I used to think getting a client into the likes of the Wall Street Journal was the pinnacle of public relations success. But as I think about a few recent conversations I’ve had and meetings I’ve been in, and as I consider what most of our clients are asking us to do, it seems the marketplace is telling me something different.
I had a meeting last week with a client in Washington, DC. As part of a large, international firm, its office is one of more than 20 in the United States. At the national level, the company has a public relations and marketing staff. In fact, it also works with a top international public relations firm to – what else – earn top-tier national media in outlets like the Wall Street Journal or Forbes magazine.
It’s an understandable objective. In many cases, a large, national brand should be part of the national conversation. Nothing says “thought leader” like attribution in several paragraphs in a front-page Wall Street Journal story. The problem is, little, if any, of what is done at a national level trickles down to the individual markets where, in many cases, the rubber meets the road, where the actual money is made.
Companies doing business in cities like Denver, Detroit, Pittsburgh or Atlanta need to tell their story in Denver, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Atlanta. Sure, people in each of those cities read the Wall Street Journal, but if you want to have your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the Pittsburgh business community, you read the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette or the Tribune-Review, not the Wall Street Journal.
Several days ago, we made a pitch to a large, multi-state healthcare business. It has no interest in national media. From an awareness standpoint, it is most important to this business to be visible in the communities in which it provides its services. Although it has the chops to be part of the national dialogue, being part of such a conversation will not get customers through its doors.
Last week, as I was making my way home from the nation’s capital, I took a call from a prospect. It is a state-based advocacy organization representing hundreds of similar nonprofit organizations throughout the state. Public policy and legislation are primary areas of focus for the organization, so the ability to talk through the media to stakeholders and legislators in the state’s capital about legislation affecting its industry is important. But what’s equally, if not more important, as I learned, is the ability to tell the stories of the individual member organizations in the communities in which they operate.
One last story: several years ago, I had a conversation with an industry peer. We were talking about media relations, and he was talking about his belief that large, national public relations firms are best suited to earn media stories in top-tier national outlets – the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune and Washington Post, as examples. He essentially said he wouldn’t hire a small firm if his objectives were to get into those papers, because the national agencies have offices in those cities and good relationships with reporters at those papers.
This peer (who also happens to be a good friend) just happened to work for years for one of the country’s largest PR firms, and since leaving it, has held high-ranking communications jobs at Fortune 500 companies. For many of the Fortune 500, it is righteous to be part of the national dialogue at the national level. And at that level, placing an op-ed written by a top executive from GM, GE, IBM or P&G in the Wall Street Journal isn’t that tough of a sell.
But for the tens of thousands of small- and mid-sized businesses in this country, all business and all media – like politics – is local. And just like a business with headquarters in Boston can effectively do business in cities like Philadelphia, Baltimore or Milwaukee, media relations can be done effectively across the country without having PR practitioners in offices spread across the country. It’s expertise, experience, creativity and diligence that count most.
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Jason Snyder is a senior vice president for WordWrite Communications.
