This is it…

Michael Jackson

We all know his and all felt sorry a year ago. Why? was the most common question…

Today, as usually, I wanna ask you to think in terms of PR and show you that Michael Jackson was not only the King of the Pop, great artist, singer, dancer and show-man, but also a victim of PR.

We can start right from the beginning…He is 5 and he is on the stage – an ordinary black boy with extraordinary talent. As he grows up, he (or may be that was not his idea personally) decides to change himself. There is an idea that white people are “better” in a way and are easy to make business and earn money – propaganda in it`s simpliest way… No mater what, he decides to do his first operation – first it was his nose, after that the skin color, then chin, cheeks, neck, eyes – he (or his advisors) wanted nothing to be left from the black guy. And the result was not only the one I was talking about – it had two-sided effect and the strongest one was the fact that everybody on Earth was talking about him, was willing to watch him alife, wanted to go to his concert for that reason and, of course, finally bought the tickets for his show. Great chain and again, huge summs of money. I am sure you won`t argue – it` PR.

Before and after

When the last MJ`s movie went on, of course I was there. And of course I felt sad, but while watching it I caught myself on the idea that I have heard not so many of his songs -I mean, of course I knew a lot of them, but he has million more. I think all of us have heard much more about his operations or some extraordinary behavior than of his art. And that is pity – but that is exactly what people are interested in – the personal life – and PR serves them in that.

And PR was there even when he died. Actually, I still can`t believe he is dead – instead of that I`m likely to think that that is nothing but a great PR-campaign – but in this case it`s too cruel. Why did they make his children come over and try to talk about their father at such a moment. And again – we, spectaculars were interested in it – how are his children? is it really true?

Sometimes we forget about real things, about people, feelings, love, grief…otherwise we think about money, fame, curiosity, PR…that`s cruel. Let us try to change a bit and make PR more white than black as it DOES matter whether PR is “black or white”

The Idol

 

 

Richard Branson

“My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them…from the perspective of wanting to live life to the full, I felt that I had to attempt it.”

Richard Branson

 

Do you believe that a 15-year old boy with absolutely no money turned out to be a billionaire in only 5 years…I DO!

His name is Richard Branson and he is the inventor and the owner of the “Virgin” brand. You might think, why him? There is Bill Gates who is the richest person in the world…But I still want to tell you about Branson.

The story of his success is really amazing. His father was a barristor but Richard didn`t get high grades at school, so at the age of 15 he decided to publish the “Student” magazin. He had absolutely no experience and money. But he had 2 good friendes and nice aunt who aggreed to lend him 2000 US dollars.

After the magazin he set up the audio record mail-order business and later on opened a chain of record stores and called them “Virgin”.  What I found interesting while reading his bestseller book “Loosing my Virginity”, is that any business he started he started with absolutely no experience or advisors. He did everything on his own with two his friends. Richard was always responsible for marketing, PR and negotiations. Sometimes I found his ideas crazy, but nor did he – he always had a great power to believe in what he was doing. I strongly recommend you to read his book as it will help you to understand PR in practice – sometimes you don`t have to study it at the university – you just have to have a feeling – that is what Richard Branson has anyway!

Nowadays he still runs his “Virgin” and recently it has grown to the “Virgin Atlantic Airways”. As you may notice – absolutely another field.  What is more, several times he tried to make world-record having flown round the Earth on a ballon. He has a wife, 2 children and an Virgin island. He also has his blog that I would also recommend you to have a look at – it`s your chance to get in touch with a great, interesting and challenging person who can teach you not only PR but life!

Product Placement – a gentle way of PR

I believe some of you have an idea of what Product Placement (click) stands for. If I were a PR-lecturer I would say that it`s a gentle way of PR. We are all fed up with direct advertising, marketing and stuff like that. PR-managers understood that quite quickly and decided that they would rather create something new than loose their job. That was the time when they created Product Placement.

A month ago I went to the “Sex and the City” movie. May be that happened as I am in love with that movie, but I noticed hardly any product placement advertising. And only now as I`m writing this post the best brands coming out of my mind: Dior, Gucci, Maybach, Hermes, Mercedes, MOET…I could continue this list for an hour at least. By the way, for those who had no chance to watch it, here is the official trailer.

Guess how much Alicia Keys was paid for the main song of the movie “Empire State of Mind” – also a kind of product placement.

Actually, product placement is my favourite kind of PR-tools but only when it is used professionally – I mean when the product is a kind of hidden in the scenario and you can hardly notice it.

As a bad product placement example I would point out Russian movies where the promo product is Vodka. They put it everywhere – characters drink the spesific vodka all movie long and always say it`s name  – may be that is the reason why europeans tend to think of russians as of one of the most drunk nation.

At the end I wanted to show you the montage of films showing quite obvious product placement advertising…

PR for Blogging or Blogging for PR?

Today I thought of such a thing: what comes first – PR or blogging?

Sounds strange, I know, but I will explain.

While blogging we all have some intentions of doing it. Some are just interested in it, others want to tell something important, but nowadays the majority uses blogs in their business purposes. And, of course, for all bloggers their own blog is something very-very important. That is why all bloggers would like as much as possible people to know about what are they writing about. In this case they start using some PR tools to “promote” their blog…That is how PR serves for Blogging.

But let us think the other way around. In the modern world there are SO MANY different possibilities and tools of public relations – some become old and “retire”, others appear and continue their life becoming successful PR-manager`s helpers. Today, I should say, blogging is one of the most popular and innovative PR instruments as it´s modern, interactive and live. Blogs are also famous for possibility to give and get  feedbacks and comments being a great tool of communication. So, no wonder, Blogging is a fantastic PR possibility and has a great future!

So it´s not OR it´s anyway AND! PR for Blogging AND Blogging for PR! 

And here are some tips for those who want to promote their blog!

What is YOUR target audience?

Target audience

 

Today I`m posting about one of the basic things in PR and that is target audience. If you follow my blog you should understand that any message should have it`s audience and therefore correspond it`s audience`s needs.

To make the point more clear I will show you some examples from real life.

As a woman, have you ever thought that your expectations from men will differ as you become older. I did. Here are some phrase continuations: “My man should…”

16 years

• be handsome
• have a car
• deserve on me

21 years

• be a good person
• with high education and therefore with high income
• clever
• generous
• tender
• full of surprises
• romantic lover
• with his own style

32 years

• nice looking (please, no bold head )
• have enough money for romantic dinner at least once a month
• help me carrying food bags
• have at least one suit
• have shower
• remember my birthday
• laugh on my funny stories

40 years

• have a permanenet job
• sometimes invite me on dinners
• nodding when I`m talking
• remember the endings of my funny stories
• be healthy enough to move the furniture

55 years

• have some savings
• not telling the same funny stories too often
• wear the same color socks
• remember his own name
• shave himself from time to time

65 years

• shouldn`t scare children
• snore not so loud
• realize what is funny and what is not
• recognize me

75 years

• breathe

Some of the points are not that funny, but that is the trueth and shows very well that different target audience has different needs and preferences. And PR-managers must take that in consideration so that their campaigns were successful and reached it`s goals.

In our example target audience is defined by age. It could also be identified by gender, social status, cultural level, income, hobbies or other preferences.

According to many studies you as PR-manager and therefore a client should be happy if your target audience are kids or animals (I mean the pet owners of course) as these groups are very easy to influence.

Office of your dream…Enjoy it!

I suppose you are shoked. So was I…At first I couldn`t realize what was that, but as the time passed and I started thinking consciously again I instantly understood that that was exactly the place I wanted to work at. Sliding from one floor to another, chance to play WII, chimney room, a restaurant instead of canteen and even alive penguin!!! Google office in Zurich…Great!

But after a while questions started spreading out of my mind…How? Who? Why?…

And the answer was obvious…It`s PR again!

Corporate PR is a very important part of public relations as it serves the internal audience. The aim of corporate PR is to make employees happy and loyal so that they wouldn`t even think of changing the company. For such company as Google it is twice more important and necessary as they can`t afford themselves to loose the best employees that make the company the best of the best.

Corporate PR includes several parts:

• croporate events
• great working conditions (office, transport, suitable working hours)
• health insurance
• additional holidays
• Intranet
• corporate media (radio, newspaper, magazine)
• kindergarten and school for employees` children
• corporate presents
• employees` further education

Nowadays companies spend huge ammounts of money on corporate PR. It was estimated that investing in your employees and their well-being is much more profitable than recruiting all the time. Companies need permanent and loyal employees who are well aware of the company`s problems and how to solve them in appropriate way.  And Zurich office of Google is a great example of how the best company has the best employees working in the best office!

Image-making

Not many of us tend to think about the fact that the people we watch on TV on a daily basis looked a bit different before their PR-manager started working on them. This part of PR is called image-making.

Image-making is a PR tool that makes you see what you want to see and makes you feel and react the way that is needed. In special PR-research centers many people are working on finding out the features and special buttoms to be pushed with the help of visualization in order to get the necessary result. So, it`s been proved that the look is often more important than any political programm or best single ever. If you don`t believe me, here are the pictures…

Angela Merkel before

Angela Merkel after

But…not always PR serves for advantages…that is the time when black PR comes on the scene.

Yushenko before and after

That is how Ukrainian President Viktor Yushenko had changed during his election campaign. Nobody knows who is in charge for that until now. And who cares what political  changes he had promised before his elections. After he was poisoned and his face changed like that his ratings went down like a shot.

They say that there is no place for miracle. I agree. But only before image-maker starts his work.

PR-manager main tool

Imagine you`ve just got a new job as a PR-manager and your first task is to write a press-release…What an animal is it?

As a PR-manager you MUST know that – it`s your main friend and enemy in one.

Your company launches a new shop and your aim is to get as more clients as possible – you need your target audience to KNOW about the event. So…what you do – you write a press-release.

The main thing you need to keep in mind is that each serious journalist gets around 550 press-releases on daily basis. So, you don`t want your one to be something like that

Dead press-release

Your aim is at least 80 media responses out of 150 press-releases you distributed. Like this:

Press-release distribution goal.

I will tell you the secret. There is only one main rule – press-release is the rule of  inverted pyramid:

 

 

Inverted Pyramid.

I would also recommend you to follow some extra rules taken from my personal experience:

• each paragraph should have not more than 2-3 sentences
• it`s crutial to write the exact date and time of the event
• use 1 perfect expert quotation
• the text should not be emotional
• it should be maximum 1 page 

Ok, great, now you are almost a copywriter. To check your skills you may have a look on some press-release samples.

Just two stories…

We all know that nowadays big corporations as well as small companies spend a lot of money on original and creative PR ideas, great shows and events to get a strong brand power. They hire professionals and pay them great salaries…But…you might have noticed from your personal experience that things not always happen to be the way you would like them to. In PR it is all pretty much the same.

Just two stories…

I think you all know her. It is 18-year old Maria Sharapova having won Wimbledon. She was not a quite well-known player but her father (and her manager) had a feeling and always trusted in daughter. So, several weeks before the tournament he called Motorola Head office and suggested them a deal that Maria is going to be Motorolas brand face. Of course, not for free. Company manager only laughed to such a crazy proposal – he hadn’t believed in 18-year old girl. So, clever dad hung up.

We all saw in the video what was the first thing Sharapova had done after she became a champion – she tried to call her mom. That was the moment when all the world saw Maria`s old cell phone but not Motorola one. Only a lazy hadn’t broadcasted that happy moment. By the way, that Motorola manager was fired and the company signed a contract with Sharapova in 3 months time but on much more profitable for Maria conditions)

And the second story.

Putin and his wife greeting guests

It is the 60^th anniversary of the Great Victory in the Second World War in Moscow. The Government really tried to change the weather but it still was raining…all the parade long. Russian president Putin had nothing to do but tp continue greeting guests from all over the world. First Putin and his wife tried to ignore the rain but it soon become impossible, so they and all their guests were given umbrellas. Ordinary black umbrellas…but with a white Voque logo. I was watching that parade and once again thought of Alena Doletskaya (editor of the Russian Voque fashion magazine) as of a great PR professional as that parade was broadcasted by all!!! World stations and channels. In a month time I found out that Voque management and Doletskaya personally had absolutely no idea hoa have Voque umbrellas appeared on the Red Square in Moscow.

So, chance is also a great part of success in Public Relations. And having the ability to use that happy chance is the feature of cool PR-man.

The RIGHT kind of person…

Ok…today we are trying to find an answer to the question: “WHO IS HE…PR-MAN?”… Actually more often it`s HE…I mean there are a lot of women in PR, but as statistics shows us, men here are more successful.

The other point here is that you have to be the RIGHT KIND OF PERSON and your education plays absolutely no role. Unfortunately I realized that quite recently – otherwise I would not spend 5!!! years studying PR. The most important in PR-career is your PERSONALITY with all necessary features:

1. Perfect communicational skills
2. Being a great actor
3. Creativity
4. High IQ level

A high-level PR-manager MUST have:

1. An assistant
2. A cell phone with a large charge capacity (the more the better)
3. A huuuuge contact-book with as many contacts as possible

I know it all sounds quite glamorous but let us for just one second take a look on the other side of the medal.

People who work in PR are always very-very unhappy as they can`t draw a line between their personal life and business as they work almost all their time (including their free-time). Sometimes they are so into their business that they can`t realize if they are still playing their role or it`s already time to turn into yourself again.

Another important thing is that as PR is often involved into celebrations, holidays and posh life-style, you have to consider that and behave respectively. PR-managers often suffer from alcoholism, nightmares, depressions and stuff like that.

In my post I am not trying to persuade you that PR is something bad but I just want to warn that it`s not always that glance, chic and fancy… But everything has it`s ups and downs and finally it is all up to you, your goals and, again, PERSONALITY.

All in all PR has always been a challenging stuff for “privileged” and we all know that everything that is forbidden is the most desirable.