Client Taps Paid Media to Lure Pay for Performance PR

The issue with lozenges? No matter what the flavor is, they suck.

But a pitch from a Boston-based agency**, on behalf of throat lozengeer Pine Brothers, caught my attention. The brand, founded in 1870, is attempting to regain relevance and insert itself into a broader conversation.

To that end, the new Pine Brothers CEO is offering a bounty to PR professionals for securing placements.
$250K for Play
Evidently "they are offering over a quarter of a million dollars in prize money for placements." The top tier of rewards focus on print publications.
USA Today: $25,000
Associated Press: $20,000
Wall Street Journal: $20,000

The rest of the bounties are broken out on the "PR Bounty" site.

To be honest, this pitch wasn't going to become a story at first; it was poorly-written. And Pine Brothers hired an agency to promote the competition. So you have to wonder whether or not the competition was the main thrust of the campaign instead of a means to a greater end.

That said, the concept is intriguing and I'm surprised we didn't see something like this back in the dot com startup era. Startup founders would have stepped over their mother back in the day for an article in the Wall Street Journal. Yes, there are as many negatives as benefits to this approach, but a hat tip to Pine Brothers for forcing the public relations industry to knock the dust off its respective playbooks.

 Paid Media Drives Awareness
This post clicked into place when, upon visiting a regular industry read, I was served this ad.

They're spending some money to make sure the industry knows they're offering PR people money for coverage. They're serious, if not newly funded. The site gives me more ideas on how the campaign could be improved more than anything else. I mean, if you're trying to revitalize your brand, why connect the whole campaign with an event even older than your brand?

This brings me back to a point I made at the PRSA 2012 International Conference, one way or another, PR people need to get comfortable with paid media. This is an indirect example.

What Do You Think?
It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. Clearly there's an opportunity for a smart publicist to make a quick cash grab and get some attention in the process. What's your opinion? Will you be competing?

:: Kevin Dugan, @prblog
**post updated to protect those closely involved with the project, per their reasonable request