We love the PR industry. Really. Everything about it, from the word ’strategy’ to the word ’synergy,’ gives us a warm and fuzzy feeling. But it’s getting to the point where we have to remind agencies thirsting for coverage that the key letters of the word ’news’ is ’new.’
We love the PR industry. Really. Everything about it, from the word
’strategy’ to the word ’synergy,’ gives us a warm and fuzzy feeling. But
it’s getting to the point where we have to remind agencies thirsting for
coverage that the key letters of the word ’news’ is ’new.’
One recently sent us a press release dated November 1. In it, the firm
announced two staff promotions that went into effect on August 15.
So wait - the firm wasn’t sure the promotions would take, so it waited
two and a half months to let the outside world know about them? To us,
this sends out two powerful messages: ’We have no confidence in our
employees’ and ’We’re too lazy and/or cautious to announce news as it
happens.’
The latter strategy (there’s that word again!) has been used any number
of times by agencies announcing account wins. We’ll receive a flowery
press release trumpeting how Agency X has ’recently’ won 15 new
accounts.
Wow - must have been one hell of a week! Even more galling is the way
pros can play dumb about this: ’As far as I know, all the business was
won over the last 132 hours.’
We’re not telling you how to do your job. But don’t complain if your
stale news fails to find its way onto our pages
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