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Articles and Ideas
| Maximize the Press for Success |
| How to Broadcast the Benefits of Parks and Recreation |
| by |
| Jodi L. Rudick, MAS |
It’s eight a.m. on a Monday. Your voice mail reports that you already have two messages. One is from your city manager and the other from a less-than-supportive commissioner. Both tell you that they saw the story about your department on last night’s news. You panic. You just came back from vacation and haven’t seen the local news in a week. Now that you think about it, you didn’t even check your home answering machine messages. What could have happened? Did someone get hurt in one of your parks? Did an angry patron call the consumer affairs reporter? Was there gang violence at the pool? Just as you feel yourself break into a sweat, your phone rings. You brace yourself for the worst...
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“Congratulations!” shouts the voice of your favorite senior volunteer through the receiver. “It seems like those newspeople finally understand all the great work you and your staff do! You must have been thrilled to see the fantastic coverage of the teen center.” After admitting you missed the news you find out that, last night’s story was not a disaster but one which brilliantly highlighted the positive impact the Youth Center has had on the lives of several formerly troubled teens -- one of whom is now an intern at the TV station.
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Are You a Media Cynic? - Do you think of the media as a sabotaging foe or as your best connected friend? Are you disappointed because media focus seems to be always be on law enforcement, education and social service agencies instead of equally important park and recreation programs? Do you wish the media would cover your events and programs as front page features, rather buried calendar listing?
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No question about it...the media can make or break an organization. The power of publicity lies in public trust that information is objective and fair. Advertising, on the other hand, is paid-for-space causing consumer wariness. The press reaches, enfluences and provides information to every member of our fast paced, high tech society --- man or woman, rich or poor, young or old.
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Boost Credibility -Favorable media coverage can greatly boost your agency’s credibility. Innovative park and recreation agencies are learning agressively maximize media impact by engaging in well-constructed, sometimes simple publicity campaigns.
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Positive media publicity is also is a great way to get your decision-makers on your side of the fence. Your politicians, city counsel, mayor, commissioners and board of directors are dependent upon constituent support. Constituent support is often times paralleled by media coverage. People can be swayed by their favorite publication, T.V. or radio show.. Today’s taxpayer is admittedly influenced by their favorite anchor person, columnist or talk show host.
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Positive publicity is also a great way to boost staff morale and instill pride. Everyone likes to work for an organization or department who’s positively represented in on TV, radio and on the front pages.
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Sponsors and donors will also be very interested in your publicity success. Sponsors want to know what they will get in exchange for dollars or in-kind donations. Your successful publicity track record will convince them that you can help create name recognition, new customers, credibility and positive public opinion.
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It’s Time to Broadcast Benefits of Parks and Recreation - The mission of NRPA’s Benefits of Parks and Recreation Movement is to improve the way the public erceives park and recreation programs. Professionals need to tell a benefits based story to their staff, their decision makers, customers and the public at large. “Reaching the public is a difficult task,” admits June Dudas, Assitant to the Director at San Diego Park and Recreation Department. Like most departments, large and small, we don’t have the money to engage in a full blown advertising campaign. We have quickly learned, however, that we do have a very valuable marketing weapon that is almost free --Publicity.”
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Because San Diego’s Park and Recreation Department does not have a dedicated public information officer, the staff took publicity matters into their own hands. Dudas learned quickly that the press can be very receptive and powerful as long as she follows thier rules. “Responsiveness is key. When the press needs information or a source, they need it now. They’re deadlines might force them to choose another story rather than wait for me to get out of a meeting”. It is also critical to link your story to current issues and events. Dudas encourages her entire staff to be on the lookout for publicity opportunities and events by reading, watching and observing events in the community. Dudas also stresses the importance of persistence and patience. “As long as we consistently feed the media good angles and ideas, we have found that eventually the right story will fit their schedule and agenda. We don’t take lack of response personnally, but rather the opportunity to try again with a new angle.”
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Real Results - San Diego’s efforts have paid off in a big way. In July Dudas and her volunteer public relations team put together a very simple media kit and Benefits are Endless...tm Public Service Announcement featuring NBA Hall of Famer and San Diego Native Bill Walton. The PSA was mailed with a cover letter, script and fax back form to eleven public service directors in the market. This simple kits contained two one page news releases, a few current program flyers and cover letter and were hand delivered or mailed to local magazines, newspapers, television and radio stations. “Although this was our first attempt at generating publicity for the department, we were pleasantly overwhelmed at the response. We were featured on eight television news broadcast, two sports columns, one front page feature story, two radio interviews, a three hour radio co-host right from one of our parks, and commitments to run the “Benefits are Endless...tm” PSA for over 60 cumulative weeks on every network affiliate and two independent stations. Sunset Magazine also ran a professionally pitched four page story about Balboa Park and will feature the Department in December, as well. In addition, local and HBO have filmed programs directly from San Diego’s Teen Center.
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Another exciting outcome came as a result of a mention of our Volunteer Recognition Dinner in a Sunday sports column. Dudas explains, “The San Diego Chargers called us and offered us one pair of tickets for every volunteer honoree--over 300 pairs of tickets valued at over $15,000.” It is very common for potential sponsors to read or heard about worthy programs through press coverage, rather than solicitations. Dudas says that she has not recieved a negative reception from a single TV station or newspaper.. “They seem thrilled, even thankful to work with us!”
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Dudas’ experience is not unusual. The fact is that media people rely on pitch letters and press releases to get information. A survey in Press Relations Journal showed that more than half of all editors rely on press releases almost as much as they count on material from their staff writers. Dudas agrees but knows to write all news releases and pitch letters using benefits language explaining why the information is so important to readers or listeners.
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Solutions Journalism Trend - Many park and recreation agencies are publicity reactive or defensive. A child gets hurt, a crime occurs in a facility and they are forced to defend themselves which cause loss of control. People often complain that the media is only interested in bad news. According to Karen Lin Clark, “Solutions” Editor at the San Diego Union Tribune, “That is not true. The media is looking for all kinds of news and information. Editors and program directors are expert at sifting through stacks of news releases to find the ones that meet the needs of their readers” They are also looking for solutions to reader and viewer problems which will help sell newspapers and keep people away from the remote control. Says Clark “Our job as journalists is to cover news and features that impact a large number of readers. It is our responsibility to uncover community problems.” Solutions and Civic Journalism, Clark explains, is a releatively new national and local media trend which expands coverage to highlights solutions to these problems.
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Plan, List and Write - Dudas strongly recommends that any agency wanting to generate ongoing positive publicity develop a publicity plan. It helps solidify publicity objectives, target audiences, strategies, desired coverage, assigments and timing. It is also important to compile a good solid media list. While some of San Diego’s goals are regional and national, most involve increasing local awareness for department programs and benefits.
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The media list is an important publicity tool “In only a few months our list has undergone major reconstruction,” admits Dudas. In the beginning we only had mailing addresses; now we know the names of specific editors, e mail addresses, direct phone lines and fax numbers. We also always ask contacts how they prefer to receive information.” Whether you have a media contact list or not; or you can build and update it at the library, chamber of commerce, the internet, even the yellow pages.
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Every publicity campaign includes press releases and pitch (or query letters). The press release is the primary tool of public relations and can be a news or feature release. Standard news releases are straight forward, immediate; a feature release is still newsworthy, but in a broad, more timeless sense. Longer than a standard release that announces news about your organization, the feature release will focus on solving problems and answering questions. It could run in today’s paper, or it could be used next week, next month, or in some instances, with a little updating, years from now. Feature releases may highlight the human interest side of the story. It may shed light on an intriguing or unknown facet of your department, service, facility, staff, board members or customers. While features are often related to breaking news, the appeal comes from its interesting perspective or unusuall point of view. Think of it as a way to bring dull facts and statistics to life.
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The Opportunities are Endless - Publicity opportunities are all around park and recreation agencies. Here are some ideas to get you started:
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The media likes to know about accomplishments, especially of public employees. Notify them when you, your staff, volunteers or commissioners receive awards, promotions, or appointments to special committees.
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Every time you create a new program or service to better serve citizens the media needs to know.
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Celebrations are newsworthy whether they be dedications, special events, anniversaries, ground breakings or grand openings.
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People love tips, suggestions and helpful hints. Your staff is full of knowledge about hundreds of topics from gardening to dog obedience, child care to domestic violence. Share this expertise with your citizens through publicity.
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The media loves surveys, especially those that affect a large number of their listeners or readers. Share the latest findings about stress related disease, drop-out rates or teen violence while promoting related programs.
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Editors admit that they are most interested in feature stories that meet one of two criteria: They either look for hard news tie-ins or stories that are full of benefits and solutions to readers problems.
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Look at today’s local news paper, this week’s national news magazines. Watch Headline News, listen to radio talk shows. All around you are news stories which relate to your programs and benefits. From alcoholism to domestic violence, education to elections, taxes to investments, stress to tests, body image to self esteem.
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| Need some help with your publicity? NRPA is proud to introduce its newest educational tool, “Broadcast the Benefits - Publicist in a Box.” This audio cassette program and 130 page manual teaches you one-on-one how to write a winning news release that gets your name and agency in print and on the air for free. This package includes four audio cassettes, a hands-on workbook plus more than 30 pages of park and recreation news releases, cover letters, query letters, follow-up letters and sidebars! On-site, live Broadcast the Benefits Publicity Workshops can also be arranged. For more information or to place your order call (760)-721-3737 or fax (760)721-3323. |
| Jodi Rudick is the author of BAM! Benefits Activated Marketing and Broadcast the Benefits Publicist-in-a-Box. To find out more about Jodi’s award-winning ideas, easy-to-use manuals or in-service training programs call 760-730-0333 or email jodi@advisorsmarketing.com. Or visit the ADvisors on-line at www.advisorsmarketing.com. |
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9/8/2010
BREAKING NEWS!
Jodi's Brand New Book is here!
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MORE BREAKING NEWS!
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