This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for some time, and it’s slipped my mind until today, when I read an article in the local paper. The spokesperson, when asked about revenue, declined to comment on those numbers. The company is private, so they aren’t obligated to disclose the numbers. That said; all companies should be prepared to have some tangible answers for the media.


Instead of declining to comment on revenue, you can say something like, “The company’s revenue has increased XX% over the past XX years,” or “Our workforce has grown XX% over the past XX months.” Look for something tangible that will help the reporter.

Yeah, this is me wearing a Josh Grobin t-shirt. I’m not a fan, but I lost out on a bet with a client. I was going to use this photo to mock myself, but figured that there is a PR lesson in this. You see, I competed with a client in a triathlon six weeks ago and we decided to make it fun and the loser would have to wear the shirt. The fact of the matter is I made a bet I knew I had no business making and wasn’t ready for.


The PR lesson on this is simple: Unless you are 100 percent sure you can deliver on something, wait until you are ready.


Sounds simple, but the truth is, this happens and the repercussions can be devastating. Take Qtrax for example, who jumped the gun on their launch. They announced a new digital music service claiming more than 25 million free legal song downloads. Their problem was that the contracts with the music labels weren’t signed, and when the labels were asked about the announcement, they claimed they were only in talks with Qtrax.


In National Treasure 2, Jon Voight’s character says, after his son says maybe they can stop a man from exposing their grandfather as an American conspirator, that it is too late, it’s on the Internet.
Qtrax is living that nightmare because the proof of their botched launch will live on the Internet forever or at least until the Mayan calendar ends — and so will this picture.

During Game 4 of the Jazz and Lakers series, I came across a great Pizza Hut ad (below) that I thought was extremely well done.


As you’ll see, this was down with real people and hidden cameras.





Pizza Hut nailed this one, because, and this is my opinion, this ad will probably net them some ink. Not all ad campaigns create such a creative result that the media ends up following it. I haven’t checked to see if this has been written about yet, but the ad team definitely provided the PR team with some great pitching fodder.


Locally, Nationwide Auto Insurance’s unique ad campaign by putting their logo on parking stall lines netted some ink in a local paper here (sorry I can’t find the story).


As a PR guy, I tend to think PR rules the world (stole that line from Cheryl) but if you are going to do an ad, try and make it creative enough the notice will take notice of it so it has a longer shelf life.

I have literally hundreds of business cards in my desk that I’ve accumulated throughout the years from trade shows, new business meetings, etc.

They range from editors to CEOs and contain nearly every bit of contact information that you can imagine: address, phone, fax, e-mail. Nearly ever way to contact someone; some even include Skype info for editors.

While all that information is valuable to the recipient, for a CEO it can be detrimental. That’s why we recommend a CEO have a stash of business cards that don’t include their cell or direct phone numbers that they can give to the press. Whyzat?

A few years ago on a press tour, a VP walked into a meeting with an editor to talk about his company’s channel strategy. Unbeknownst to the VP, however, his CEO had met with the same editor a year earlier to discuss the same thing. The editor wanted to follow up on a statement the CEO had made previously, but the VP’s message had changed.

After the VP left, the editor called the CEO on his cell phone, which he had obtained previously from the CEO’s business card he had saved. The editor couldn’t reach the CEO and ran a less than positive story accusing the vendor of changing its channel strategy and concluding with the statement, “Calls to the CEO were not returned.”

Here’s the problem: The CEO was on a plane when the editor called and didn’t get the message until after the story was published. Should the editor have called the PR agency? Yes. But many situations like this can be circumvented by ensuring that you give the reporter your PR agency’s number, or at least an alternate card.

We are proud to announce that our Managing Partner, Cheryl Snapp Conner, was named to the 2008 vSpring Capital list of Top 100 Venture Entrepreneurs today, for the outstanding job she has done in building the brand of Snapp Conner PR.

As Snapp Conner PR approaches its one year anniversary in April, we are very proud to add this acknowledgment to our agency's growing list of achievements.

We are also proud to note that nine of our clients were named to the v|100 list this morning as well:

• Kirt Bailey, Celio Corp.

• Brian Buetler, Alianza

• Brent Bishop, ContentWatch

• Greg Butterfield, Symantec

• Brent Nixon, Cymphonix

• Michael Proper, DirectPointe

• Kevin Santiago, Cymphonix

• Jack Sunderlage ContentWatch

We would also like to acknowledge our great working partners Brad Baldwin, Rocky Mountain Voices, and our great friends and collaborative partners at Sprout Marketing today.

At Snapp Conner PR, we feel extremely lucky for the role we play in Utah's technology industries, and we are excited to be associated with such a unique and extraordinary clientele. We would like to extend our congratulations to all of those made this year's list. We recognize that it is their accomplishments and the work of many others that has helped to make Utah's technology industries grow.

As a big fan of college football I was intrigued a few weeks ago when Michigan opened the football season 0-2, especially with one of the losses coming at the hands of Appalachian State. What intrigued me more was Michigan's Mike Hart guaranteeing a win against Notre Dame after getting beat by Oregon. In his words this is what he said:

“We're going to win next week," Hart said. “There's no question in my mind. I guarantee we will win next week. I'm going to get this team ready. Guaranteed."

Hart set himself up for criticism and you could tell the media would have liked to have seen Notre Dame win, too. Had Michigan lost, that clip would have been played countless times by the media and would have become fodder for the media.

Businesses can learn a lot from Hart's prediction and that is don't guarantee anything — sales, products launches, etc. There's a reason PR pros tell executives to message product launches to say a product will be available in Q3, etc., because it gives the organization a window to work in case something disastrous happens. Giving the media a guarantee that something will happen can set you up for criticism that may come back and haunt you in the future.

In this case Mike Hart made good on his promise, but that doesn't always happen.

 Clayton Blackham

Senior PR Associate

Cheryl sat down with long-time technology editor, James Gaskin, to impart PR advice for small and growing companies.

Don’t forget your name! One thing that you need to remember when being interviewed for television, radio or a podcast, especially if it refers to a product and or your company, is to state your product or company name a lot. Instead of saying, “We are proud to ….” make sure you should say, “XXX Company is ….” or “ABC Product helps….”

Why?

Because in television pieces the super (graphic) shows up for only a few seconds — 3-5 seconds max — and can be easily missed since stories are fairly short and if you miss it you might be out of luck; unlike print or online where you can go back and reread the piece to see who the quote is attributed to.

 Clayton Blackham

Senior PR Associate