Jumping on the news agenda

One of the stories that caught my eye last week was about the Manchester United fan that dialled 999 to speak to Alex Ferguson after their League Cup defeat to Sunderland.

As well as being amusing, I was intrigued as to how the call made it in to the news. I hoped the answer was that a savvy press officer from the Greater Manchester Police saw the news value of the call and set the ball rolling.

Looking at the Facebook page, this seems to be the case, although they may not have realised how big the story was going to be. It was covered everywhere.

To that press officer, I say well done. PRs often dream of jumping on the news agenda in a creative way that  communicates their organisation's key messages. But making it happen is extremely difficult. This is an example that really worked.  

But why? Well, I think there were a few reasons: 

• It summed up much of the audience’s feeling about the current form of Manchester United and the yearning for the glory days of Sir Alex Ferguson, meaning it fitted perfectly with the coverage of Man United's defeat.
• It was great content. It was genuinely funny and by making a recording of the call available, it worked equally well for broadcast and print and was extremely shareable on social media.
• And finally, it had an important message at it’s heart – don’t waste police time by calling 999 if there isn’t an incident.

It just goes to show, that quick thinking and execution can often be just as effective as a well thought out campaign. No delays on sign-off on this one. We could probably all learn from the savvy press officer from the Greater Manchester Police. 

Shelter and its helpline

Nearly all big charities now have a helpline. But few use them to bring their charity’s work to life as well Shelter.

Through recording the volume of calls they get and the common housing issues that people are calling about, the charity is able to act as a barometer for the strain people are under when it comes to the cost of living and prospect of homelessness.

This is more credible and newsworthy than any poll or commissioned research, and obviously a lot cheaper.

A great example of Shelter creating stories in this way was when Metro joined its helpline to find out what it’s like to be homeless at Christmas.

In the story, Liz Clare, team leader for the Shelter Helpline says: “Last year, we saw the number of callers to the helpline rise by ten per cent and this year we’re expecting them to go up again.”

This is news in itself.

But if the best stories are about people, then the helpline provides this in abundance as well.

A story based on the same figures in the Independent starts: “The gruff voice at the other end of the phone sounds panicked. “I'm in court at three,” the man says, his words cracking with anxiety, “that's less than three hours' time. I'm worried we're going to lose our house”.

To complete the story, members of the helpline show how passionate the charity is about helping people and call for further support from the public - the main objective for any charity story.

Helpline worker, Nadeem Khan, said:  “Hearing the desperation in [callers’] voices is heartbreaking but there’s nothing more rewarding than knowing we can help them. We will be busier than ever over the holidays and this means we need as much support as possible to make sure we can help everyone who needs us.”

This really is effective and nearly free PR. But it doesn’t stop with traditional media. ‘

Helpline takes over Twitter

A couple of weeks ago, Shelter complimented this approach by live-tweeting from its helpline for the day. It shared some of the issues that people were calling about and re-tweeted people thanking Shelter for its help at some point in their lives.

Again, this perfectly showed the value of the charity’s helpline and the life-changing support it’s giving people every day.

For this, as well as its forthright campaigning, I’m certain that more people see Shelter as a 

place they can turn to for help. I’ve no doubt that it also inspires more people to support the charity, including me.

This is PR that works.  

No time to bypass the press

Ian Burrell’s feature in Monday’s Independent raises the prospect that organisations are becoming so equipped at creating their own content that they could start to by-pass mainstream media altogether.

The fact that PR has become a topic worthy of a full page of national news coverage shows the prominence of the industry today. I can’t imagine this being the case, even when I started.

In the feature, Burrell says:

“Today our culture has been so transformed by social media and rapid advances in mobile technology that PR strategy is often to bypass traditional news outlets by self-generating content that is delivered direct to the public.”

…

 “This avalanche of professionally produced comment, analysis and feature material posing as editorial must mean that news “churnalism” has negligible value. Most news sites are still fixated on mass traffic and have an insatiable appetite for material. But newspaper websites will find it harder to attract traffic if companies and PRs turn their backs on the press.”

Undoubtedly, social media has changed the way news breaks and is reported. Twitter has been instrumental in this. It means that millions of organisations as well as people are sharing and spreading news and opinions every minute.

But this doesn’t mean that mainstream media is dead. I’m still yet to work on a campaign that doesn’t see a slot on BBC Breakfast or a page lead in the Telegraph as the primary barometers of success. I won’t be turning my back on the press yet.  

There are a number of reasons for this.

I suspect the views of many senior managers about what makes a successful campaign need to catch-up with the mediums that actually influence audiences. People love seeing their names in the newspaper.

Also, making that piece of viral content that’s going to be seen by millions is a science that no one has mastered.

But, more important, is that the one thing self publishers lack is the independent credibility of the press.

As Burrell points out, press coverage is often called “earned media” by PRs. This is because it’s precisely that - it’s earned its right to be there as news. This gives it the credibility that advertising or self generated content could never demand.

As Burrell mentions, press releases being churned out by mainstream media (churnalism) is a danger for journalism.

But this is also a danger for PR, rather than an opportunity for more coverage.

It’s in no ones interest for it to become easier for the PR profession to get its stories covered in the media. Diminishing the credibility of the press through publishing verbatim press releases  takes away the very thing that the PR profession is working so hard to secure – the press' independent authority on what is genuine news.