Screwball. Humor can often be effective, and with this style, it’s emphasized. Appeal to the journalist’s heightened sense of the unusual. Stunts, sideshows, ancillary themes are put to work here.
A sample transcript:
“Is this Mr. Williams at Channel 6? Hi, I’m John Jones, and I’m calling regarding the upcoming Mid-Valley Youth Center carnival. Did you realize that we now have three bands set to perform, each one made up of former gang members, kids who have straightened out since they joined the center? Also, I just learned two members of the City Council will attend, dressed as clowns. I don’t want to say which ones. We have a lot more surprises in store, and I’m wondering whether Channel 6 would like to do a story on the carnival…?”
Split-fingered Knuckle Curve. Naaah, I’m not going to take this baseball analogy any further.
As you can see, there are myriad ways one can approach the same basic information. In Guerrilla P.R., you need to be prepared to attempt any one of them as the need arises.
Tips & Traps
No matter how you pitch the media, please remember the five F’s: always be fast, fair, factual, frank, and friendly.
Don’t be intimidated as you design your pitch. The fact is that nobody will come to you at first. You must be the aggressor, or you will not be heard.
If you are unduly nervous, turn it around: make your vulnerability an asset. There’s no rule that says you must come across as a slick, polished professional. Openness, honesty, and a down-to-earth approach will work for you.
Whether writing or speaking, your objective is to be understood. It’s of little use to try to impress others of your great intellect if they can’t comprehend what you’re saying. As I’ve said, avoid technical jargon unless you’re certain the other person is qualified to understand it. Use vocabulary people are comfortable with. The smartest people I know speak simply and plainly.
Another excellent piece of advice from Dr. Lillian Glass: Good communication is a give-and-take proposition. Don’t think of your pitch as a short speech, after which you get a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down.
When you contact media people, or anyone in business, expect dialogue, negotiation, questions, and answers. Recapture the spirit of conversation. Remember, “con” is the Latin word for “with.”
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Guerrilla P.R. Exercise
Complete the following to gain practice in thinking logically and personally:
1. You’re the director of a local youth center, and have decided to stage a carnival to raise money for new equipment. Briefly list three distinct reasons why this event is necessary—not good, not beneficial, but necessary. For each of those three, spin off three other contributing factors, and so on. Carry it as far as you can, so that your final sheet resembles a pyramid-shaped organizational chart. You will see that every point has three substantiating bases, and each of those has three other bases. Of course, when you pitch the media on your own project, you won’t inundate them with hundreds of “reasons,” but you will have developed an unshakable foundation for your argument.
2. Let’s keep the same example of the youth center carnival. As I mentioned, when you make a personal appeal, you tug on human emotions. Take the following sentiments—excitement, sympathy, and joy—then write a brief paragraph making a case for the carnival centering on each of those emotions. For example, if the emotion is, say, fear, the paragraph might read like this:
Without the Mid-Valley Youth Center, hundreds of teens would have nowhere to go after school. Many would turn to drugs and gangs without the positive influence of the center and its staff, and our streets would become more dangerous than ever. Next month’s carnival will go a long way in raising desperately needed funds for new equipment.
A successful carnival means our kids won’t have to turn to the streets.
* * *
Tracking
Before firing up your Guerrilla P.R. campaign, you have one last bit of essential paperwork to take care of: a tracking system. Every publicist has his or her own method for assessing the headway of a campaign, and a tracking sheet is designed to do just that.
Though there is no set format, most publicists generally follow a grid pattern, with one axis listing names of publications and TV and radio stations, and the other a series of columns with answers to questions like “date contacted,” “materials sent,” “comments,” and “results.”
Maintain your tracking system religiously over the course of your campaign. You use it to see not only where you are but also where you’ve been and where you’re going. No other document will better assist you in strategic planning. A Guerrilla P.R. tracking sheet is the only way to get a tangible picture of your progress. It’s really like an X-ray of your campaign, and with it you can diagnose what’s going wrong (if it is) without relying strictly on abstract feelings or opinions.
Let’s say you’ve prepared a press release. On your tracking sheet list the media outlets you’ve sent it to, and when. A few days later you call the newspapers and TV stations to gauge their reaction. You should note the name of the person you spoke with. Distill his or her comments into a brief sentence or two on your tracking sheet. If the media contact wants additional material, ship it out, noting on the sheet what you sent, and when.
You can see that by maintaining a thorough log like this, you will always know exactly where you stand with any media target. You can refresh their memories, and remain a step ahead. On the following page, I offer a sample of a tracking sheet I’ve used, but by all means feel free to devise one that works for you. As long as you have a tracking sheet form in place before you make that first call or lick that first stamp, you’ll be in good shape.
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GUERRILLA P.R. COMMANDO: Candy Lightner
When her thirteen-year-old daughter, Cari, was killed by a drunk driver, Candy Lightner felt devastated, broken, and angry. But she channeled her fury into forming a revolutionary organization that had an impact on America as few others have. Today we’re all familiar with the work Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has done, but not everyone knows the story of Candy’s struggle to get her message heard. She did it through sheer grit and determination; she did it with Guerrilla P.R.
Back in 1980, when Candy first launched MADD, she knew nothing about public relations. But one sympathetic reporter helped Candy organize a press conference to introduce MADD to the public. Though it was not well attended, Candy and her surviving daughter explained the harrowing consequences of drunk driving to the assembled media. A photo of the tearful mother and daughter flashed around the world, and suddenly the agony of death from a D.U.I. had a face and a name: Candy Lightner.
Over the years, Candy has undertaken many successful media crusades to spread her message of fighting drugs, alcohol, depression, and grief. She did it all without ever having to hire a slick P.R. firm. “I visited reporters personally, sat down, and talked with them,” she recalls. This dynamic woman used the sheer strength of her character to forge a movement.
Along the way, she also picked up a few useful tricks regarding the media. “I’m convinced if we had hired outside P.R. in the beginning, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” says Candy. “We worked on gut instinct, not by training, as a P.R. firm would.” At that first press conference, seeing the reaction to the photo, Candy comprehended how the media hone in on visuals.
“We hadn’t planned scenes of crying,” says Candy. “But instinctively we knew the media need something dramatic.” In a recent campaign to pass a California bill requiring a five-cent tax on alcohol, Candy sent her daughter to purchase a six-pack with a fake I.D. She then held a press conference—with her daughter sitting behind a small mountain of beer cans she’d bought—illustrating just how easy it had been and how enormous the problem actually was.
“You have to tell a story that will supersede other news,” she notes, “because you’re in constant competition with other issues.”
Despite her flair for the dramatic,
Candy also learned when to pull in the reins. “You can’t beat an issue to death. You don’t call them every time there’s a drunk-driving death or every time there’s a court case you’re unhappy with. Make sure when you do contact the media, it’s with something very important. Never cry wolf, or they won’t come back.”
It’s hard to imagine Candy Lightner having enemies, but as with any celebrity, some media people feel they haven’t done their job unless they take an axe to society’s high and mighty. In Candy’s case, one reporter said to her, “Nobody’s done a bad story on you, and I think it’s time.” Candy has since learned to avoid such traps.
“I don’t think the media are objective at all,” Candy asserts. “They’re in this for the money, like everyone else. The press tell me it’s a matter of being honest with the public. But I’ve seen a lot of people get hurt by inaccuracies.”
Her criticisms notwithstanding, Candy still credits the media for much of MADD’s success. “For whatever reason, they took us on as the cause of the eighties,” she says. “Thank God they did, because otherwise most of the auto accidents in this country would still be caused by drunk drivers. It was thanks to the media that public awareness was raised.”
Her advice to prospective Guerrilla P.R. Commandos: “First, know your issue, your client, or your business thoroughly. Then, do as much research as possible so you speak intelligently. Next, find an angle that will appeal to the public, because that’s what the media will want. Finally, use your gut instinct. You’re a person first. What would you like to know? What would catch your eye? Answer that, and you’re home free.”
A modern heroine who has truly changed the world, Candy Lightner, despite the tragedy in her life, is truly home free.
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3
First Maneuvers
In human relations kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths.
—Graham Greene, British author
Who You Gonna Call?
By now, you’ve pulled together a workable media mailing list. You have a phone, stamps, Internet access, and an overflow of good ideas to promote your project. But hold on! You’re not quite ready to launch your Guerrilla P.R. campaign. Before you take that first step, I want to divulge one of the secret weapons of your entire effort. It’s not a wholly novel concept. Much has been written and said about it before, but not often in terms of public relations. I’m talking about networking, or the making and using of contacts.
It’s an ancient custom in Australia that when two aborigines meet on the trail, they must stop and talk. In the course of their conversation, they’re required to discover a common relative. If they can do so, that must mean they’re friends. If they cannot, it automatically means they are enemies and must fight each other. In several documented cases, the search went on for days. That’s primitive networking at its finest. Statisticians have theorized that any one of us is no more than six contact links away from anyone else in the world. However, it’s getting those first three that counts. In the course of my career, I’ve met thousands of people from various walks of life. Some turned out to be little more than sources of small talk at a party, but others have become valuable business contacts, clients, and friends. As you know, my philosophy is grounded in an expectation of opportunity. I find it not only in the media I absorb but also—and most especially—in the people I meet.
Think of the popular (and now officially sanctioned, for charity) game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” Through it, virtually any celebrity in the world of entertainment (and beyond) can be traced to the talented character actor. Come up with a name, trace it to a film credit, and the theory goes that within six plays, you’ll find a connection to Kevin Bacon.
Networking is like that. A teacher of mine once said, “Nobody is more than three phone calls away.” By that, she meant that if you need advice or information, if it’s desperately important for you to contact any person on this planet (with the obvious exceptions of the president of the United States, the pope, and various other extremely well-insulated world leaders), it is possible to do so. So the more people you meet and on whom you make an impression, the easier it will be to access those connections as your business or project progresses.
Gerald Michaelson, writing in Sales & Marketing Management magazine, says, “If you desire high quality in your business, you must have a high-quantity network.” Seventy percent of top management executives accept new jobs at pay levels higher than their previous posts, largely because of their large networks of highly placed contacts. Networking will aid you not only in your own business but in your Guerrilla P.R. plan as well.
A Guerrilla publicist is a provocateur. She engages people, draws reactions from them, makes them think. The more people within your sphere, the more powerful your message becomes. This is true in all realms of life. Even Jesus’s message didn’t take on transcendent power until hundreds, then thousands, and finally hundreds of millions of people heard it. Throughout the ages, there have been other enlightened individuals with compelling ideas, but none of them had Saint Paul, the greatest Guerrilla P.R. master in history, to get the word out.
Your story may not be of biblical proportions, but you do need to take it to the people, however large or small your target audience may be. So here are a few suggestions regarding networking, how to increase your own circle of contacts, and how to enhance your presence in the process.
First, you don’t have to “join” a network. You already belong to one. I’m referring, of course, to your family, friends, and existing business associates. To increase your network, consider the following:
Seminars
School and college acquaintances
Alumni organizations
Church, mosque, or synagogue
Business groups like the Better Business Bureau, Rotary, Chamber of Commerce
Political parties and organizations
Hobby clubs
Family
Recovery groups
All these may bear fruit, but you should be on the lookout at all times. I’ve made contacts while camping in the mountains, at concerts, standing in line at the bank and in the grocery store, on airplanes, and even once while paying a parking ticket. I happen to be a fairly gregarious person, and I find meeting new people fun. However, not everyone has such an easy time of it. If that sounds like you, listen up.
To expand your base, above all else you have to be likable. As with any other muscle in your body, your personality also needs to be exercised regularly to stay fit. It would be impossible to calculate how important this is. When getting in the P.R. boxing ring, you fight two battles. One is to sell your product or project; the other is to sell yourself. This isn’t news to anyone who has ever read a business magazine or self-help book in the past. But it amazes me how often such simple lessons can be lost on people. So let’s take a refresher course.
A friend of mine recently bought a copy of Dale Carnegie’s all-time best-selling classic How to Win Friends and Influence People. She reported that a few colleagues chuckled when they saw her reading it. “A relic from the past,” they called it. “Outdated and meaningless,” they said. Those people don’t know how wrong they are.
Carnegie’s “Six Principles to Make People Like You” resonate as convincingly today as when he published them in 1936. They may seem obvious on the surface; but we all know how infrequently they’re put into practice. In brief, they are as follows:
1. “Be genuinely interested in other people.”
2. “Smile.”
3. “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
4. “Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.”
5. “Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.”
6. “Make the other person feel important—and do it sincerely.”
These are the fundamentals that make for good human relations on every scale and in every setting. But of them all, I f
ind the fourth principle to be far and away the single most important. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Every man I meet is in some way my superior, and I can learn of him.” The best way to be a better person is to be a better listener. Listening is integral to our personal and professional progress. The owner of one small supermarket overheard a customer saying she would like fresh fish. He set up a fish bar on beds of ice, and his seafood sales skyrocketed.
In this era of “time famine,” people need to be listened to in a non-distracted manner. God gave us two ears and one mouth—as the expression goes—so He must have wanted us to do twice as much listening as speaking. I encourage you to develop the lost art of Shutting Up.
Other skills breed goodwill for those who practice them. Empathy, the ability to deeply feel where another person is coming from, is indispensable. Once you can see things from another’s perspective, not only do you develop compassion and tolerance, but also you will be a better persuader of your own point of view.
Don’t forget, optimism is also a big turn-on. The world is so filled with whiners, handwringers, and complainers that if you show even a modest level of enthusiasm you’re bound to stand out. Equally important is a sense of humor, not only to your Guerrilla P.R. and business endeavors, but to your life as a whole. Am I mistaken, or are people a lot more serious today than they used to be? When I attend meetings these days, I see too many strained faces.
There’s a difference between taking your work seriously and taking yourself seriously. If you lighten up, your network will grow, because others will be attracted by the light.
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