Pivot PR Interviewed by The PR Executive
Check out our latest interview with The PR Executive. We had a great discussion about how we position ourselves as an agency and what makes us so different.
Charlotte’s New Lifestyle Show: Morning Break
What a refreshing break from crime, traffic and weather WBTV’s new show will offer Charlotteans. Morning Break will bring more lifestyle-focused stories to the morning news line-up, with segments ranging from cooking to life hacks. The first show is set to air on Labor Day, and since we were curious to learn more, we caught up with WBTV’s News Director, Dennis Milligan.
How did your team decide to launch the new show?
An opportunity presented itself when we learned “Flip My Food with Chef Jeff” and “Fix It & Finish It,” which run from 9-10 a.m., were going away. We had a few choices. Find syndicated programming. Purchase paid programming. Or, come up with something local. We talked about doing more news, but we already have 55.5 hours of news per week on our station. I think that’s enough news. And, since Charlotte has a lot of news, we wanted to try something different. Local TV stations have to start coming up with local ideas for programming because we don’t know how the network affiliate relationship will change in the next 5-10 years. We decided to take a little more local control over our business and our ability to serve our viewers. The show is not a news show; it’s a lifestyle talk show.
Where did the name come from?
The idea is to encourage our viewers to take a break, and that’s why it’s part of our name. We want people to sit down with us at 9 a.m. and take a break from whatever is facing them that day.
What’s the set-up?
Kristen Miranda, Chris Larson and LaMonte Odums will host the show at a table on our main set. We want our viewers to feel like they’re sitting at a kitchen table having breakfast with their friends.
What will be on the show?
A sampling of our show includes:
- Try This, Chris! – Chris Larson will try different things around town, from dancing lessons to cooking to doing your job for the day.
- Let’s Get Digital – Trending stories, what’s big on social media, and what people are talking about
- In the Kitchen – Cooking segment with local chefs
- Home Cooks – People invite Kristen Miranda into their homes to cook one of their favorite recipes with them.
- Wellness Wednesday – Health, fitness and nutrition
- Life Hacks – Taking everyday tasks and making them easier
- Pinterest Project – Finding popular Pinterest pins and trying them ourselves
- Let’s Go Wild – Zoo-like animals from a variety of local attractions
- Talk of the Town – Good places to eat, new places in town and cool things to do
- Throwback Thursday – Sharing pieces of Charlotte’s history
What’s the best way for PR folks to pitch story ideas for Morning Break?
I encourage folks to email Molly Kelleher, executive producer of the Mornings and this show, or Crandall Sims, producer of Morning Break.
Do you ever get involved with the programming?
I attend our morning and afternoon editorial meetings, but the producers and executive producers handle the ebb and flow of the news throughout the day. For this show, I sit in on the rehearsals and weekly update meetings. By the nature of my job as a news director, I handle quite a few things that have nothing to do with daily news, such as research and personnel.
Anything else you would like people to know?
The more community-focused the story idea, the better. We want to show the viewer how to improve their life. Everyone is trying to sell a product or service, but on the receiving end, the good or service should make someone’s life better.
Thank you, Dennis, for sitting down with us and sharing more about Morning Break!
Tell (a Story). Don’t Sell.
You’ve worked hours writing your corporate e-newsletter creating snappy blurbs to catch your audience’s attention. Once it hits your readers’ inboxes, you breathe a sigh of relief. As you wait to see who opens the newsletter, you may wonder if you’re truly connecting with your customers. While email marketing may be a piece of your strategy, there’s a better way to approach digital communications to foster a relationship between your organization and its stakeholders. It’s called brand journalism, and you’ve likely heard of it if you follow the latest trends. But it’s more than a trend, it’s a way to turn customers into loyalists.
In 2004, McDonald’s former chief marketing officer, Larry Light, shifted their corporate communications strategy to brand journalism, defining it as a way to chronicle “what happens to a brand in the world.”[1] Light noted an important turning point in digital communications, moving away from putting the focus on the company’s products and accolades to placing the audience at the center—not just the company. In the “selfie” era, your audience might not care about your latest award or newest product; they desire captivating stories to satisfy their own interests.
So, how do you get started? Below I’ve outlined a few steps to utilize brand journalism in your corporate communications.
#1: Creep your peeps.
To create consumable content, you need to have a good understanding of who your “peeps” are and what they find interesting. What type of stories will your audience find compelling? What information are they seeking? You can explore your audience’s interests through surveys and focus groups to see what type of content attracts your readers. You might even create a buyer persona that compiles demographic information, attitudes and behaviors. And, if you don’t have a buyer persona, Pivot PR can certainly help you create one (insert shameless plug) to establish a foundation for your program.
#2: Summon your inner Walter Cronkite.
Once you know what type of content your audience appreciates, put yourself in the shoes of a journalist. Think of how renowned journalists, like Cronkite, told (or tell) gripping stories. Think through the riveting stories that might live behind your company’s walls. Research and report on human interest stories while avoiding content that puts the focus on the organization.
#3: Share. Share. Share.
Once you know your readers and a content plan, think through the channels you will use to reach your audience. Some organizations like Duke Energy and Coca-Cola maintain their own news websites that operate like a media outlet. If you don’t have the ability to create a news site, think through the different digital tools you currently use such as e-newsletters, blogs and social media. Take an integrated approach to sharing your stories through these outlets.
#4: Test and learn.
As you start to share these stories, be sure to measure how well they perform. The number of page views the story receives and the number of times it’s shared on social media will help you understand what’s performing the best and resonating with your readers. Engage with those who comment on your stories, and be sure to take note of the sentiment of the comments to help adjust your writing style or subject in the future.
[1] http://adage.com/article/news/mcdonald-s-pulls-mass-marketing/40403/
Case Study: Dunkin’ Donuts – National Donut Day
We know that “PR” is still a bit confusing to most because we often get asked, “What exactly is PR?” So we thought, what better way to explain than to give you a real life example. June 3 marked National Donut Day and our client, Dunkin’ Donuts, tasked us with making a big splash in Charlotte to build positive brand awareness and generate restaurant foot traffic to the 50 (approx.) stores in the metro area. Challenge accepted! We developed an integrated public relations campaign comprised of these key components: partnerships, media relations, event marketing and social media.
Partnerships
To show our commitment to the Charlotte market and surprise and delight Charlotteans, we partnered with WFNZ to host a live radio remote at the WFNZ Coca-Cola Doghouse. As the radio DJs encouraged folks to swing by, Cuppy and Sprinkles greeted commuters while we surprised unexpected drivers with free donuts and coffee. Not only did we see happy faces galore from donut-eating commuters, but we also had tons of folks snapping pictures and we even snagged on-air TV coverage from a local station. The event also served as a great lever to make Dunkin’ stand out from other donut shops in print/online coverage.
Media Relations
Localize, localize. Sure – the donut deal appeals to everyone (who doesn’t love a free donut?) but we knew we had to make the news local to our market to gain earned media coverage. How? Local spokesperson and local event (see above). From there, we followed a traditional media relations approach and pitched in-studio interviews, landing a spot with WBTV. We also secured coverage through targeted pitching to outlets, including The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Five, Charlotte Agenda and Charlotte Restaurant Traffic. Our mascot Sprinkles even recounted the day in the Charlotte Five newsletter.
Event Marketing
A sold-out Charlotte Knights Friday night game was the perfect way to connect Dunkin’s fun-loving brand with an audience of more than 10,000. The partnership kept Dunkin’ Donuts top of mind throughout the game starting with a pre-game interview and first pitch thrown out by a franchisee. With a huge inflatable coffee cup in the concourse and the mascots all over the stadium, attendees couldn’t escape the brand. After they experienced a game full of Dunkin’-themed activities, including a t-shirt toss, gift card giveaway and coupons (to drive them in store of course!), they received free coffee tumblers to keep them running on Dunkin’.
Social Media
Tying it all together with social media, we leveraged Dunkin’s own channels, @DunkinNC and @DunkinSC Twitter, to share updates throughout the day and engage with donut day revelers. Local media outlets, including Creative Loafing, shared the local donut deal. And, our friend and Charlotte Knights announcer, Mike Pacheco shared a selfie with Cuppy and Sprinkles during the Game.
So, what were the results? Targeted, quality earned media placements. Positive brand awareness. Foot traffic in stores. A social media reach of more than 96,000 users. Check, check and check!
*Since sharing this case study with our Charlotte network, we’ve received the following feedback:
“Fun newsletter! June 3 was actually my birthday, and I experienced all of your PR campaign for Dunkin Donuts. I passed the Dog House on the way into work (though I was taking a left from Mint onto Morehead so wasn’t in the right direction to get my sweets); I read about the promotion in the Charlotte Agenda; and I received a tumbler when walking out of the Knights game. Great work! I hope your client is happy.”
“I witnessed the awesome PR behind this. Great job!”
“What a great and fun campaign. Nice work!”
Is PR a Part of Your SEO Strategy?
Before great content management systems like WordPress and intuitive search engines like Google, you needed an “SEO guy” who could manipulate website code, meta tag, and keyword spam in the hope that your website could be found on a high Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Back then it was very expensive and quite technical, not to mention a bit unethical. Luckily that’s not the case anymore.
Now, if you’re looking for quality organic search results, you can take a page from the PR playbook. Why? Because PR professionals specialize in three of the most important things you need for SEO: quality content that helps earn a digital footprint that ultimately results in online credibility. Below is an explanation of each.
Quality content: PR professionals are inherently great writers who produce quality website and social media copy, press releases, blogs, case studies, white papers, etc. These are all tools to help organizations be found and shared online. Without the right content, it’s pretty hard to communicate, right? It’s fundamental.
Digital footprint: It’s more important now than ever for PR professionals to develop relationship, but not with just traditional media outlets like your local newspaper, but also social media influencers, bloggers and editors with online new sites. Leveraging those relationships will result in online coverage helping you create a digital footprint well beyond just your website and company social channels.
Online credibility: If you do the above, your SEO will increase because very complex and ever-changing search engine algorithms are now smart enough to recognize who’s “legit.”
You see, that’s the beauty of PR. You don’t have to pay exorbitant amounts of money on organic SEO or even advertising. And, everyone including Google gives you credit for it!
Looking to learn more about SEO? Check out Google’s SEO starter guide here for more on the technical side. Looking to learn more about how you can leverage PR for SEO purposes? We’d love the opportunity to speak with you about it.