amen, though I will admit to enjoying kale in the proper context. To Smart’s comments, I’d like to add my own sarcastic slogan for multitasking, to be emblazoned across inspirational posters hung above the busy cubicles of America: “Multitasking: Why do one thing well when you can simultaneously do 10 things poorly?”
While many of the changes in media relations that Smart describes will be familiar to PR veterans, a refresher never hurts. In that spirit, I attended the hour-long webinar and condensed the five key points down into this quick, bite-sized summary.
- Expand your definition of the “media” in “media relations” to include any third-party trusted by your audiences: In other words, explore nontraditional outlets that may be easier to work with and have similar reach and credibility to the old guard. This can include well-known and widely read sites like Vox that have only been around for a few years, or even corporate blogs. The key is simply whether the site has earned your desired audience’s trust. How do you know which of these sites are worth pursuing? Start by using SimilarWeb to research site traffic and use Moz to examine domain authority.
- Journalists incentives have changed. They must increasingly focus on web traffic: Again, no shocker here for anyone who’s been paying attention. But this new reality opens up new possibilities for HIT organizations. Smart suggests that journalists will be more receptive to your pitches if you can show you’ll be able to distribute their content to a wider audience yourself, ideally by leveraging a social account with a lot of followers or an email newsletter, for example.
- Get noticed before you pitch: All experienced marketers know that journalists will be more receptive to their pitches if they’ve been able to previously establish solid working relationships with those journalists. But Smart offers good advice for establishing those relationships, which are especially important given that there are four PR pros for every professional journalist in the U.S. and U.K., according to statistics he cited during the webinar. He suggests developing a key list of 10 influencers, and then devoting 10 minutes per day to reading content they’ve produced, and when appropriate, reacting to the content with a compliment or a few kind words. He touts this as a simple daily task to “dramatically” increase your response rate. A private Twitter list is a great way to keep up-to-date with content from your top influencers.
- Faux customization often fails: Specific and sincere customization can help you stand out. Smart warns to avoid beginning pitches with broad, non-personalized statements. As supporting evidence for journalists frustration with this approach, Smart cites data from Cision’s 2017 State of the Media Report. When asked to improve the situation, journalists two most frequently cited pieces of advice were, first, to research and understand the media outlets they’re pitching, and second, to tailor their pitches to suit those outlets.
- Journalists don’t have time to do the legwork anymore: Reporters are always on deadline. They don’t have as much time as they once did to research sources or story ideas and they have an “insatiable need for visuals,” which can often be hard to acquire, according to Smart. The big change here is how much of this unglamorous legwork journalists will let HIT organizations do for them once they’ve proven to be trustworthy and credible, Smart says.
No doubt the practice of media relations will continue to change just as quickly as the media ecosystem itself does. But HIT organizations looking to keep pace with this evolution would do well to try implementing some of Smart’s advice. Smarter, more targeted pitching could help free us of our quality-killing, attention-sapping multitasking obsession.
Access Denied: The Other Kind of Writer’s Block
One of these days I’m going to put together a sort of “Road Warrior Olympics,” in which contestants compete on how well they can conduct business while riding in an Uber, going through security at the airport, and even in the midst of the plane’s takeoff and landing. That’s how impressed I am with the multitasking skills of the thought leader healthcare executives I regularly interview for various writing projects. I probably have more interviews with people driving to the airport than I do while they’re in an actual office building.
Just last week, I interviewed the CEO of an operating room analytics company while his Uber driver took him to Heathrow. Just as he was arriving at the airport, he discovered his flight was actually leaving from a different airport. He was only momentarily at a loss for words then crisply told me he’d call me right back. Expecting it to be more like a day, I wished him good luck getting on his flight.
Five minutes later, my phone rang. The CEO was back on track to the right airport and we picked up where we’d left off.
These are the dream accounts the ones where thought leaders are actually available to share their thoughts with the writer who will create a byline or case study that’s hopefully as compelling as the way the thought leader made his or her points. I cannot overstate the importance of having access to these people.
Yes, a preliminary brief on the topic is a good starting point. But in my experience, when information is transmitted through multiple middlepersons, the thought leader inevitably reads what was written and either deems it way off track or missing key points.
If you are the person who is the main liaison with your PR agency, resist the temptation to take the following shortcuts which I’ve put in the format of some common excuses for blocking writer access to thought leaders:
“She’s just too busy. Can I just give you the salient points and you can dash a quick byline off?”
At this point in my career, I probably can do this more or less effectively. But something will be missing: the thought leader’s voice and latest insights. The information that a skilled interviewer which PR agency writers must be, and that’s non-negotiable knows how to draw out of even the most reticent interviewee.
Also, you are presumably paying good money for the services of a professional writer. Why not get all the value you can from your investment? Blocking the writer from an interview that would likely result in a much better byline, simply for the sake of convenience and speed, is like filling up on all the cheap starches at buffet instead of selecting the more delectable treats.
“It takes us so long to get writing projects through the review queue. Let’s just use language that’s already approved.”
You mean that language that’s staler than a loaf of bread with a missing zip tie that’s been sitting on a kitchen counter for over a week? This is marketing messaging suicide. Just like other departments in the business, marketing must be able to move nimbly. If it really takes that long to get projects approved, you must fight for a more streamlined process. Or else your marketing department will become known as the graveyard for ideas.
Can we write a byline based on these three or four existing pieces? That way we won’t have to interview anyone.” This is similar to the above scenario. And sure, I can do it, but again you’re wasting the resources of a professional writer by basically having them do assembly line work. You could hire an el cheapo content mill writer instead if all you really need is to put a donkey’s tail on a fish’s head.
Now some thought leaders themselves are the cause of the block. Perhaps they are under the impression they are too busy or are just too inexperienced at being a thought leader. They may not be the right thought leaders for you to develop. But sometimes it just takes an interesting interview and byline to get these promising thought leaders on board. Some tips for finding their thought leadership mojo can be found here and here.
Another benefit for these newbies is that interviewing with a writer is great practice for subsequent interviews with the media.
What writers should bring to the table
Thought leadership time is valuable, and writers should make the most of it. Here is what a thought leadership should expect from a writer:
- An advance idea of questions if possible. This gives the thought leader time to process and give thought to what will be under discussion. Of course, the conversation doesn’t have to stick exactly to these questions. But the thought leader should go into the conversation with more than just a broad idea about what will be discussed.
- An opportunity to review the proposed draft. These are your words, your ideas, your thoughts. It’s also your name on the byline. As such, you deserve to have the opportunity to review all drafts, especially the final set for publication. I’ve seen a byline author horrified when a piece he didn’t sanction get published with inaccurate information which was called out by industry peers. (Obligatory side note: it wasn’t a piece I wrote. In fact, it was the impetus for bringing us on board.)
- Openness to giving and receiving feedback. This is your byline. Let the writer know if that isn’t your voice or if points are incorrect or missing or need further clarification. But resist the urge to “just write it yourself.” That’s like hiring a chef to cook you a meal and then going in and adjusting the seasoning yourself. Tell them what you want. If they are a professional, they can do it. In my experience, fewer drafts result when reviewers contain their edits to comments in the margins.
To recap: a good writer is a budding thought leader’s best asset. Rather than keep them apart, foster this relationship to the fullest extent you can. Soon your thought leader will leap from “budding” to “champion” and not just of the Road Warrior Olympics.
The Value of Gratitude
A Secret “Trick” to Add to Your 2018 PR & Marketing Strategy
With Thanksgiving around the corner, it got me thinking: one day simply isn’t enough to contemplate all there is to be grateful for. Especially when adding our professional blessings to the mix, like the partners, colleagues and employees who contribute to our success. So let’s give thanks for more than just one day and create an ongoing thankfulness program as we plan our 2018 marketing and public relations initiatives.
Giving thanks and showing gratitude is an obvious yet often overlooked gesture in our fast-paced work day. Too often, we just shoot a quick text or email (if that) and check it off the “to- do” list. Remember the days when we actually went to the Hallmark store and bought a card and wrote a personal note? I had one team member who actually took the time to write me a four-page thank you note recently. WOW! It truly meant the world to me and is something I won’t forget anytime soon.
Now imagine if we all took the time to regularly give those who impact our professional success that same “wow” factor. If sincere, it can have a tremendous impact on performance, sales and overall happiness.
Let me give you another example. Last month, we celebrated our 14th anniversary at Amendola. We commemorated the milestone with a companywide retreat, bringing together all 20+ 
employees to collaborate, brainstorm and unwind for a couple of days. We spent so much time and money planning activities, entertainment, meals, hikes, etc. but at the end of the event, what was the activity that had the most positive feedback? The awards ceremony!
This fun event gave me the opportunity to demonstrate my gratitude to each member by sharing stories, memories and anecdotes about how each team member is a unique and valuable asset to the organization. As the crowning touch, I presented each team member with a certificate that included their own unique designation.
For the veteran PR account director who I know won’t rest until she gets her client a coveted media placement or top tier speaking engagement, I presented with the “Commitment to Excellence” certificate. For the young millennial social media manager who lives, sleeps and breathes new ways to create huge online followings for our clients, I presented with the “Rising Star” certificate. And for the tireless media relations wiz that regularly gets PR mentions in publications that for others are impossible to crack, I presented with the “Winning Streak” certificate.
And so on for every Amendola team member. I wanted them all to know that they are appreciated and that their efforts don’t go unnoticed. Our tremendous growth and success would not be possible without each one.
You will need deep pockets for public relations, social media, content marketing and marketing communications activities (hint, hint!) to stand above the crowd in 2018. But don’t forget about your most important assets: your team, clients and partners. As you plan for the holiday season and into the trade show blitz, I urge you to put aside some time and some budget for personal notes/direct mail, emails and blog posts giving thanks and gratitude to your internal and external clients.
Of course, you may want to implement an awards program, too, or donate money in your clients or team’s honor. Whatever approach you take, just remember that a personal thank you goes a long way and will be remembered with appreciation.
Happy Thanksgiving, and a special thank you for all who have helped me and supported both me and Amendola Communications along the way! I am so grateful for my team, clients, prospects, media, analysts, and of course, my family.
With heartfelt appreciation,
The Most Amazing Blog You’ll Ever Read
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but the stories you tell.”
Seth Godin
Roaming the Exhibit Hall at HIMSS17 last year, I found a truly unique healthcare solution. It solves seemingly intractable problems with uncommon grace and simplicity. It’s intuitive, innovative and disruptive. I predict that it will ascend the rarefied summit of “Revolutionizing How Healthcare Happens.”
What was this paradigm-shifting solution and what was the visionary company behind it?
All of them. All 1,323 exhibitors at the conference.
OK, maybe a few expressed a bit more modesty. But with varying degrees of word choice and hyperbolic intensity, most used this highly subjective template to describe their solutions. Their baby is the most beautiful in the world just accept it.
But words that once felt so tantalizing and full of possibility have become eye-glazing clichs. Worse, they are beginning to subsume good storytelling, like a lush and varied landscape overrun by kudzu.
We’re being “disruptive’ over here!
We live in an age of multi-media communication. We can slice-and-dice any demographic, curate content a million different ways, and measure it all more precisely than ever before. But somewhere along the way, many of us have forgotten how to tell a story and tell it well.
Healthcare is full of terrific and, yes, innovative solutions. However, the signal you believe you are projecting into the marketplace with slick marketing and flashy buzzwords is just another forgettable layer of noise. Old-fashioned storytelling, on the other hand, is a method that more readily sticks in the minds of editors and customers.
Lions and Gazelles
The journalism profession is shrinking and de-centralizing. The newspapers and magazines that aren’t shuttering are dramatically reducing staff and tightening the purse strings. Healthcare journalism is no exception.
Here’s an example. The HIMSS Annual Conference is the largest health IT tradeshow in North America. For many healthcare professionals, this show sets the agenda for the rest of the year. In 2015, 126 editors registered for the Conference one for every 10 exhibitors.
In 2017, only 76 editors registered one for every 17 exhibitors. And a number of those “editors” were actually in sales, seeking ad and sponsorship dollars. Plus, these editors aren’t just roaming the Exhibit Hall. They’re also interviewing keynote speakers, attending education sessions, hosting their own meetings and trying to jam it all into four days.
Think of it this way: Your healthcare company is one of 1,300 lions chasing at best 60 gazelles. A lot of you are going to go hungry.
“But our platform is scalable across the enterprise”
This is not to say that your solution is not revolutionary. It’s probably great! Terrific but guess what? Everyone else is saying the exact same thing about their solutions. Trust me, as a former healthcare reporter and editor, buzzwords were pure white noise. If you want to bag earned media in a shrinking media landscape, you need to up your game. You need to tell me a story.
Ideas Over Solutions
It would be easy enough to blast out yet another listicle of stuff you need to tell a good story. Here are 344 million of them via Google.
I would rather tell you how much I hated science as a kid.
A teacher in a too-short clip-on tie would blandly recite an endless list of equations, scientific jargon and theories until the bell rang for recess. I was temporarily free from the deadly boring grasp of arcane measurements cooked up by a bunch of Europeans who have been dead for 500 years.
None of what I was taught was wrong. It just didn’t mean anything to me.
Around that time, PBS aired Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. It was written and narrated by Carl Sagan, the famous science popularizer.
Sagan discussed all the same equations and theories and dead scientists as my teacher did. Some of it I understood, some of it I didn’t. But the difference was how all those facts connected to tell a 14-billion-year-old story. I was able to understand how all those discoveries impacted the world I lived in. Suddenly, the universe wasn’t a C+ on a future pop quiz. It was impossibly big and beautiful, brimming with weird worlds and strange physics. It was vast and violent and without mercy. And I was a part of it!
I don’t remember the name of my science teacher, but I remember Carl Sagan and the story he told in Cosmos.
All those capabilities and features of your healthcare solution what deeper story do they tell? How do they impact the lives of the people who will use them? How does it add to the larger healthcare stories being told today?
It’s not enough to say you’re innovative. People don’t connect to “innovative.” They connect to stories.
Your story might be big. It might be small. But if it’s meaningful, if it connects, it will find an audience. Tell a great story and your solution will rise above the noise.