When Dr. Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori , authors of the new book, “Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual,” needed publicity help for their 28-city, 30-day book tour, they turned to me. We have been long-time friends since my association with Universal/Uclick, the syndication company that carries their “Pet Connection” column. It was going to be a challenge for them . A daily grind of media interviews, meetings with veterinarian professionals and book signings in each city is usually capped at two weeks to spare everyone involved a mental and physical breakdown. But Dr. Becker lined up the sponsors, which included Petco and several pet industry product giants. They were committed to this, and so was I.
Much of the publicity planning for a book tour of this nature has to happened at least a few months out. There were printed and online press kits to produce, media lists to organize per city and news and feature hooks to attract multiple attention with a variety of different media in each city, including the pet bloggers. Ms.Spadafori, social media guru, would be travelling with Dr. Becker and handling the daily postings to social media sites. My objectives were more brand awareness of Dr. Becker, who appears on Good Morning America and Dr. Oz as the shows’ resident veterinarian, as well as to increase sales of the book and drive traffic to the afternoon book signings at Petco in each city.
The press kit content included the usual—bio, book summary, testimonials, letter of introduction and interview topics. It also included a schedule of what city on what date Dr. Becker would arrive and invited those interested to get in touch with me. That way, we did not have to personalize each kit for each market. The Website allowed media to download the text and the high res photos. We sent printed kits out to selected media on what I call “the second tier media.” For the first tier, I sent emails of introduction, our topic list of interview ideas and a link to the online media kit. And, then, the intensive job of telephone follow up began. But more about that later.
In evaluating the value of the printed press kit, I would have to say that I was disappointed in the response but not surprised. Producers have little time these days to read mail, no matter how attractive the press kits are. But, I view them as a necessary evil since some media still requested them and, I believe, it gave credibility to the campaign. The online press kit was equally as disappointing. Media did not want to go anywhere for text or photos. They just wanted to be emailed the materials. While it was an extremely easy site to use, some of the media who did go online had trouble figuring out how to download the photos. Having said that, again, it’s a necessary evil, but both strategies should be held to an efficient cost level. No need for fancy gloss paper for a press kit that might not make it out of the envelope.
For media list development, I chose to go with Cision because I had used it previously in my former job. I looked at a few others that were cheaper. In hindsight, I probably should have contracted with one of those. I expect that none of them are 100% accurate, or even 65%. About the only thing a media data base will provide is an easy search engine that will help you identify target media and blogs in each city. From there, about the only thing you can expect to be correct are the addresses and main phone numbers. In very few cases, did show producers remain the same or were even there anymore. Cision is big chunk of money. They offer a service that if you get a wrong person’s name you can request them to research and find the proper person. But when you already have the station on the phone and you are under a deadline, why bother? Hours and hours were spent developing these media lists for 28 cities. Needless to say, I think I have the best one in the country right now. It’ll be good for about another 20 minutes before changes happen again in this constantly downsizing industry.
Telephone follow up. What can I say? It’s the biggest pain and joy in a publicist’s life. Here’s what is happening in today’s broadcast and print media: no one is home. No one answers the phone anymore; it goes to voice mail. No one calls you back. This is not a sign of rudeness (well, maybe in some cases), but it is the reality of producers, anchors and reporters wearing so many hats and with so much responsibility that they just don’t have the time. I’ve been in this industry a long time and I have never seen it like this before. In the past, one to two producers, and, a guest contact person, might have been assigned to one show. Now, you’re lucky if you have one producer assigned to three shows. Their lives must be hell.
So, you just have to keep calling and emailing until your fingers bleed. Since I was targeting morning shows, there were many days I would get up at 4 a.m. (the producer’s time) and make my calls. Sometimes I actually got them on the phone. Those early morning messages were more likely to be returned later that morning. If nothing else, just to shut me up.
Once I finally connected with the proper media person, and other members of my media team on the West Coast finally connected, the topic matter and Dr. Becker’s celebrity status was a fairly easy sale. Plus, I have always been thankful that I have the ability to make a media person feel comfortable that I am not wasting their time and that I am a professional. After a few conversations and emails, I feel I’m making not only a professional connection but a personal one, too.
More later …
