Don’t think a professional will solve all your problems. Pros strike out as often as they get base hits, and home runs are never a sure thing. They will still likely utilize you as the spokesperson, and you may end up expending nearly as much time and energy on their P.R. campaign for you as you would on your own.
Obviously, having written this book, I believe anyone can successfully mount his or her own Guerrilla P.R. campaign. But deciding on going the professional route rests on the following criteria:
You have the financial resources to afford the $1,000 to $5,000 monthly retainer.
You are simply too busy reaping the rewards of your first G.P.R. campaign to devote more time to future publicity efforts. Your new targets include cream-of-the-crop outlets like Newsweek magazine, the Wall Street Journal, or the CBS Evening News, and you have been unable to make any headway with them.
You need to maintain an ongoing long-term, very high-level, national P.R. presence that would best be maintained by an independent professional.
Only a fool would do his own dental work. Similarly, someone who wants to become the next Madonna will need help on the P.R. front. Madonna was too busy doing her thing to spend time calling attention to it. Although she is a P.R. genius, she is not the one picking up the phone dialing Rolling Stone or faxing press releases to UPI. Her coterie of publicists do that for her. But let me put in a plug for hanging in there on your own. As you have gleaned from the G.P.R. Commandos info, this is indeed something you can do yourself. Relying on her own initiative, Candy Lightner made it to the network news, as did Jill Buck and Dick Rutan. Before they started, none knew much about how media functioned, but they learned as they went along. Their instincts were sharp, but no sharper than yours.
Moreover, you keep control when you do it yourself. Sometimes, pros alter a client’s persona to entice the media. That doesn’t mean we lie; we just emphasize certain media-genic qualities over others. But that can backfire. You know yourself better than anyone, and you can’t help but develop a more honest profile if you handle the P.R. chores yourself.
Besides, it’s very rewarding to pull it off yourself. I’m in the P.R. game for a living, in no small part because I enjoy the rush of success. You will experience that with your own successes, too, and the longer you hang in, the greater will be your achievements.
Have I Got a Career for You
Who knows? You may be so good at this that you might want to make a career out of it. Don’t laugh. If you have a knack for persuading media to do your bidding, then you possess an extremely marketable skill. Perhaps you can hook up with a local P.R. firm on a part-time basis, or find a mentor who can teach you further techniques or steer clients your way. Maybe you can do pro bono P.R. work for charities or causes you believe in, or work as an intern for an established firm.
In fact, I have an offer you may just want to take me up on. Remember that feature article I wrote on the subject of interning? I was deadly serious about it. If you feel you can benefit from a tour of duty as an intern, I’ll take you on at my firm in Los Angeles. Really. No kidding.
Write to me at the address given in the Acknowledgments of this book; tell me about yourself and why you’d like to intern at my company. Of course it’s not a paid position, but you will get priceless hands-on experience at a top P.R. firm, learning from the professionals on my staff. There is no real education without experience. This is a golden opportunity to gain that experience. Drop me a line. I do have openings, and I would love to hear from you.
Also, if you like doing P.R. or learning more about it, I suggest you subscribe to the various professional journals, enroll in workshops, join professional associations, or take a college course. These kinds of activities can’t help but improve your mind as well as your business.
Can you make it as a pro? First, ask yourself if you’re merely interested in the field, or whether you have a burning maniacal rage. There’s a big difference. Without the burning maniacal rage to succeed, you’ll have trouble making it. For the first five years of my P.R. career, I worked two shifts, first from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Then, after a quick trip home for a shower, I’d return to the office and work from 7:00 PM to midnight. People would ask me how long I’d been a publicist, and I’d say “ten years” because of those two shifts.
It’s not for everyone. Even today, about twice a week I hand in my resignation to myself. But whether or not you pursue a career in P.R., you can continue to move up in your own ongoing G.P.R. campaign. You’ll find maintenance easier than starting up, because you will have a growing list of media contacts on whom you can rely time and again. In your second-and third-tier campaigns, you can take greater risks and attempt to reach higher targets. Before you know it, the media will be calling you. That doesn’t mean you drop the ball. You’ll always need to keep yourself visible, but the sledding gets easier when the media want you before you want them.
Strut Your Stuff
I told my staff the other day that you don’t have to have goals. You need them only if you want to succeed. This is true in all areas of life, including P.R. Someone once said, “Scratch a publicist and you get a milkman.” That is, we milk our ideas for all they’re worth. You too must expand your vision in order to do Guerrilla P.R.
As with the simple exercises in the first chapters of this book, you should continue to build a portfolio of ideas. Henceforth, spend fifteen minutes a day jotting down ideas. I mean all kinds of ideas, from new brainstorms to clever witticisms, to incorporate in your next press release.
Do it on a notepad, or talk into a digital recorder. It doesn’t matter how, only that you do it. Your ideas may stink at first, but watch how quickly you refine your mind. Soon your manila folder marked IDEAS will begin to bulge. Because ideas can come at any time, keep pads everywhere—at home, in the car, at work, by the bed. Ideas are like slippery fish. If you don’t spear them with a pencil right away, they’ll be gone. But remember, the good Lord did not issue you a limited supply of creative energy. Once you get one idea, there are plenty more where that came from.
Besides, you will want to begin thinking long-term. Most Guerrilla P.R. efforts are geared to short-term, isolated-event publicity. But you may wish to cultivate a longer-range game plan as well. No matter who you are or what you do, whether you’re project oriented or personality oriented, well-managed ongoing media relations are no longer a luxury in business but a stone-cold necessity. By sustaining your contacts with the media, you reserve for yourself a twenty-four-hour hotline to the people. Not only do you create interest in specific events, but you establish a permanent presence in the consciousness of your target audience and the public at large. That’s the difference between short-term and long-term P.R. goals. One is event oriented, the other consciousness oriented. When people think of hope for the gang problem, they’ll think of the Mid-Valley Youth Center. When they think of whatever it is your project entails, they’ll think of you.
The operative phrase here is “ongoing.” You should maintain a steady stream of press releases or other P.R. efforts to keep the media aware of you and your project. You can’t believe how quickly they forget: media people are hardwired for the present. The old adage “Live for today” is the blood credo of the media, so if you’re not on their minds today, they’ll have forgotten about you by tomorrow.
I’ll give you one classic example, although it’s more of a marketing and advertising story than a P.R. story. Remember when Nissan used to be called Datsun? The company in Japan knew that changing their name would be a long and difficult adjustment for Americans. But over a ten-year period of gradual but constant reminders in their ads, in their showrooms, and in the media, they managed to remove one name from our consciousness and replace it with another. Now, the term “Datsun” sounds funny; Nissan sounds natural. That happened because the company understood the importance of uninterrupted media manipulation.
As for you, perhaps your project isn’t as complicated as an international automobile
company, but given your own scale, you will want to keep up an equally compelling long-range media profile. Remember, it hardly costs a thing, and the payback is beyond measure.
* * *
GUERRILLA P.R. COMMANDOS: Andy and Katie Lipkis
TreePeople is known around the world not only for its extraordinary efforts to plant trees but also for planting a love of trees in the hearts and minds of children and adults everywhere.
Founded in the early seventies by Andy Lipkis when he was only fifteen, TreePeople exemplifies the kind of originality of purpose that not only gets good things done but also brings out the best kind of Guerrilla P.R. Today, with his wife, Katie, Andy Lipkis and Treepeople remain the premier organization of its kind.
Considering the fact that TreePeople always worked at a grassroots level, it’s not surprising that Andy and Katie took a Guerrilla approach to P.R. From their L.A. headquarters atop Coldwater Canyon, they have directed large-scale urban tree-planting projects, visited schools to give away seedlings and educate young people on the ecological importance of trees, undertaken massive ad campaigns, written a best-selling book (The Simple Act of Planting a Tree), and maintained a sprawling tree nursery to fuel their dreams of international reforestation.
To pull this off, Andy knew he had to sell himself as hard as his ideas. As he wrote in his book, “People who cared about the environment were portrayed on television as outcasts, and people who expressed concern over this issue were do-gooders.” Andy changed that image to one of lively enthusiasm, backed by a spirit of fun and genuine concern. With Katie’s writing skills, the two made a formidable team.
To illustrate just how effective they were at organizing and publicizing, let’s take a quick look at their successful three-year campaign in the early eighties, which they called the Million Trees Story. The goal was to plant one million trees in Southern California before the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. First, TreePeople enlisted the aid of a top ad agency, which donated all its services. The campaign rallied around these slogans: “Turn Over a New Leaf, L.A.—Help Plant the Urban Forest” and “Urban Releaf.”
The nobility of the campaign goals led to a PSA starring actor Gregory Peck. Radio’s help was enlisted too, with thirty-second and sixty-second taped PSAs and scripts for on-air announcers sent to every station in town. Fresh scripts were sent regularly during the two-year campaign, with each good for use (timely) for about a month. A billboard company donated ad space. The local ABC news affiliate signed on with a five-part series on the campaign. In the end, by securing high-visibility media and pro bono services, and enlisting corporate sponsorship for its cause, TreePeople succeeded in its ambitious Million Trees campaign. Though there were pitfalls, basically the organization emerged all the more savvy.
“We’ve never had a public relations budget,” writes Andy. “In every case, the national media attention we’ve received has been unsolicited. Why is this? We believe it has something to do with our genuine respect for most of the media folk we’ve worked with. They’re a priceless resource. Don’t overuse or try to trick them.”
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12
Theme and Variations
Innovation has never come through bureaucracy and hierarchy. It’s always come from individuals.
—John Scully, former chairman, Apple Computers
Throughout this book, I have offered my concept of how a Guerrilla P.R. campaign can be mounted. Many of the illustrations came from my own personal experience, and others were drawn from my knowledge of other people’s efforts. The Guerrilla P.R. Commandos spotlighted are, in my mind, the cream of the crop, but they certainly aren’t the only ones who exemplify the approach I urge.
There are many people in all fields who recognize the critical importance of P.R., and who wage and win publicity battles every day. Most of them had little or no money to invest in a P.R. campaign. Few or none had any formal training in this area. Yet, all had the moxie and the instincts to use the media and their interpersonal P.R. skills to achieve their goals. I’d like to now share with you several examples of real-life people I’ve known who showed me just how tenacious and inventive the Guerrilla P.R. practitioner can be.
The Actors
Los Angeles is a town where every waiter is a struggling actor, and every shop clerk has a script he’s trying to sell. The competition among wanna-bes and almost-theres in the film, theater, and TV communities is unimaginably fierce, with the average member of SAG (Screen Actors Guild) earning only an annual pittance from his or her acting ability.
The only way for actors and actresses to make it—aside from the talent and dumb luck factors—is to work as hard on marketing themselves as they do on remembering their lines. Two young actors who personify that kind of perseverance are Richard Epcar and Ellyn Stern, a married couple who have managed to maintain successful careers in entertainment by relying on their own ingenuity to reach their target audience.
Richard had a big role in the 1993 Chevy Chase film Memoirs of an Invisible Man, appeared in many TV shows such as Cheers and Beverly Hills 90210, and has written and directed scores of children’s films and English-language adaptations of foreign film hits like Cinema Paradiso and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. He also does a good deal of work adding his voice to documentary projects and video games. Ellyn has worked in many motion pictures, including The Man Who Loved Women, and such TV shows as St. Elsewhere and General Hospital; provided scripts and voices for Saturday morning cartoons and foreign films like Babette’s Feast; and written several children’s books. The two of them are constantly working while many of their peers wait for the phone to ring. And there’s a good explanation.
“Without P.R., we don’t work,” says Richard, “and we’ve been doing this for thirty years.” What they’ve been doing is simply applying P.R. techniques to keep their names and faces constantly in front of their target audience: casting directors and producers. They send out a steady barrage of postcards with their pictures on one side and a personalized note on the back. They take advantage of the “Breakdown” service, which furnishes casting directors and production companies with casting information by having their materials included on daily deliveries.
“It’s like a mail service, but not many actors know about it,” says Ellyn, who notes that names and addresses of casting directors are easily obtained from listings kept by the Casting Society of America. The two also scored a major P.R. coup a few years back when they created their own one-on-one showcase for casting directors. “We and other actors pitched in to rent a small theater. Then we would pay the casting people a small honorarium to get them down,” recalls Richard. “We would each do a short five-minute scene, and that way get to know personally these important people.”
Later on, the actors’ and producers’ unions battled over the ethics of paying casting directors to watch actors work. It was a mini-controversy in Hollywood; yet, even in this case, Ellyn’s comments about the issue were constantly quoted in Variety. The two never failed to make their presence felt in the trades.
Every time either landed a job, they’d send an announcement to the telecastings and filmcastings columns in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. By reading the trades and learning their formats, Richard was easily able to write usable copy for those particular columns.
Richard has booked himself on cable TV talk shows, and both made sure they were photographed at the Hollywood parties they occasionally attend. “You have to use all your connections,” notes Richard, “and you can’t be shy about it.” Adds Ellyn, “You also have to have a positive attitude. That’s what propels you.”
So, by combining initiative to do the P.R. legwork, and never dropping the offensive, Richard Epcar and Ellyn Stern have managed to sustain their careers in the ultimate dog-eat-dog business. Lessons from Richard Epcar and Ellyn Stern: Persistence and relentless efforts are vital if one seeks to impress decision makers who don’t remember what they had for breakfast. Find P.R. resources nobody else has
thought of yet, and seize the opportunity.
The Realtor
Realtors are the most optimistic people in the world. The market’s never bad, sales have never been better, and any house they show is the most perfect dwelling ever constructed. It’s enough to make you sick sometimes. But at other times you meet people in the real estate business who sincerely try to do the best possible job for their clients and to make sure they find the right house for the right price.
One realtor who exemplifies this first-rate service attitude is Dale Fay, longtime owner of the Century 21 Oak Tree franchise in California’s San Fernando Valley. Dale has been a realtor for many years, working her way through the ranks to become one of the Valley’s top salespersons.
She bought her franchise at a time when the real estate market in Southern California was in a true tailspin. Friends called her crazy, but Dale knew what she was doing.
“People in the community need to know you,” she says. “I figured it would take two years before anybody would get to know us, and opening then would establish us to be there at the right time when the market picked up.”
To ensure that once and future clients will remember her, Dale relies on several strategies. Since referral is the most important source of business, she makes sure her present clients are happy. She’s always ready to go the extra mile, clean up the house she’s showing if the owners aren’t home, and make herself available by phone literally twenty-four hours a day. She carries a few bottles of champagne in the trunk of her car in case she closes a deal on the spot. Her attitude is “Once a client, always a client.” Dale mails out forty pieces of literature and information to clients up to five years after the sale of a property. “It keeps our name in front of them.”
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