PR Studies

Good pitch, bad PR

Hard on the heels of the Bad Pitch Blog come the Bad Hack Blog and Good Pitch Blog. I wish them well, though I fear they'll both prove to be a hard slog blog.

This is because the old adage is true: we learn from our mistakes. But also because life's more complex than the good-bad dichotomy suggests.

We've all been there. Your creative research makes impressive news cuttings. Yet the name of the sponsor/client is left off by the reporter as not being essential to the story. Good PR or bad publicity? The client's not happy, but you gave a journalist a story they could use. It's time for expectation management, and a robust defence of press freedom. You live therefore you learn.

UPDATE: Robert writes about a similar experience from his university: good stunt, bad press.

Comments

Good pitch, bad PR

Hard on the heels of the Bad Pitch Blog come the Bad Hack Blog and Good Pitch Blog. I wish them well, though I fear they'll both prove to be a hard slog blog.

This is because the old adage is true: we learn from our mistakes. But also because life's more complex than the good-bad dichotomy suggests.

We've all been there. Your creative research makes impressive news cuttings. Yet the name of the sponsor/client is left off by the reporter as not being essential to the story. Good PR or bad publicity? The client's not happy, but you gave a journalist a story they could use. It's time for expectation management, and a robust defence of press freedom. You live therefore you learn.

UPDATE: Robert writes about a similar experience from his university: good stunt, bad press.