August 2011

Brand Journalism, the Art (and Integrity) of a Media Pitch

We just did the “soft” launch of the AHA Brand Journalism services last week. It was an exciting, lively time at our PR agency and I had some great calls, emails and messages from friends, colleagues (communicators and journalists), clients and potential clients about the services.

One of the questions that I was asked was: “What if you start with a client and discover that the story they want to tell – or the product or service they are offering – isn’t any good? How does the brand journalism approach work in this situation?

Integrity, authenticity and credibility are crucial when using a brand journalism approach. At AHA, we believe it is important for the long-term success of our company to do our due diligence when it comes to taking on clients. We research and review potential clients, just like they check us out. That doesn’t mean we won’t take on clients who have challenges or issues – that’s part of what we do. It does mean that we won’t take on clients that want to “spin” things. Positioning is one thing; it’s truthful and authentic. Shifting the truth, spinning the truth, being misleading – that’s just not for us.

Sometimes, clients want to tell a story that could be seen as self-serving. That’s where we come in. We see our job – as communicators and as brand journalists – to help evolve or expand a story that might be a little too “salesy” or self-promotional. There have been times in the past – and undoubtedly will be in the future – where we have had to go to a client and explain that something they thought should make every journalist in the world jump up and down in excitement wouldn’t, and we didn’t believe it met the news values necessary for it to interest the media. In that case, we go through a solid review process of what value the story does have. Perhaps it could be used to showcase something for the internal community. (How would that work? Would employees find it of interest or value? Could it help them to do their jobs better? Would it inspire or engage them? Or would the board be interested in it?) Not every story is right for every audience.

A story that feels too self-serving can often be expanded or evolved through research, interviews and digging a bit deeper. Sometimes it can be developed into an interesting story that can be shared with media or directly with stakeholders via the organization’s website, blog, social networks or video sites.

Identifying what the story is, who the right audience/stakeholder group is, what the right medium is (short video documentary, video news release, article, tips & hints, photos, a Q&A… the list goes on and on and sometimes it is several mediums that come together to create a content package), and what online venue should be used comes together in a brand journalism plan or road map.

At the core of everything we do in public relations, it’s about sharing great stories, communicating well and being authentic, credible and engaging. You tell a story to benefit the audience, not to just push what you want them to know.

We think that if an organization views all of its communications efforts through a lens that is critical and asks the tough questions before you share the story, it will build strong relationships with stakeholders.

In place of our regular AHA Fast Take Friday, we bring you: AHA Launches Brand Journalism Services… An edge of your seat thriller if there ever was one!

[caption id="attachment_4056" align="alignright" width="248" caption="AHA Has NEWS!"][/caption]

There is a great deal of energy at AHA today – right across the country – from our offices in Gibsons and Vancouver to our long-term contractors in Calgary, Toronto and Halifax. Today, we officially launch our Brand Journalism services. You can check out some information on these new services here.

The fact is – Brand Journalism has been around for several years; McDonald’s CMO Larry Light coined the phrase in the early 2000s. There are many definitions out there. Some we agree with; some have a different approach than we do. Our definition can be found here.

At the heart of what we bring to clients with our new AHA Brand Journalism services is the opportunity for you to tell your story to your stakeholders in a credible, engaging and interesting way, using the right medium for the right audience. That also means getting it out to your audience through the right distribution channel – whether that’s a social media network, your website, YouTube or other avenues. (There is also a crucial measurement component and the expectation that content created through the Brand Journalism approach will support the organization’s business objectives, but that’s for another blog post.)

At AHA, we’ve always had a focus on creating credible, relevant content for clients – whether it was for a news release, a targeted pitch, a video interview, video news release or other communication vehicle. It had to be newsworthy, it had to meet news values and whatever the topic, it had to be a compelling story. Identifying and packaging great stories has always been at the heart of great public relations and what we do here at our agency. But now, we’ve put together a world-class team of print and broadcast journalists and strategic communicators. You can see the team and our bios here. I will be blogging shortly about the Brand Journalism Team. The skill sets, expertise and experience on this team are exceptional and we’re incredibly excited about each person and the combined talents.

Back to the topic at hand. We all know that the world has changed drastically when it comes to communication. A decade ago, the most strategic way for an organization to get its story told was to generate media attention. While media relations is still an important component of what we do, there are additional opportunities to tell your story – directly to your stakeholders. This is where Brand Journalism comes in. We work with you to define goals and objectives and identify great stories about your organization, your brand and the people – employees, your senior executive, customers or clients – who bring your brand to life. We also help you to develop a clear understanding of your stakeholders – from staff to potential and current clients or customers, to industry influencers and thought leaders, to your board of directors, to media, and to government. This includes reaching out in the way that specific stakeholder groups expect or need to be communicated with – and when. We don’t just create great content and walk away. We help you to reach out to your target audience and engage. We measure your success and challenges every step of the way so that we can refine or evolve the program. We also look at how we can effectively maximize and repurpose the use of the content – making the most of your human resources and budget. It’s all about providing great content, great value and telling a great story.

This is the first blog post outlining the value of Brand Journalism and showcasing the new AHA Brand Journalism services. Over the next few weeks, we’ll blog about how Brand Journalism can augment, support or extend your media relations campaign, how much we respect and admire journalists and bloggers (Brand Journalism isn’t about replacing the media), and about our Brand Journalism Team and what the benefits might be to your organization.

There is a great deal of passion behind our new Brand Journalism services. We strongly believe in the value of these services. We are confident in our ability to deliver exceptional, professionally produced stories in a range of mediums that will engage and interest your stakeholder group(s) – not to mention the positive impact it will have on your overall brand’s reputation.

We’d love to hear what you think about Brand Journalism.

If you think your organization would benefit from our services, please send me an email or give us a call at 604.303.1052.

Newsroom

AHA Creative Strategies Launches New Services

Vancouver, B.C. – AHA Creative Strategies now offers clients the opportunity to work with a small Brand Journalism team focused on creating compelling, credible and relevant stories about their organizations, AHA CEO Ruth Atherley announced recently. The AHA Brand Journalism Team is made up of a cross-section of broadcast and print journalists and strategic communicators with experience in social media. These new services focus on creating engaging and well-produced content that effectively shares the organization’s story with target stakeholders and provides the opportunity for interactivity and ongoing connection.

“Social media has completely rearranged how we communicate,” says Atherley. “People don’t want to be ‘sold’ to – they want to authentically connect and engage with a brand. Many organizations have great stories to tell; but, unfortunately, they get lost or ignored if they are communicated in a manner that feels like a sales pitch. We help clients to tell their stories in an authentic way, using news values and an approach that is built on journalistic integrity. Telling a truthful, interesting story earns credibility, respect and loyalty. It can be a huge asset in building and maintaining a positive reputation for an organization.”

AHA’s Brand Journalism services provide clients with a range of content creation, distribution and engagement options. The team is made up of respected print and broadcast journalists based in Vancouver and Toronto. AHA’s Brand Journalism services are delivered through a range of mediums including online video segments, podcast or vodcast interviews, video news releases, articles, blog posts, e-books, white papers, online Q&As, social media and social networking interaction and more. The content is created to deliver value to internal and external stakeholder groups. For more information, check out Atherley discussing Brand Journalism.

For case studies on the value of AHA’s Brand Journalism services, please visit the AHA website.

AHA Creative Strategies Inc. is a boutique communications company with offices in Vancouver and Gibsons, B.C. and a strong presence in Toronto, Ont. and Calgary, Alta. With clients throughout North America, AHA provides strategic public relations consulting services to a wide range of clients in diverse industry sectors. AHA clients include Tourism New Zealand, Vancouver Community College, Capital Regional District, Richmond Centre, Happy Planet, Red Dog Deli Raw Food Company Inc. and Korle-Bu Neuroscience Foundation.

AHA clients have been covered by CNN, NBC’s The Today Show, FOX News, Canada AM, Maclean’s magazine, The New York Times, New York Post, The Globe and Mail, National Post and many other local, national and international media.

-END-

For more information on AHA Creative Strategies, please contact Paul Holman at 604.303.1052 or via email at paul@ahacreative.com.

At AHA, we have spent a great deal of time focusing on what makes a great pitch – to media, to bloggers and, depending on the objective of what we’re working on, to other external and internal stakeholder groups. A good pitch tells a story. It should be a short story, but it is a story – one that piques curiosity and provides relevant information through stats, facts, details and writing that paints a picture. More and more often these days, you can also use video or audio in a pitch. We often create video news releases or pitches for clients and have experienced strong success in this area.

There is a great piece on Ragan.com on how to create a great pitch. It’s worth a read.

Before you head over there, I want to focus on additional opportunities that can come from developing a good pitch. Over the past year, AHA has done quite a bit of research on the art of the pitch and how pitches to a range of stakeholders, including media and bloggers, have evolved. It has been an interesting process and, in part, our discoveries here have led us to develop a new area at our PR agency. We’ll be “soft” launching this tomorrow, so I won’t say any more about this yet. I hope you will check us out on Wednesday to learn more about this great, new opportunity we are offering clients.

The world communicates differently these days – the majority of your stakeholders have online access and use it regularly. This is a given and it’s time to embrace the fact that online communication is at the core of how the world communicates.

When you develop a good pitch – one that is newsworthy, that showcases your organization, that is authentic, interesting and even entertaining, that provides a glimpse of your brand personality and of the people that work in your organization – it is important to look at it from different angles of how that story can be used, how it can be told, and who would be interested in hearing it. Creating interesting and engaging pitches for journalists and bloggers is one component of communication. For our clients, we often look at how we can take an interesting pitch – which, I must repeat, is a concise story idea put into a style and format that works for the specific journalist or blogger – and use it for other stakeholders, if it doesn’t get picked up by media.

Newsrooms are shrinking; bloggers are overwhelmed with good (and bad) pitches. Generating traditional media coverage or having a blogger write about your organization isn’t a given – even if you have a great story that would/could/should work for them. Sometimes there just isn’t space to cover your story; other times there isn’t enough time or person power to do so. It is just the reality of the times we live in. However, that doesn’t mean that the story can’t be told; it means you have to think of other ways you could use the content.