u/Comms_Factory

I was approached recently by a startup in the wellness category. They have an interesting product, and they’re for real – sincere, professional, etc., but undifferentiated. They’ve been told to “get press!” The problem is that, in my experience, it will be extremely difficult to get them media attention. I don’t want to come off like an AH, but I also don’t want to accept the business and end up disappointing them. And, I don’t want to feel like I’m part of a startup advisory con job. I feel like people starting businesses get flooded with “helpful” advice on what they need to do, and PR is part of that mix. I try to be transparent about the likelihood of getting coverage.

I just turned down a project for a client that said it was preparing to go public. I don’t have IR experience, though I served as a PR manager at a Fortune 50 company, so I’ve been through how tricky and risky it can be to make news when shareholders are watching and looking for reasons to sue.

Have you ever turned down a client? Why did you do it?

I wanted to share an issue that I’ve run into a number of times, and I’m curious to see if I’m the only one having this conversation. A client says he wants to earn placement on tier one media. I say, yes, that’s a fine goal, but also keep your mind open about getting picked up by newer alternative outlets, like blogs and podcasts. Because… even if they prestige (and honestly, you never heard of them before), their audiences may contain a more concentrated number of prospective customers. For example, I was speaking with a business that did high-end wedding flowers. I asked her, “Do you want to be on page 33 of the LA Times or featured on a wedding blog with 200,000 followers who are about to get married?”

I’m curious how people in this group handle a common question, which is the “who do you know?” or “with whom do you have relationships in the media?” For me, it’s easy. I don’t know anyone in the media. I reach people through a media database platform, and my track record of success is pretty good. (For context, I’m at the low end of the market. I work with a lot of small, project-based clients, not a few big clients.) The bigger question, I guess, though, is do relationships matter the way they used to? I’m old enough to remember when PR was about having cocktails in Manhattan with editors and that sort of thing. This is still operative, but my sense, given the tumult in the media sector, is that personal relationships are less critical to getting coverage than they used to be.