BACKGROUND: A few years ago, I was working for a
politician. In fact, he was a
Canadian Member of Parliament (MP). That was about the time that Canada Post decided not to deliver mail to
homes in new developments. Instead,
new homeowners had to pick up their mail at community "superboxes" near the end
of their streets. After laying down
big bucks for fancy new homes, people expected the same door-to-door service
they were used to, and my MP took the heat . . . even though Canada Post was an
arms-length organization of the government.
GOAL: Our goal was to demonstrate that my MP cared,
that he was on their side, that he was doing everything he could to help
them.
IDEA: One of the complaints the new residents had was
that they were not receiving their junk mail (Go figure!), including weekly
grocery specials and, by coincidence, my MP's mailing to constituents. This gave me an idea. Why not send my MP door to door to
deliver his bulletin, explaining how he, too, was frustrated that Canada Post
would not deliver his bulletin to them.
CHALLENGE NUMBER ONE: But what about the majority of
people who would not be home to see how my MP shared their gripes? We needed media coverage, so that
everyone would read about it in their local newspaper.
CHALLENGE NUMBER TWO: This is a juicy story for
reporters. Imagine the headlines:
"Resident sock it to MP". Imagine
the photos of angry residents waving their fists in rage against Canada
Post. My MP would not look good one
bit. The media had to stay
away. But how would we get media
coverage?
METHOD: We would have to report to the media "after
the fact" that my MP had just gone door-to-door. We would have to supply everything the
newspapers would need so that they have no need to recreate the event, search
for angry residents to interview or ignore the story
altogether.
First I wrote a news release. OK, so it did not read quite like a
typical news release. It read like
a newspaper article. Actually, it
read like five different newspaper articles, because I wrote a completely
different story for each of the five newspapers in the area. To some degree, I was able to emulate
each one's style.
Next, we decided to provide photographs. We dressed my MP in a postal cap and had
him carrying a postal bag. I
snapped shots of him at doorways chatting with residents. This was just too "human interest" for
any newspaper to ignore. Off to the
one-hour photo developer, then we chose the five best shots and attached one to
each of the news releases.
Zoom, zoom. We hand delivered an envelope to each newspaper. The entire process took us just five
hours from knocking on the first door.
RESULT: Each newspaper had its own, unique, original
story with its own, unique, original photo. This made the journalists happy. Four out of the five editors even used
the headlines I provided! It also
made readers, many of who received two or three of the newspapers, believe the
media had been there in person . . . making the story all the more
credible.
Can you repeat this success? Yes. If you want to get great media coverage,
but you are afraid the media will pick up a negative angle, this is the recipe
to use:
- Position your business as you would like to be seen.
- Find a way to demonstrate your position or
characteristic.
- Write the story for each newspaper as the newspaper
would write it, but place it in the format of a news release.
- Get some great visuals, going for action or something
with a twist, and ensure each newspaper has a unique photo.
- Let the newspapers know that no other media outlet
has the same photograph.
Of course, it is always best to invite the media to
your event and serve donuts, but sometimes NOT inviting them is a better way to
get not just "a" story, but the "right" story. | 
