A phone call from Edelman PR

THere’s a few going round like that at the moment. Bless.

Still, as much as this comes from n00by PRs, it seems to happen ALL the time at ALL levels of Ad Selling agencies: “yes I’ve read you magazine lots and we’ve a client that wishes to advertise on it”. We’re a website. Ummm.

The three Rs of media: RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH!

Ah, the call of an intern (or sometimes a brand-new account exec). Nothing like it, eh? You’ll find, of course, that they probably had no idea who they were calling, or why, so they can be excused on some level. It’s the person sitting somewhere above them who gave them the list of names and numbers who needs to explain themselves a bit more. Sounds like the intern/exec been given an entire media list without the non-relevant pubs being crossed out first; something I would always ensure happened whenever I was put in that sort of managerial position.

Agree with Rob – poor interns being lobbed in to do a thankless task with no idea why they’re doing it.

A word to all interns – when your pumped up Account Exec who maybe graduated a year before you gives you a list of organisations to ring – Google before you call!!

I actually did a similar thing on my first day in a PR role. I called a radio show and was telling the guy how relevant the story was for his readers. I was incredibly embarrassed when he reminded me he was a radio show and didnt have readers, he had listeners. I knew this as I had done my research but I was nervous as hell to talk to journalists and slipped up, whilst trying to remember everything I was meant to say in the call. Give the kid a break – its daunting when you are a noob!

Poor intern 🙁

Send em to the hardware store to get a glass hammer. That always works.

Poor intern? Stern ticking off to the person supervising them more like it.
PR 101 – know your media and build a relationship – applies to the supervision you give to your staff/interns/auntie’s neighbour doing work experience as well.

Michelle great that you posted.

That’s what I already said in the third reply…

That’s intern-tacular!

Yep, I’m agreeing Rob – just not not into the “poor intern” sentiment. They need support and training, not pity. Best not to let em loose if your company’s reputation is important to you. We were all nervous on day 1, 2 & 3. Some of us were lucky enough to have really good people supervising us. Time invested, well spent and all that…

Honestly, I’d imagine this would be a common occurrence in most budding journalists careers.

I agree with Belle – give the kid a break.

It’s somewhat bad taste to even publish this – I doubt a misstep from someone new to the job is reflective of an entire agency.

Agree with Surly.

If you actually work in the biz and you’ve done the dirty work of ‘pitch and follow’ then you’ve made at least one mistake like this in your time.

You learn way more from one strongly worded earful from an underpaid overworked jouno than a million hours of agency support and training could ever provide.

It’s just that most of us aren’t lucky enough to get published 🙂

I agree with Belle. Yes, research research research but… Give the kid a break. It’s a website s/he called, not the Whitehouse. Assuming this person is an intern or newbie, far worse ‘mistakes’ have been made. He or she will learn from this, and will probably be the most meticulous researcher from now on.

Nice to see Michelle Hutton chime in – and yet I also agree that the lower level assistant was probably in over his or her head. If social media were around when I started there’d be a lengthy chronicle of mistakes! Thankfully you don’t tend to make the same mistake twice!

We are assuming here that it was actually an intern. If not, they may be again soon…

inq, in defence of the Ad Sales people you mention, some websites do refer to themselves as online magazines, and their media kits reflect this, sometimes even referring to them as glossys.

To help out the noobs, it’d be great if the media kept resources such as MediaNet and Margaret Gee’s up to date with their movements. It can be hard to always stay on top of the hundreds of journos relevant to various clients.

Some of you folks are still overlooking that this could easily be an intern, sitting in the chair for a week or two, dreaming of getting into “real PR” (how many times in my PR days did I see interns and account execs dreaming of fashion PR and the like as being “real PR” and all other examples of the industry, especially technology, was just an annoyance to them?), and not caring a jot what they are doing? And whether it is an intern, or not, the blame falls on the shoulders of whoever briefed them, anyway.

Totally agree Surly! In my early years working in PR in the UK (okay – VERY early!!) I accidentally forwarded a wintery-themed media release for a Christmas cookbook to a daily newspaper- in July, the middle of hottest UK summer they’d seen in years. The media release was intended for a longlead magazine with a deadline of early August and I immediately clarified by mistake with them… but guess what? My gaff made it into the newspaper the next day as “PR blunder of the week”. And the newspaper was The Guardian – the publication I looked up to the most. And still do. From that moment, I triple check everything I send to media and haven’t made a blunder since….! (here’s hoping my track record stays the same)…. Everyone makes little mistakes when they start out. They can be the greatest professional gift we ever receive.

How amazing is it that we’ve all got so much time to comment on this gaff? Why is it that PR stories get soooo much response?

Sliding door with different spin
The phone rings.
“Hello. I’m calling from Edelman PR. Can I speak to the editorial contact?”
“How can I help?”
“I wondered if you could let me have your forward features list?”
“Do you know the publication at all?”
“Oh yes.”
“Have you noticed we don’t do features?”
“Ah. And what’s your lead time?”
“We’re a website so our content lead time varies- what are you looking for?”

Good things happen when we value conversation.

“Intern makes a mistake,” could easily have been the headline to this. Hardly news is it?

By all means give them a grilling over the phone. Let them know that they should do the research before picking up the phone, maybe even slam the phone down if it makes you feel big and strong but is there really a need to publish this?

It’s obviously designed to inflict maximum embarrassment and humiliation on the poor intern in front of their new colleagues, but it’s you that comes across as the ‘fucktard’ (as you called someone in a piece a week ago).

Tim, you’re a nice guy but really….. why do so many bloggers become such bullies?

OK I would be the first to criticise this kind of thing but really – we’ve all done it, especially when you’ve given a task with a short amount of time to complete it so Google become a luxury.

Plus Tim I don’t think it’s fair you get to vent about this when it’s NO WHERE near as infuruating a sales people (trying to sell you something, when this caller wasn’t) cold calling you at work when they can’t even pronounce your name OR the name of the company you work for let alone know what it is you do especially, when it’s a Fortune 500 company! And no I would not like an email catalogue of your made in china promotional pens!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you have a business decision maker Tim?

Jesus. Imagine if Rupert got all vindictive and catty when someone asked him a question when he was busy? Governments would fall. Wait a minute….

Tim is right, it’s not about the junior staffer, it’s about the agency. A little exposure on PR agency practices by Journalists will, hopefully, ensure offending agencies lift their game. Staff training, and staff turnover, in some PR agencies is a huge, and largely hidden, issue. However, this is true of all service-based companies (eg financial advisors lack of qualifications in Australia or the quality vs price of call centres in India vs Australia).

The quality of staff that work on an account/project is something that the client (ie client CEO and/or in-house PR) should discuss with their PR agency. Perhaps ask the PR agency Managing Director the following questions (especially during a pitch).

1. Who is/will be working on our account on a day-to-day basis?
2. What experience do they have in PR?
3. What is your staff turnover ratio?

There are a few more but I’m off for some lunch now; it’s Friday afternoon and that’s a good time to take a journo out to lunch…

i think Tim was in a snarky mood because he was writing about AdNews’ dubious numbers and probably regrets having a crack at an intern, especially after Michelle Hutton’s gracious post. Let’s forgive everybody and have a great big hug. Mwah.