@dvocable

So many times have I come out of meetings with the last words still ringing in my head, “This plan lacks the BIG IDEAS, it’s too plain, “Give us better plans, “Give us out-of-the-box ideas, give us ideas on how we can escalate our existing PR strategies to the next level…etc. etc…” I would then search the inner realms of my head to try and figure out what else could I suggest to this Client…I have given him eleven plans before this already with out-of-the-box, unconventional ideas and concept notes that have been approved but never executed, read but not approved and many, which are just unread mails in the Client’s inbox.

The excuses for not executing the out-of-the-box plans previously furnished could be umpteen… “No budget, no management approvals, no marketing team approvals, too big an idea, too small an idea, now is not right time and many more”.

This one is for our Clients…. J

In most cases the plans do not move forward because there is no synchronisation between the Corporate Communications teams and the marketing teams of the Clients. I am not talking about the ad hoc activities and support provided by PR for all events and initiatives proposed by the marketing teams. I am talking about integrating PR with the corporate vision of the organisation, getting the marketing teams involved along with corporate teams to interact with the PR team. Give a sense of the budget, what is it that you wish to achieve in your annual plans in terms of recall, the involvement you are willing to give in terms of monies, energy, people and commitment to causes. And why do I ask for all of this? Since PR nowadays is not just about media plans. PR professionals and agencies are getting more and more aggressive and integrated in their approach towards how they garner Client recall and build their brands.

Every plan that is made my PR professionals are rife with ambitions for their Clients, expecting and hoping that the Client would laud, encourage, and execute the ideas that the professionals have imbued in the plans. It all starts with the Client saying; ‘I want more than cc coverage’… the PR teams do put in their entire mind to create amazing plans and then frustration seeps in as the Client keeps rejecting the ideas under the pretext of budget, timing, and non conformity with teams internally. That’s not fair, is it?!

Which is why the solution is to get all concerned teams in the Client’s organisation who are a party to giving permission for all initiatives and activities should sit with the PR team and engage in meaningful briefing, laying clear limitations, aspirations and organisation objectives and budgets. That way the PR teams can come back with executable plans and ideas that work, that click and that create the much needed boost to the brands.

Clients need to stop treating PR agencies as vendors to get media exposures… PR agencies aren’t delivery boys whom you just hand over releases and who run around the city to get media coverage. They are hard thinking, intelligent, talented professionals, who are day in and day out striving to get that extra bit of brand recall over your competitors and working along with you to build your organisation’s perception. Treat PR professionals as your brand ‘consultants’… people who make you look good in black and white… people who are putting you in pages of history and making everyone worth a read.

Give it a thought… make PR worth the while for yourself… with the right tone of briefings, knowing what is it that you want to achieve for your organisations and encouraging PR teams to think innovatively for you.

Something I’m increasingly seeing on Chrome: unsupported sites. One reason among others why I’m still sticking to Firefox.

Some of world’s best brands have been built with PR.

With rising media costs and lack of deep pockets to spend, many brands are seriously considering using PR in a big way to promote their brand in the most cost efficient manner. Recently I was chatting with few of my friends who are working on various brands starting from FMCG to Consumer Durables to lifestyle. During our intense conversation, most of these people felt that new and innovative options need to be discovered to promote brands as returns on spending huge money on mass media is not delivering the desired results.

Now why are these people questioning the ROI? The answer to this is very simple. Today with the increase in the number of channels and audience fragmentation; marketers are not able to catch their audience that easily. They need to increase their promotional budgets to reach a larger audience but the results are not satisfactory. Even the print and the outdoor medium have become equally expensive. One cannot get a great impact by taking a few hoardings in any city. Even if you take a good number of sites the sustenance factor steps in. How long I can continue the campaign? Marketers are looking answers for these. Do we have an answer? The answer is yes. Marketers need to start innovating to fight this rise in media prices, media fragmentation and high clutter levels by just revisiting their communication and media strategy.

Powerful Public relations strategy is one way to look at:

Some of the world’s best brands have been built though PR. Our own software company Infosys is both a leading Indian and global brand which has grown in manifolds by brilliantly planned PR strategy. We must also remember that the company has delivered value and has consistently performed. Apart from some advertisements during the IPO, this brand has been build brick by brick purely using public relations in the most effective manner. The brand has become almost a familiar brand amongst software engineers and aspiring engineers. We have more such examples of brands that have build their corporate brands through PR.

Google is another brand which is in everybody‘s mind starting from today’s teenager to the senior citizen. This brand has never advertised in India but the brand has grown in leaps and bounds to have the largest email service in India, Gmail. The brand Google has become so familiar and friendly that people use the phrase ‘Google’ it to get any information on the net.

TCS is also another brand that has taken its brand to new global heights through PR. While TCS has the support of the TATA name but to become a global brand on software space PR has played a pivotal role for TCS. The secret of success for all these brands has been their focused vision and commitment which PR has leveraged at every stage of the growth of the company. Also with PR this brand has managed to build credibility and faith with their stakeholder which has in the end resulted in raising the equity of the brand both domestically and globally.

It’s misnomer to think PR is just press release:

About two decades back PR was just about disseminating news via press release or through press conference. But over the last few years that has radically changed. More and brands are placing their faith on PR to build credibility which is difficult to achieve through the conventional advertising and publicity. While some of the reputed brands spend a lot of money on advertising but they still use PR to restore faith and confidence among its audience.

Two great launches or event in the recent period that has implemented PR effectively has been the announcement of TATA’S NANO. There was great PR build up before the official announcement and showcasing of the product at the AUTO EXPO. This was possible because there was a great story to talk about in terms of a ONE LAC car which was a great dream and aspiration for many Indian consumers to own a car. It was a good strategy on the part of TATAs to use PR as it is PR that built confidence and credibility among the prospective consumers to reassure yes we are giving you a car for ONE LAKH. Public relations in t his case could play a very important role as there was a great story to tell. In fact I hardly could see any advertisement on the day of the launch. The PR really overpowered the print campaign. And the reason for the same is that consumers need to know more about the product and PR was the best tool to sell this revolutionary concept in car. If you have a great story to tell then brands must strongly move towards using PR as a weapon. In case of TATA NANO if we count on the coverage they got through PR and convert it to advertisement rates it would be quite substantial may be even match the budget they spend on advertising.

Even the success for IPL must be attributed to a large extent to PR. While individual teams and brands did some advertisement what really caught cricket fans is this new concept which had great news and story to talk about. Today post the first IPL league many teams are seriously considering to revamp their image through PR before the champion’s league. All of us know cricket is a religion in our country and the hype generated through the press will create more excitement and interest than patriotic HINGLISH jingles and use of celebrities by various teams in their campaign. IPL really drew more viewer ship on channels more crowds to the stadium but more than this there was great buzz around in the social network media where different community groups were formed to track the matches with their own views and criticism. This is where social media network as a medium is being used to drive PR.

Use of new age media and innovative media opportunity in PR:

The advent of new media like blogs and social network has made PR more innovative and interactive. Facebook, My space and Orkut are some of the few social network media which are being used by many brands to touch the younger audience. Various movie reviews and play reviews are available if you are part of any community in the social media network. The audience you converse through this social network are becoming strong testimonials to tell you or give you more information of a movie or purchasing a music gadget. This of course is supplemented by the news that appears in the dailies and other media which helps in getting brands closer and into the consideration set.

I am told most of the electronic products such as the laptops the final decision in buying is made by the consumer only using the mediums like the internet by reading their product reviews etc. This also holds true with automobiles where the prospects reads reviews about the brand and product from various auto journals before they decide to arrive on the brand to buy or test drive it.

The other innovative ideas to get your brand promoted are product placement opportunity in various media which is relevant to the brand. For e.g. TV show featuring on real estate one can promote a microwave by displaying the product in such shows which is part of the accessories customers look at buying for their kitchen. Brands could also tie up with construction houses to get write up about their product in their brochures and website.

The use of PR needs to be tactically applied and one must have a good story to pitch for the media to talk about. In the coming years Public relation will move faster and more brands will seriously consider to use this communication tool to build the credibility of the brand as costs on the media front is just going up and up. With increase of more GEC in the electronic medium and TRPs fluctuating as channels are bringing freshness in the programming marketers are need take lot of risks to place their brand in these channels without knowing the right ROI from these programs.

Public relations will play a great role in providing marketers to infuse good strategy which will get them stories and credibility. One also needs to think beyond just coverage and come out with out of box thinking to get qualitative message through PR.

Recently we did an event for an eye wear company for the launch of its new collection. Even though I knew it was totally a lifestyle event, I was expecting a little bit of a corporate element in it. May be because I was running away from the lifestyle part of it as I personally don’t like it much. My experience with lifestyle PR has been not so well.

After handling some of these so called ‘lifestyle’ events, I thought lifestyle PR was nothing but more of a coordination job.

Back to the event, the venue was full of the page three type people and the models were walking on the ramp. We forgot we were there for an event and started getting the feel of a ‘party’ even though, every minute the phone would ring and the journalists would remind you that you are there for work and not to enjoy the ‘party’.

Strangely, I found the media too enthusiastic to attend the event. We did very less of the follow ups.

But there was nothing to be happy about it. Besides it was really a tough job to control the media during such events. Every one of them needs time with a celebrity for a byte and if something goes wrong, then it’s the PR agency that is to be blamed for that.

Talking about that, it’s been noticed that PR agencies are to be blamed for everything that go wrong at these types of events. Despite the fact that the person is out of control after three pegs of a drink, they wanted to speak to the media and give their ’special’ comments. Another problem is the timing, which needs to be taken care of. Most of the time, celebrities are not available before or after the event and sometime they are not in the MOOD to speak to the media. Again the PR agency is on fire.

We had more than five events recently with some famous celebrities for the launch of spas, fitness machines, etc. The only job the PR agency did was coordinating the timing for the interactions with the media. There were lots of fight for getting the interactions first, before any other. We had to refuse interactions for some of the media houses due to time constraint. I felt it could have been done by their secretaries or personal assistants as well.

Lifestyle PR is totally different from corporate PR. Here, we are not selling the company news, corporate figures, or any marketing strategies. The only thing media and the public want is celebrity and related gossip. I felt so odd when celebrity talked about her upcoming movies during the interaction. I felt like limiting their conversation only to the event and the organizer company. But that’s not the way things works. Readers need little more masala.

Sometime this masala creates crisis situation. For example, when one celebrity slapped his girlfriend few hours before an event. Consequently the entire coverage turned to their personal story and the media highlighted the slap case instead of what the event was all about. Everybody enjoyed the masala news and the channels gained their much desired TRPs, but that left the PR agency with a crisis situation. The client wants the event coverage, not the personal affairs of the celebrities.

It is becoming a trend to use celebrity as a brand ambassador to promote the brand. Companies can’t think of launching anything without a celebrity. Even few car manufacturers are using celebrities to launch their cars in the market. So celebrities are anyhow becoming a part of the corporate events as well. Hence PR agencies need to make a tight grip on corporate as well as lifestyle PR. To cope up this situation we need to gear up and accept the case that lifestyle PR is now an integral part of Corporate PR.

It doesn’t happen just with Hollywood or Bollywood stars. Sportsmen are also increasingly participating in this maddening but profitabe melee. The problems are same. I remember when I organised a face to face interaction for the opening batsman of the India Cricket team with one of the biggest publications. This interaction was the result of two days hard work but finally Mr.Batsman denied speaking to that particular publication, due to some personal reason. The PR agency got a major blasting from the journalist, who was waiting for his turn for more than three hours.

Another bad experience was when one of clients decided to take another world famous Indian cricketer (brand ambassador) to shopping for one day. However, the surprise was when Mr.World famous cricketer couldn’t speak much about the company his endorsing before the media. I believe they need proper media training before they face any media on behalf of any company.

All said and done, lifestyle PR seems to need a little more style from the PR agency and PR persons. It reminds me a dialogue from the movie DHOOM: HUM JO BHI KARENGE STYLE SE KARENGE.

Strangely, it was a client who taught me this equation, when I’d started my career in PR. I still remember the conversation with the MD of the company, him extolling the importance of PR in his company and me getting very impressed with what had landed in my lap. I was suddenly glad that I had decided to go for PR after college and the follow-up job given to me as my first PR assignment ever, started to make sense. What’s surprising is that not once during the meeting did he mention ‘media’, ‘coverage’ or ‘output’. “I do not want my PR agency to give me press coverage; I want you all to help me build my brand.” I was a convert for life.

Now, I am still to come across another client who shares this opinion. We all know how our monthly dossiers often become nightmares without the big numbers. Though I try to stick to the hallowed equation, I sometimes do find myself juggling interactions and press releases which only serve the purpose of the great Indian CC Output. It’s almost funny how clients can get obsessive about these things. I’m sure PR in India has a long way to go before our clients start to acknowledge the equation, but honestly, how many of us believe in it ourselves?

As PR professionals, we know it in our heads that that PR is about two-way communication with, and building perceptions among, the target group, which most definitely requires media to maintain third-party credibility. All this jazz roughly translates to focussed communication aimed at improving/adjusting/inspiring brand-image. When the target customer reads in her favourite magazine that the latest mobile phone from the client company is a must-have luxury gizmo, many things happen at once. The reader’s awareness of the brand improves a notch; the phone registers in the mental ‘things I want’ list; the customer’s old phone gets a thought or two; the client company gains brownie points for being premium; if the client is already premium, the ‘price on request’ below the phone description adds a little to the aspiration value, improving product desirability; and so on. All of this might or might not lead to a sale but definitely adds to the branding campaign.

Of course, we could say that after years in the industry we do not need to think about the consequential process at all and that we automatically know what to do. Yeah right!! Few clients even LET agencies decide between a release and a press conference for an announcement. Let us say we go for a press conference, what do we do? We start inviting everyone on the media list, start drafting collateral for the press kits, follow-up with the media, arrange for AV, follow-up some more, conduct a recce of the venue, follow-up, prepare a briefing document, follow-up even more while the poor journalist from a small regional daily is wondering why his readers would be interested in a business alliance between two purely B2B industrial manufacturing companies! Of course, he will attend the conference because his favorite Mr. PR ‘so-and-so’ invited him and of course he will give ‘coverage’ because the same so-and-so won’t stop calling if he didn’t.

In the end, what we have is a fat dossier and a big number for the CC output, and a happy client who thinks the press conference was a huge success, and by the way, also thinks that his PR agency is a media post office.

More than convincing the clients, we need to convince ourselves of the importance of what we do, in the larger scheme of things. The value we bring to a client’s brand is not the number of clips we generate in a quarter but the real impact they create, isn’t it? The equation only makes sense because brand building is exactly what PR is meant to do in the first place. (Picture source: Dadawan)

Have you ever felt that you are all back in school being a PR professional. I know I do. Feeling the same anxiety about PC’s and big event as I did in my exam days. Doing three-four rounds of followups as I did my revisions. Every one engaged in their own frenzy of calling and really contributing to the telecom players’ benefits during your conferences and events.

A client is calling up the manager in the team (of course the manager refrains from picking up the call and for juniors, it’s a protocol issue) at the start of the day!! Huh,,,, this is a mock test and every body is running around in the class room (agency) hunting for answers. The best one of them all – a surprise unit test is just like an immediate client review meeting. And then the report card – you get the picture, I am sure…….

Why is it that we need to panic at every big event, which the client throws at our faces? Let me cite an example that happened with one of my colleague recently (name not mentioned on request):

Oh crap!!! Spokesperson traveling:

Kindly observe the conversation below:

Client: “__(name)__, for your information, there will be a spokesperson traveling from our global end”

Agent: “Ok. Can you provide me with the details and possibly write me a mail on this? I’ll look into it and then get back to you.”

Client’s mail: for your information, there will be a spokesperson traveling from our global end. Get back to me with a plan on this before lunch (the time is 10:30 AM currently)!!!

Agent’s reply: Hi ___

I kindly would kindly need kindly the kindly profile kindly of kindly the kindly spokesperson. The kindly date kindly of kindly the kindly travel and kindly what kindly is kindly he kindly going kindly to kindly speak kindly on kindly. (delete kindly if you want to get the meaning, kindly is used as a tactic word to please the client).

Client: He’s going to be here by the second part of last quarter of the third day of the week after this one. Still waiting for the plan OK. (Sorry, a bit of exaggeration but this is how clients make it sometimes).

Now comes the real client servicing action. The agent applies all his heart, soul, and what all is left of his mind to examines past news coverage and documents to carefully jot down the possible talking points. The main heads of the usual talking points include:

1. Investment figures
2. Spokesperson’s role in the organization
3. Acquisitions/ventures/collaborations if any
4. Future outlook of the company
5. Company effective role in community contribution.

There are many more that can be added in that list but as I said these are the main ones.

Now back to our story, after the careful assessment and evaluation of the talking points a plan is not that difficult to be carved out. So its done. The PLAN is made and presented to the almighty client for inputs & approval. Again this process reminds me of my school days …..I am sure all of still remember ‘Fill in the blanks’. The document is presented to client for him to fill in the blanks. But here is the reality. The client very conveniently fills in all the gaps and shares it with our friend. On close evaluation he finds out:

1. Investment figures: The organization was sharing the same numbers since the past 2 ½ years.
2. Spokesperson’s role in the organization: Plays an important role in the development of our friend’s misery.
3. Acquisitions/ventures/collaborations if any: IF ANY (get the picture)
4. Future outlook of the company: Given; no matter how much I try to sabotage this points image it can be used at any point of time with media.
5. Company effective role in community contribution: None what so ever considering the fact that our friend belongs to the community.

Of course he was not able to get the obvious choice ET, TOI and sadly confessed before me by saying: “Saurabh, I feel like I’ve flunked”

I admit this is a very acute case of the widespread disease CED (Client Expectation Disorder) but we all know how to handle situations. With a little bit of experience we learn to create mountain out of molehills, generate news out of nothingness.

P.S: I believe the industry is changing from the other side. I believe, as shown in signs in previous posts the client is becoming more sensible towards media and more sensitive towards the limitations of the agency.

Yesterday I read an interview piece in one of the advertising news sites in India in which a senior professional of a PR agency sadly admitted perhaps PR is still just press relations in India. Another old report from PATA, which I happened to read yesterday, said almost the same thing. Reading these made me a bit sad and an inner voice told me to prove somehow it was wrong. PR is more than keeping our journalists friends happy and getting bit fat coverage for our clients. Sure our clients see more value in PR agencies than just that.

Maybe I was just trying to humor myself.

In a recent meeting with a tech major, the corp comm. asked when we presented some non media activities – where is the PR mileage? That question came many times over and however hard we tried to explain, he wasn’t convinced. Slowly it dawned to me that PR to him means media coverage. His question was actually – how do we get media coverage out of that activity?

Are we this bad?

Here are some examples (and more here) I gathered based on my own experiences and observations PR agencies don’t do just press relations anymore in India. Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

1. Strategy: I know this is an overused word. But there are clients, and big names there, that depends majorly on PR agencies to come with the entire launch programmes for its products. Not just that there is a marketing agency working for it and a PR agency has to supplement those marketing initiatives with media activities.

There are big agencies in the market known for their ‘strategy development’. For example a particular company comes with a request saying they are not going anywhere. ‘Please help us what we are doing wrong, what we should do, where are the opportunities, etc’. (Although not said in those many words often). Our agency specially conducts strategy workshops for new clients wherein the key messages and positioning are worked out before the start of any campaign, which are appreciated by majority of the clients.

2. Advocacy: Ok I don’t want to brag about my own agency but last year we did an award winning social campaign wherein our people successfully managed to get many TV stars and important government personalities to speak on public fora supporting the cause. None of the celebrities charged a dime, and even agreed to do a series of road shows. I guess this is an area where PR agencies have an edge over other agencies. For instance, approach these celebrities with your ad agency and the cost factor might just be put up front.

3. Investor relations/government relations: There are PR agencies known for their investor relations/IPO based services, analyst meets, or government relations services. These are not necessarily media activities.

4. Social media: The social media provides a new opportunity for PR agencies to connect with or clients’ customers bypassing the traditional media. I have written about this before mentioning that PR agencies with established social media practice will have an edge on blogger relations and on popularising/marketing a property online and among the various social media influencers and users than say a standalone social media agency that will primarily focus on the development part. I might be wrong but that seems to be my understanding from what I notice. The social media today provides a huge learning opportunity for PR agencies and leverage their expertise of planning a campaign and reaching out to a client’s stakeholders.

5. Editorial services: I am not talking about press releases, fact sheets, Q&As, or spokesperson briefing documents but about white papers, case studies, speeches, website content, etc. that might not have anything to do with any journalist ever but serve other important purposes to a client. Some of the agencies excel in providing these services with dedicated editorial and copywriting teams.

It’s been over a year since we conducted a survey here at IPRB but the last time we did it, we had some eye opening stats coming out. 

Now what is this new survey? The media in India today is often based on on their readership figures, but as PR professionals we know that their content and style matter a lot. And who else to ask than PR professionals about media houses and journalists. We have five simple questions and hope you can take two minues out of your time to fill this short survey. Your inputs will be much appreciated. 

There is only one answer for each question and that might appear a bit tricky but we think that is one way to just hit on to the best without complicating things too much. 

To go to the survey, please click here: Let’s rate the media

“But I want two corporate blogs, one each on Wordpress and Blogger! I do not want to lose out on any section of my target online audience!!”

A prospective client for digital PR made this statement recently with some enthusiasm and a lot of exasperation, after my two hour long presentation on social media. One deep breath later, I managed to draw an analogy he could understand and pointed out that the same way he wouldn’t keep two email addresses. Your browser may not support display of this image. Two corporate blogs would just dilute efforts. The client across the table was the internal marketing/advertising head. The next two hours were spent detailing what exactly PR is, what it does, and how different it is from advertising or bribing the media!

Many pitches down, I’ve realized that selling digital PR to clients, whether current or prospective, can be quite a frustrating job. While some clients might have greater understanding of what PR is and can see more clearly how an online campaign can complement a traditional one, many either confuse it with online advertising/marketing or feel that it’s just another platform for press release distribution.

Five ways to help ease the process:

1. Do an induction meeting: Just to set things straight. When you mention the possibility of a digital PR campaign to your client, you are thinking social networking groups and micro messaging. The client could be thinking Google ads and bannering, like we experienced the other day when a client kept probing us for a list of Indian websites for banner ads in our strategy presentation. Go with a presentation and educate the client on what the whole deal is all about.

2. Compare with traditional PR: Tell the client how different an online campaign is. If possible, go with case studies. If relevant case studies are not available within your organization, try sourcing one from an international campaign. Focus on strengths like intimacy with target audience, feedback generation, control, spontaneity and course correction. Give details on how the online space can complement a traditional PR campaign.

3. Indicate size by numbers: Before the client can rubbish the idea as something ‘new-fangled’, indicate the size and scope of the online medium using crisp statistics. Use India-specific numbers wherever possible. Present screen shots of brands using social media for PR. Do mention that while internet penetration is still low in India, it is among the fastest growing in the world.

4. Manage Expectations: Reinforce the dominance and significance of traditional PR. For some clients, you can rely on social media PR entirely. For most others, you can only look at it as an important value-add. Discuss with clients in advance of what they can expect from digital PR. Be very clear on what it entails and what it does not. Remove any confusion before you start working on a strategy. Outline the kind of audience they can reach out to and the messages they can communicate.

5. Discuss the tools: Discussing the entire process of a digital campaign with a client aids understanding. For instance, though a specific client might not require using memes or micro messaging for the online campaign, talking about it might help to convey the scope of digital PR. Plus; this can also be a great platform to discuss and shortlist tools that can be used for the client. Not only will you be able to work on a more effective strategy plan, you will save a lot of hassle trying to explain the nuts and bolts later.

Digital PR is exciting. Go prepared and be enthusiastic. If it’s relevant, the client will definitely bite.

Apparently a DNA journalist last weekend wrote a story about how a PR executive called him up to pitch a guest article by her client, and she expected the journalist to give her ideas her client can write on. So he was pretty upset.

Normally we all have our own versions of what is good and what is bad and I tend to ignore such whining of journalists and bloggers’ little egos that one can find so many if do a search.  However, this one is interesting. Not because of anything else, but because the thread has been picked up by the PR Yahoo forum and seems many PR people want to discuss it.   

I wonder if the incident Vivek mentioned in his article actually happened or has he just cracked up his weird imagination and ‘boring’ sense of humour. Seemed more like a PR person called him up and when he’s pondering over what to write for the day, and there he rediscovered his lost muse.

But what if the incident actually happened? Which agency in today’s time calls up journalists and asks them to suggest topics for their clients?  I mean we were all taught to be creative and think of interesting topics and pitch them to journalists. Not the other way round – call up journalists and ask them to be creative for us.  

Of course one call pull off these provided he/she knows the journalists really well. I have heard my media team head calling up journalists and starting with ‘oye, tu ek story karega? ….’. But that’s another level and please don’t attempt that in case you are not a PR veteran and the journalist is not your childhood friend or a relative.

However, I bet it’s safe to stick to the rules, though often we are tempted to look for shortcuts. It takes all kinds to make this world, and it takes all kinds of journalists to make the media. Sometimes, senior journalists have helped me a lot by giving me insights about a particular vertical when I called them up. Other times, I have my journalist friends helped me out by volunteering to call my client for a telephonic interview when the other journalist, who was supposed to do the interview, chickened out at the eleventh hour. But sometimes, some just groan. Other times, they just want to feel great and write a story about how victimised they feel when PR professionals call them.  Even if you and the journalist are related, you might very well become pesky relative. 

Have you called up journalists without having any proper agenda, or a pitch topic? Share your experiences and learnings in the comments.