The media is a fickle beast, and it takes an expert to tame it.
PR can be a make-or-break component of any product marketing strategy. If you are launching a new service, seeking to maintain relevancy amidst a noisy marketplace, or attempting to showcase why your solution and team are the best — the media is a lever that when approached strategically, can accomplish all of the above.
Lead through language
Legitimacy is earned through many channels, and sometimes the most powerful are also the most subtle. Whether a business is seeking to build relevancy in a new vertical or establish authority surrounding an industry problem, strategically placed commentary from executives and product leaders can drive credibility without directly plugging a business. As both a consultant and agency partner, I’ve worked with spokespeople to diagnose the industry landscape from the perspective of the media, and ultimately ghost write pieces for publication. Take a look at some examples below:
VentureBeat: The next frontier in app development
Corporate Blog: Re-defining enterprise video
Launch with a splash
PlaceUS was a predecessor to location-tracking apps like Find My Friends. To drive a surge of attention to coincide with the day-of launch of the app we implemented a pre-pitching strategy that ensured a burst of Tier-I coverage. To accomplish this, we leveraged the novelty of the technology, experience of the product team, and futuristic hypotheticals in order to hook the interest of reporters. Here were some of the results:
Note: Shortly after this launch, the parent company of PlaceUs was acquired by Alibaba.
PlaceUs for iOS and Android
Look at me this way
Most likely you’ve taken the MBTI, but chances are you didn’t take it too seriously. As an agency partner to the publishers of this personality test that’s often found in the same category as quizzes like “What Sex in the City Character Are You” or “Which Hogwarts House Do You Belong In”, our goal was to legitimize the assessment to corporate audiences, and encourage HR and people operations teams to incorporate the test into professional development activities. As such, we played on the cliched “Gryffindor or Slytherin” concept and up-leveled it to the C-suite:
Wall Street Journal: The Personality Trait That Can Hold CIOs Back
CIO Magazine: Inside the Minds (and Personalities) of CIOs and CMOs