Talking Point

Enlist customers as your PR managers

PR rule number 1

 

if you can get someone else, preferably one of your customers, to tell your story, sign them up today 

 

Stories which are customer led, whether it's a speech, an advertisement, a case study or a blog, ooze credibility.

 

If you are launching a product, think about launching a customer experience instead.

 

Lighthouse Communications runs numerous programs for its clients that enlist their customers as credible advocates

 

Check out our latest efforts with Telstra Corporation, which featured in The Australian newspaper recently.

Nick D'Arcy ACA interview

Nick D'Arcy clearly has never studied Aristotle, judging by his performance on the A Current Affair program last night

if he did, we would have probably seen a totally different interview. The arrogant smirk, the constant twitching and the "can we take a break" request when he was asked a difficult question would not have been my lasting images of his exchange with host Tracey Grimshaw.

Aristotle taught us that "delivery" was about aligning your body and voice with your key messages.

For a guy who is supposedly trying to rebuild a shattered reputation, a quick lesson in Aristotle's five communications principles is highly recommended.

IVF cutbacks require aggressive PR response

Jill Singer's narrow-minded view on IVF prompted me to post a comment on her Herald Sun blog over the Easter weekend.

You can check out her post here which comes on the back of an escalating debate about the merits of spending large sums of taxpayers' money on subsidising IVF treatment for couples.

I've got a vested interest in this debate both on a personal and professional level.

On the personal, my almost two-year-old son was conceived thanks to the miracles of Australia's world leading IVF program. On the professional, I am keenly interested in the public affairs implications of this debate.

With the Federal budget in meltdown, the pre-budget media leaks emanating from Canberra suggest the IVF program could be means-tested or the number of treatment "cycles" subsidised by the Government capped. The outcome would ultimately result in less children born in Australia every year.

The IVF lobby has successfully fought of such proposals before but this time it could be different. The central argument put forward by anti-subsidy proponents such as Singer is an economic one. Put simply, the scheme is too generous, risky and ill-affordable in tough economic times.

I'm a supporter of the subsidy for obvious reasons. But the program is facing its most serious threat in its history. The public affairs campaign therefore needs to be moved up a notch and quickly.

Backed with real life case studies and meaningful research, a starting point for a pro-IVF campaign might include some of the following points:

For every IVF child born in Australia every year, the economic contribution they will make to Australia in future years would be quite substantial. I wonder how many of our future politicians, judges, community leaders and even journalists will have originated through an IVF program?

The community and health costs associated with effectively denying many couples the chance to have children would be enormous. Marriage breakdown, depression and their associated side-effects immediately come to mind. Bringing these long term consequences of fiddling with a hugely successful program to life is crucial.

There are many thousands of IVF-friendly voters in marginal seats. Building a coalition of pro-active supporters through traditional means (media, letter writing etc) as well as new social media tools (facebook, Twitter, Blogging etc) will help place pressure on poll=reactive pollies.

These are just some thought starters worthy of further consideration.

Teenage binge drinking and the old and new media

Getting the message out to a teenage audience via the media about binge drinking research projects is unintentionally somewhat harder than it looks.

It seemed a relatively straightforward PR exercise - hot button story, volunteers needed, a controlled research project of considerable community importance.

The Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute's Prof. Lindy Rae is about to begin a substantial research project into the effects of binge drinking on the brains of 16 and 17 year olds. It's never been done before. But considerable medical evidence abounds that because the human brain does not mature until your early 20's, binge drinking (more than 5 drinks in a single sitting) is almost certainly causing damage to the immature brain.

Prof. Rae needs 80 binge drinkers and the same number of "alcohol virgins" for a Q and A and non-invasive MRI brain scan.

To give the project some initial momentum and getting teenagers volunteering we went to the mainstream media.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph ran a brief, and listed the contact number. Unfortunately, the sub-editor put "Drinkers Wanted" as the heading to the story.

No teenager volunteers. But a lot of middle aged men rang from around NSW volunteering to come in and "have a drink on our behalf".

Hmmm. The Sun Herald were going to do a feature. It turned in to a single column story and got a positive response. Unfortunately, the sub seemed to have deleted the contact number from the copy. But a  number called POWMRI anyway and have registered.

Radio had a mixed view - most of the producers felt they'd done the "teenage binge drinking" story to death, but come and talk to us after the results are out. 2DayFM thought about it and did a short news interview, NovaFM didn't react. And of course we will go back to them with the results. 2UE's John Stanley and 2GB's Chris Smith felt an interview with Prof. Rae was worth doing.

While the AM stations may not talk to a large number of teenagers, they should reach the ears of concerned parents and grand parents.

Street papers Drum Media and 3DWorld both are running with it this week and next, hard copy and online. And the two major suburban  groups, Cumberland Newspapers and Fairfax Family have agreed to run a story throughout their groups.

Those positive responses were great and important for Prof. Rae and POWMRI.

But two things became evident trying to elicit support 1) that community projects no longer get automatic media support and b) that old media is not the way to go with something like this...social media are the new connective channels.

The number, by the way, if you or a friend or member of your family would be prepared to volunteer (16-17 year old boys and girls) is 9385 0217. POWMRI is at Randwick.