Does PR really work?
A few weeks ago I was watching the CBS Sunday Morning Show, my weekend “moment of Zen” (yes, I am a member of the Facebook group), when this perennial question was once again answered with a resounding “YES.”
The story was about a quirky entrepreneur with a sweet tooth who developed a special brownie pan that would create all “edges” of the pastry…in all their chewy, chocolately goodness (mmmm, brownies….but I digress.) After having shopped the idea to various development companies to no avail—and to the severe detriment of his family savings account--he sent some around to media (both social and traditional) and got such an outstanding response for this unique idea that today, the Edge Brownie Pan has been the top selling bakeware on Amazon.com for the past two years. In this case, media was able to recognize the novelty of all-edge brownies—and the potential public interest in them—before investors did and, with the buzz as a foundation, the Edge Brownie Pan goes down in Amazon sales history. I wonder what that family savings account looks like now?
Similarly, you may remember that I blogged about a two-month, pro-bono national media relations blitz we coordinated for The Mark Twain and House Museum in Hartford, CT. The House was on the brink of closing and a group of America’s best authors coordinated an all-star fundraiser to help raise money and national awareness of the House’s troubles. Following major stories in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today and CBS Sunday Morning (a personal best), the House saw dramatic spikes in website traffic, gathered 400 new members and received a $500,000 check from the Annenberg Foundation that set the House on the path to stability. Not even two years later, the House is now a retainer client for Vault as they execute unique events and national outreach for the Mark Twain 2010 Centennial Celebration. Yes, I’d say there are also some believers in Hartford.
The truth is, even PR professionals sometimes struggle to quantify the results of our efforts in the same way our marketing counterparts seem to so easily be able to. But I also believe that in the age of social media, free print and broadcast news over the internet and the importance of linking strategies to good search engine optimization, that strategic traditional and social media relations is not only a necessary, but critical, part of any marketing communications plan. And, you’ll be hearing more about this from me in the future.