Tuesday, October 7, 2008

A Tale of Two Press Releases


I wrote and distributed two different press releases this past month for two different clients. One was for a charitable event, singular in its cause and focus. The other was for a restaurant, touting everything they offered under the sun.

Guess which one got the most play.

Welcome to another edition of Not Your Usual Marketing Tips from JDK Marketing Communications Management.

Now, who knows – especially here in Charlotte, which tends to favor charitable causes – maybe the media has more of a thing for “good works” than work that tastes good. But I have a sneaking suspicion that a single subject (accent on the modifier “single”) resonated more quickly and more succinctly with more media than the multiple items implied in the subject line in the e-mail head of the restaurant story. Special appetizers, Karaoke Night, Happy Hours, family-friendly but singles are welcome…not quite “TMI,” but still “too much information!”

I remember attending a marketing communications seminar where the speaker held two props. One was a square “bed” of small spikes. The other was another small square, but containing only one spike. When the speaker took a sheet of paper and tried to run it through the many spikes, the sheet did little more than crease at the points where they hit.

When he took the same sheet of paper and came down on the single spike, the sheet was impaled clean through.

In the fast-paced world of trying to get your advertising or publicity message through to you’re A.D.D.-like audience, the point is… get to one. And best to get to one point only.

My restaurant client wanted to consolidate his funds and assign only one press release that covered virtually everything they offered at the place. Though I made an effort to dissuade him and save each item for a separate release, I understood and respected his wishes.

Maybe next time.

And maybe next month, first Tuesday, you’ll join me again for another single subject take of “Not Your Usual Marketing Tips.”

Joel Kweskin
http://www.jdkmarketing.biz/

From the “Greening with Envy” Dept.: Go into a public lavatory these days, and the faucet is electronic-eye automated, as is the paper towel dispenser. But you have to manually press the soap dispenser…

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