Go ahead and be mad at me. I've been remiss and spent the majority of February thinking about the business of PR, wondering about pitches bad and good (*mostly bad*) and haven't written a darn thing in this box. I've gotten so many letters pitching interviews mistakenly - and they ARE mistakes - sent to me "as cofounder of the Bad Pitch Blog," that I've started to wonder if ANYONE in our industry ever takes a second look at who they're sending anything to.
I mean: think about it. Sure this blog is on the Power 150, whatever, and we are a Cision top 10 blog, and we win awards, and we do interviews, and we're very public, ahem, but that doesn't mean you should pitch an interview with an untested CEO to me--so I can (come on, say it together) "consider" him for our blog! Why? So Kevin and I can make fun of you to your face? Happy to oblige if you are looking to up your quota, but doesn't sound like an optimal use of CEO time. And at the end I'm fairly sure he'll fire you.
Annnyway, here's the thought that has been bugging me all month and it's still with me at the end (which today is, yay): Are we all, as we've been called, just a bunch of list-makers who don't stop to see who we are bothering in the middle of the day?
Let's ponder this one nutty woman from Euro RSCG who sent me something that had nothing to do with bad pitching and had the gall to answer my quirkily-worded "How many did you send this to, lady?" with the following completely pointless paragraph:
Not sure why this is relevant, as it is a nationally issued press release with valuable news, but it went to a targeted list of appropriate outlets. Let me know if you are interested in covering the story, are you a journalist?
You mean, you don't you know who I am? You worded it "Dear Richard." How many Richards do you know!
Her subject was ridiculous and sure it caught my eye, but remember I'm the dude who writes posts on dull, useless PR antics.
It said--and I quote word for word: American's more focused on news and serious issues, less interested in celebrities and antics, since the recession --Expert available to discuss
Even with the embarrassing typo (American's?), that's a heady headline, wouldn't you say? Why not try to get people to take YOU seriously. That is not the point of my essay today.
Kevin and I both looked at this one and realized that a lot of what Bad Pitch has been trying to say seems to be lost by folks who STILL want to PITCH us! Come now. Let's consider without hesitation: she's spending her valuable time (I'm sure they pay her at Euro) swatting my criticism down. That seems like a bad way to make a living unless she takes Ambien CR to sleep at night.
But don't let me stop with "American's more focused on" type pitches. I get these every day and they stopped amusing me about a year ago.
That was the day a woman wrote me with something scientific--not tech, which is my ballywick--and far removed from anything BPB would ever consider. It was so far out that I wrote the (obviously) young person and said "Did you mean to send this to me?" Yeah, yeah, I was in a good mood that day--it was after a raucous night out. To her credit she quickly wrote me back, even though it was Sunday, and graciously apologized while explaining...only making it worse...that this was a mistake from "the company we outsource to make our lists." Whahhh? Herein lies the rub. I told her to cut the crap--stop the lists and save the company money. I explained she could, like the guy in the FedEx commercial, be a hero for saving the firm unnecessary expenditures in the middle of a heavy duty recession. And finally I said:
Lists are not PR.
Lists are not PR.
Lists are not PR.
Especially now, when quality placements mean more than ever before. When the people you wish to truly reach are "a smaller group" (quotes mine) and more likely to need you if you spend some time actually getting to know you.
It's not that Kevin or I wish to get less mail. Heck we love mail. We want more tweets and status updates and emails and USPS treatises that are targeted to US. Like, for instance, the fantastic letter we got - more tomorrow, I promise - from a column scribbler at the Philly Inquirer who was told something fascinating about Adolf Hitler that she should take into consideration.
Did I mention said columnist was Jewish and offended to the point where she turned blue? And the pitch was beyond comprehension, and tasteless in ways that would make Aldo The Apache cringe?
Yep. You got it. A Bad Pitch. Perfect. Or, as Hans Landa might say in Inglourious Basterds: IT'S A BINGO!
That was a pitch we ate up with relish. The others--oh come on everyone. Let's enjoy spring and save time, space, and bad sentiments. Just go and digitally tap the people on the shoulder who need your source or story or idea. You can find them. As we've said for five years, all it takes is research, a read of a magazine or blog (I mean read the whole thing) and a bit of faith in your abilities to make a connection.
I have faith. I have lots of faith. But it's dimming.
...Come see me on Wednesday March 3rd talk about how to stay on target at the Ragan Media Relations event in Con Ed's offices. Should be electric. Email me for an invite: richard@RLMpr.com
Twitter @laermer
If I could marry a blog, I would marry Bad Pitch Blog! You are hilarious, honest, witty, and right. What else would I need in a blog? Thank you for doing what unfortunately needs to be done!
ReplyDelete~ Jules
Richard, as usual, great post on a timely (and unfortunately) timeless topic. There are many reasons why this happens; in my experience, including more than 20 years in journalism, the two biggest are:
ReplyDelete1) Especially at big agencies, the most junior people build the media lists. And even if they're whip smart, they don't know the media and they lack the experience that enables them to make good subjective decisions about whether pitching the Bad Pitch Blog is a good idea -- or not!
2) Too many in PR just don't know the media. You don't have to be a former journalist like me to "know the media" but you need to know who works where and covers what and you have to have read or seen what they have done before you decide to pitch them. And you need to respect that knowledge. I will never forget when I was deputy bureau chief of a Washington bureau covering Congress and the White House and I got a call from some PR type asking me whether we were going to cover a urinary incontinence conference (seriously) because it was in DC. Uh, yeah, let me pull our reporter off the savings and loan crisis for that one! What I said was, "Lady, this is a Washington bureau, we cover Washington." She didn't get it.
After I started working in PR, so many people asked me about these kinds of problems that I wrote a blog about it -- what journalists really want from PR people.
http://www.wordwritepr.com/blogstorytelling/?p=23
Thanks again for a great post!
Paul Furiga
WordWrite Communications
http://www.wordwritepr.com
Hey @laermer,
ReplyDeleteIn the spirit of your blog, you might find a daily dose of abuse interesting (Twitter @abuse_me).
And so you're back, from outer space. I just logged on to find your post, and imagined that look upon your face.
ReplyDeleteI can't survive without BPB. Keep it comin' (oh wait, that's KC).
The best part of the response from the lady from Euro RSCG: "...are you a journalist?"
ReplyDeleteJunior PR person here... I can honestly say I didn't even know that you COULD outsource media list development. I've always been taught to build "lists" on a case-by-case basis, aka, per announcement find and reach out to people who would actually be interested in what you are saying right at this very moment based on careful media research (meaning not searching for "airline" on Cision, but rather actually looking at the paper and who covers what). I'm new to BPB, but we could all learn a valuable lesson (or 2 or 10 or 100) from this blog!
ReplyDelete