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| Issue No. 200405
| May 2004
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The PIOnet Newsletter is sponsored by Newswise and Dick Jones Communications
Feature Editor: Dick Jones Editor/Publisher: Roger Johnson
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PIOnet Newsletter is produced monthly to support media relations' vital role in integrated marketing for your institution. This role is not always adequately recognized, understood, or acknowledged. Our goal is to give you data, arguments, evidence, and ideas to enhance the understanding of and appreciation for media relations at your institution.
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View full list of jobs in higher education.
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Moving from Event Publicity to Idea Publicity
by Dick Jones
Dick Jones Communications
Does your media relations shop offer a mix of event and idea publicity? It should.
I still see a few operations that seem to focus exclusively on announcing concerts, lectures, plays, promotions, appointments, the dean's list, and the receipt of gifts. All of these activities may be necessary, but they do little to open windows into the "soul" of the institution: the creation and transfer of knowledge and ideas.
The arrival of "new media" has diminished the need for the college news service to focus on event publicity. Email listserves and websites have given the sponsors of campus events excellent tools to inform their regular constituents of upcoming art exhibits, theater productions, lectures, and the like. There is, or should be, less pressure to depend on news publicity to "fill the seats" for campus events.
Appropriately prioritizing event publicity removes a millstone from the neck of the media relations director. At the same time, it increases the accountability of the event producer. Breathes there among us one so dead who never about herself hath heard it said that, "Your failure to get enough publicity was the reason this event flopped?" Empty seats at countless second-rate campus events have been pinned on the poor media relations director because he or she couldn't convince the local news outlets that a pre-event story was warranted.
To be sure, event publicity efforts should still be done. Were not advocating their abandonment. But they shouldn't be the entire focus of the media relations operation.
At least some time should be devoted to idea publicity. Because the creation and transfer of knowledge and ideas is really what your school is all about, when you focus on idea publicity you are actively taking part in the "soul enterprise" of the institution. There are ideas are all over your campus.
- A professor of education can give advice on how to encourage elementary school kids to do their homework.
- Your study abroad director can be the source for a story on "the items and gadgets students always wish they had left behind when they pack for overseas travel."
- A history professor can put anniversaries and current events in perspective.
- The head of the political science department can explain why your state's presidential primary will (or won't) matter this year.
- The athletic department trainer can explain what to do to avoid heat stroke when exercising in warm weather.
None of these ideas involve research. Published studies and newly authored books by faculty are important vehicles for idea publicity, and you should take advantage of them whenever possible, but even colleges that emphasize teaching over research can score with idea publicity.
The key is to make your institution an "advice giver to the world." Schools that mix idea publicity with event publicity tend to find that relationships with the local media improve. The editors and news directors no longer see you as someone who just wants something (free advertising) from them. They see you as a person who can deliver something that they (and their audiences) can use.
What examples of idea-oriented publicity have worked for you that you are willing to share with us?
We invite your discussion of this topic on PIOnet.
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A Question and Some Rules for Communications Officers
by Zoltan Bedy, Ph.D
Oswego State University of New York
Normally, I write in this newsletter about research I have come across in journals, that I think would be of interest and helpful to fellow PIONauts. I think of research as a form of discovery, and with that in mind, I am going to discuss here a somewhat different form of discovery -- that based on years of practice and experience.
Recently, I participated in the Public Relation Society of America's (PRSA) Counselors to Higher Education (CHE) Senior Summit, in Washington, DC. It is an annual meeting during which some four dozen senior-level communications professionals -- with titles ranging from director to vice president -- gather to discuss issues important to them, their institutions and the profession. While the theme of this year's meeting was "Charting a Course for 2005 and Beyond," and dealt with issues in higher education, some of the presentations and discussions were more generally applicable to and useful for communications officers. There were several interesting and useful presentations, discussions and workshops. I will share highlights from the keynote address by Donald Eastman III, Ph.D., President, Eckerd College.
Eastman, who had spent more than 25 years as senior-staff with four university presidents before becoming a college president himself three years ago, asked the question, "Why are we here?" It wasn't the philosophical "Why are we here?", "What is the meaning of life?" kind of question. Rather, it is the question, Eastman said, that all communications professionals need to consider every day and at every turn. The answer, he said, is to help ourselves and others understand the organizations for which we work.
Eastman followed his question with five rules for communicators:
- Tell the truth. Of all the things constituents will understand and forgive, being lied to, or having the truth withheld by the organization, is not one of them. Telling the truth, he said, is never as easy as it may seem, because of its complexity. Telling the truth is simple, ". . . except when you get pressured to tell the good part of the truth and leave out the bad part. . . .Our jobs include not only helping others tell the organization's story, but also helping others understand the importance of communicating and explaining what we do at every turn."
- There are communications implications -- and therefore a need for a communications strategy -- for nearly every decision we make and action we take. A plan for communicating a decision should always be the first step after the decision is made -- "even if the decision is not to say anything right away."
- Tell your story first. Bad stories have a way of finding daylight. We do our organizations a greater service by getting those stories out ourselves before someone else does. And someone else surely will. "Communications are not just about the press and external constituencies, they are also about internal audiences," said Eastman. "If your own people don't know it or don't believe it, neither will anybody else."
- All successful communications start with the organization. One of the primary audiences for each communications tactic, each PR instrument, is the internal audience. It is crucial to first convince those who work for the organization. Therefore, it is critical that the PR officer/counselor convince the organization's president of the importance of internal communication. "Presidents who do not pay great attention to their co-workers from Day One often do not get very many Day Twos," explained Eastman
- Ask the hard questions. It is the job of the chief communications officer of the organization to remember that "nothing is out of bounds" in seeking answers to the "Why are we here?" question. "PR professionals must ask all those questions that the press or legislatures or other constituents will ask or ought to ask, so that those they support can think clearly through the issues and develop answers the organization wants to live with for the long term."
These rules, said Eastman, were developed by him for himself, "mostly by painful experience," and not meant as a code for all to follow. Participants at the CHE meeting all seemed to agree, however, that the rules were certainly worth adopting, inasmuch as possible, at their own institutions.
A monograph of Eastman's full address, along with other presentations at the 2004 CHE Senior Summit, will soon be available at http://www.che.prsa.org.
We invite your discussion of this topic on PIOnet.
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Book Review: Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
by Andrew Careaga
University of Missouri-Rolla
Here in my native Missouri, you don't have to drive very far down one of our blue highways before you see a herd of cattle grazing placidly along the side of the road. With so many cows dotting the countryside, they all start to look alike before long.
That's the simple point -- and metaphor -- that forms the foundation of Seth Godin's slender business/marketing book, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable (Portfolio, 2003). While written for a business audience and stuffed with case studies from the corporate world, Godin's book also holds lessons for those of us involved in marketing higher education.
With earlier books like Unleashing the Ideavirus and Permission Marketing, Godin proved his knack for coming up with metaphors that also served as catchy book titles. With Purple Cow, he's devised another clever turn of phrase. His point: a great idea -- something "remarkable" -- can distinguish an organization from the competition, making it stand out like a purple cow in a pasture full of plain brown bessies. As Godin explains: "Cows, after you've seen them for a while, are boring. They may be perfect cows, attractive cows, cows with great personalities, cows lit by beautiful light, but they're still boring."
Offering several case studies of how companies developed a remarkable product or service -- Starbucks, JetBlue, Motel 6, Pearl Jam, and Linux among them -- Godin builds a solid case for businesses to strive to be remarkable. But what does that have to do with education? From our perspective, perhaps not much. But put yourself in a high school junior's shoes for a minute. Think about the first viewbook or mailer that arrives. Marvel at how pretty it is. How bright the colors! How shiny and happy the people! How hip the choppy marketing text! Behold the student's first encounter with the first cow in the herd.
Now, imagine the next day's mailbox offerings: more bright colors; more shiny, happy people; more perky text. And the next. And the next. Before long, it all looks the same: boring.
From the perspective of a high school student -- or a science journalist, recruiter, or parent, for that matter -- colleges look pretty much the same. Unless you're remarkable, that is. Most of us are in the herd together. How can we stick out?
That's the challenge Purple Cow poses to university communicators.
As a book about marketing, Purple Cow won't make the list of classics. But Godin knows how to build on the Great Ideas. He borrows freely from the likes of Harry Beckwith and Malcolm Gladwell. (When you get right down to it, Purple Cow is another way of looking at the classic "unique selling proposition" Beckwith describes in Selling the Invisible. But of course, it's more fun to say "purple cow" than "unique selling proposition.") The book occasionally inspires -- especially if your marketing or ad budget is less than zero and you're looking for some creative ideas. The story of how the paint company Dutch Boy changed its containers from the traditional metal cans to easy-to-pour jugs is one example of how even the most conservative business can improve with just a little tweaking. At the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR), we adopted the purple cow approach with our student design teams, which provide our engineering students with more practical, experiential learning outside the classroom to augment the traditional approaches.
One problem with Godin's approach -- and something he acknowledges in the book -- is that remarkable products and services may have short shelf lives. Once a business or organization stands out from the competition, it isn't long before the competition notices and tries to mimic the originator. Soon, all the cows in the pasture are purple, and they're just as invisible as the brown ones were. Pursuing a purple cow can also get organizations caught up in the "est syndrome" -- that is, having to be the fastest, biggest, smallest, best, etc. -- at the expense of other important business matters. For instance, at UMR we kept in mind that the student design teams were only one aspect of the total education package for our students.
Weighing in at 160 pages, Purple Cow is an easy airplane read. So instead of flipping through the airline's in-house magazine or that Sharper Image catalog, you might want to stow a copy of this little book for your in-flight reading.
We invite your discussion of this topic on PIOnet.
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International Media Relations
by Tom Miller
Imperial College London
The recent appointment of a former tobacco lobbyist to the top communications job at Australia's leading scientific research organisation has made headlines and left a community of scientists and communicators in an uproar.
Donna Staunton was appointed director of communications at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) on 1 March, after serving as a consultant to the organisation since May last year. Her previous jobs included Chief Executive Officer of the Tobacco Institute of Australia and Vice President for Corporate Affairs of the Philip Morris Group.
"I do not believe that cigarette smoking is an addiction, based on any reasonable definition," she told an Australian Senate committee in 1994. Ten years later her message is ''I don't want to be the issue'' (*1), but since the appointment she has had little chance of escaping interest.
Long-time CSIRO-watcher, journalist Peter Pockley reporting for ABC Radio's weekly science magazine show, related that when her appointment was announced (*2) by CSIRO management, no mention was made of her background but instead that she "is highly regarded in political and corporate spheres".
The press have also gotten hold of Ms. Staunton's pay details from when she served as a consultant at CSIRO. According to Pockley she was earning pro rota the five-day-a-week equivalent of Aus$330,000 a year (US$238,000), making her one of the top four best-paid employees in the 6,500-strong organisation.
How the Staunton story will resolve itself it is too early to say. She has apparently renounced her views on tobacco's addictive qualities, stating in a letter in 2000, "I now accept that nicotine is in fact addictive...I can assure you that I do not intend to again work for the tobacco industry." One former CSIRO public affairs employee has written (*1) that if she contributes to turning the ailing CSIRO ship around she can expect to become far less of an issue. Indeed, last week came news that in forthcoming budget settlements the organisation will get an additional Aus$180 million (US$130 million) for its 'flagships' program of research in key areas (*4).
Either way, CSIRO must have remarkable confidence and trust in their new employee. Pointedly this was lacking in the tale of another head of communications at a different research agency, who also held views on the tobacco industry.
As head of public communications at the UK's Medical Research Council (MRC), Mary Rice faced a rather different situation from that of Donna Staunton. She disapproved of an MRC research unit's taking funding from a tobacco company for an Alzheimers' research project, advising senior management that it would damage the MRC's reputation. Two years later a reporter dug up the funding link, and after going on the record with Rice's views in an article, Rice was dismissed in November 1996 (*5).
Links:
- "New medium is unwilling to be the message" The Canberra Times (21 April)
- ABC The Science Show (24 April)
- "CSIRO job for tobacco defender" The Sunday Age (25 April)
- "$180m to raise CSIRO's flagships" The Australian (28 April)
- "147,000 pieces of silver" Tobacco Control (2000)
We invite your discussion of this topic on PIOnet.
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