Why hire a publicist?
1. “Publicists have a Rolodex of target media contacts,” says Cameron Thomas, a publicist with Growth Asset in Toronto. They can quickly connect to the right people, with whom they regularly conduct business, to pitch your story or special event.
2. They are creative, idea people who have experience designing events and happenings that cap- ture the media and the public’s attention.
3. They generate interest with- out the high cost of advertis- ing. A full-page newspaper ad or a snippet of television time can cost thousands of dollars. Alternatively, a television inter- view or mention in a newspaper article costs nothing and can gen- erate much more business and feedback.
4. A publicist is an outside pair of eyes who can provide unbiased feedback on your image, website, marketing plan and more.
few months, Elkaim was on the front page of The Calgary Herald, in Flare, The Toronto Star and guesting on Breakfast Television. The total cost of the promotion?
About $200. Reflecting on his fruitful year-long
business relationship with Wallens, Elkaim says, “She really believed in me and what I was providing.” Working together also gave Elkaim the confidence and ability to contin- ue on his own. “The process taught me how to connect with the media effectively, versus just shooting out a press release,” he says. “Now I’m on a first-name basis with some of these media people myself, and I can send them emails whenever I have some- thing new I want to promote.”
Making the move
When Vancouver-based Urban Poling, a company that sells Nordic walking poles and certifies instruc- tors, launched in 2004, it never even
considered the idea of hiring a PR person. “To be honest, we couldn’t afford it,” says co-owner Mandy Shintani, recalling the lean early days when she was juggling start-up pres- sures with part-time work as an oc- cupational therapist. “We thought initially that advertising was the best way to promote a new product,” she says. But after running several strate- gically-placed ads, ranging from $200 to $700, she and her partner Graham Watts quickly learned otherwise. “Paying $700 for an ad was huge for us, and we didn’t get even one phone call or order from it,” she says, recall- ing their disappointment at the time. Despite a lack of publicity experi-
ence, the company has garnered an impressive number of media hits. Urban Poling has been profiled on morning television shows in multi- ple cities, the CTV local and nation- al news, numerous talk shows and in dozens of magazines and newspapers. But it has taken lots of effort and about 25% of Shintani’s time to learn the ropes. “I really hound people, even if they’re just mildly interested,” laughs Shintani, describing her ap- proach. “I just keep going until they say they’ll run a story.” “But it’s well worth the effort,” she
says. “We can measure the direct im- pact of a media piece by the website traffic and calls from retailers inter- ested in selling our poles and instruc- tors interested in certification.”
Hiring Q&A
Ask lots of questions before hiring a publicist. For example,
1. What results have you had with other clients?
2. Who specifically can you con- nect me with?
3. Are you familiar with the fitness industry?
4. Can you provide references?
5. Knowing a little about my com- pany, can you outline what your general plan would be?
“We bought 10 inexpensive MP3 players, loaded them with my workout CD and sent one to each person with the press release.”
Dealing with media fatigue
The company today finds itself in a challenging position: After being pro- filed by most of the country’s major news outlets, it is experiencing “me- dia fatigue.” “When I approach edi- tors, they ask me what’s new,” says Shintani. “We’re busy with charity fundraisers and special events, and we developed a new pole last year. But it’s not as easy to get an edi- tor’s attention when they’ve already run one or more stories about you already.” Shintani recently approached a
publicist (referred by a business col- league) to ask how she could help the company over this stumbling block. “I was thrilled with the num- ber of fantastic ideas she came up with in our short conversation,” says Shintani. Instead of pursuing more media coverage, the publi- cist suggested changes for the com- pany’s website, pricing, image and branding. “I think that at this point we really
need to pull in this outside exper- tise,” says Shintani. “We’re only two people, and of course we think all of our ideas are great! It’s going to be exciting to have someone else tak- ing on the PR role and looking at our company with fresh eyes and ideas.”
January/February 2009 Fitness Business Canada 59
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