Getting media interest isn't easy. The more influential the media, the more difficult it is to catch their attention. But there's a proven way to increase your odds of success: sell less and tell more stories.
Endemic to the high tech industry is the sometimes overwhelming desire to hype it up:
- the fastest product;
- the easiest product;
- the cheapest product; and
- the perennial favorite, "the first in the industry."
Reporters are born skeptics. They were trained to sniff out exaggerations and don't react well to them. Even when claims can be substantiated, they often still don't bite because they know claims and facts aren't news in and of themselves. Busy reporters say, "I don't care what makes your new product tick, just tell me why my readers should care."
PR in high tech is also saturated with "too much detail." This occurs because the underlying technologies are complicated to understand and explain. Consequently, news releases and media pitches often become proverbial data sheets with so much technical gobbledygook the news value is buried – if it remains alive at all.
Both these challenges can be overcome by sniffing out the story behind all the claims, facts and technical details.
Great media placements are born in great storytelling. Analyzing some of the major stories Beaupre & Co. created for its clients in 2004 - in media like The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Business Week and The New York Times – there is a clear correlation between the way we approached the media and their ensuing interest. We didn't hype and recite facts, we told stories.
For example, to get Fortune (print) to write a four page story about the importance of an increasingly important category of enterprise software, we didn't talk about what makes the software tick and how our client was the # 1 player. We focused instead on how it was helping other companies. We worked closely with our client's customers in crafting stories – and making sure they could be told the right way. We didn't pitch facts about this "revolutionary software category." Instead, we told the reporter stories about how it was changing other companies (using very pragmatic and benefits oriented language). Then we put Fortune in touch with the customers directly. The media loves telling stories through the lens of your company's customers.
To interest Forbes (print), we didn't pitch an emerging wireless technology as the be-all-end-all. Instead, we wrapped the story around a person, our client's co-founder and CTO. Forbes wrote a two page story that put our client's hot new technology in context with a human being. They talked about how he studied electronic music at Oberlin, moved to California, bounced around various computer jobs - including stints with George Lucas and Steve Jobs - and then headed off to get a Ph.D at MIT's Media Lab where he came up with the technology idea that launched his company. The media loves telling technology stories through the lens of people.
To get an NBC affiliate to air a broadcast story about conferencing technology, we didn't pitch the technology; we linked it to the upcoming National Democratic Convention and told the story about how it helped people work from home instead of fighting grueling traffic. The media loves telling stories through the lens of current events.
To get a cover story in Information Week about collaboration software, we told a story about how it – and other technologies – were being relied upon to make the U.S. a safer place to live within our country's homeland-security initiatives. The media loves telling stories that embrace a number of related technologies.
To entice Forbes on another occasion, we baked a story around how one of our client's customers was "betting the farm" on our client's technology to develop a new product. Forbes wrote a three-page story that positioned the relationship as a "critical test for both companies." The media loves stories with "will they make it" edge.
To tell great stories, remember the elements of classic children's books (think Polar Express; Where the Wild Things Are; Green Eggs and Ham):
- they have a main character;
- who faces challenges and trials;
- who learns important lessons that change him/her;
- the story is simply told; and
- there is a clear beginning and end.
Apply the same concepts to your high tech storytelling:
- spend time trying to find the hidden story within the technical story;
- develop the story;
- tweak the story so it relates to the intended media audience (every book, every reporter are unique);
- know the story; and
- practice telling it until your spokespersons, PR people and customers can say it in a simple, consistent, engaging way.
Finally, think about how you are coming across. Are you perceived by a busy reporter as someone who just wants to talk about your company, your products, your breakthroughs, and your success? Or as someone who is fun to talk to, who "gets" the media and knows what kind of story readers will want to read?
The road to media success is littered with companies who did the former and not the latter. Stop trying to sell, and tell great stories.
