Courting communications

This week I received two press releases from major companies, both, incidentally, beginning with A and holding the number one and two spots in broadcast editing. And both, in their different ways, were prime examples of how not to do it.
In the purple corner we have, and I quote “Avid today announced that it has been awarded a significant contract to supply production and distribution kit and expertise to the broadcast of a major sporting event in London next year. Over the next year, Avid Professional Services will collaborate with a third-party technology supplier to provide a core broadcast service and onsite support.”
There are a couple more paragraphs in this vein, but nothing of any substance. We are left to guess what that major sporting event in London could possibly be, and therefore who the third-party technology supplier could be.
This is not, of course, Avid’s fault. The Olympic movement and its obsession with ambush marketing (its name for any mention of the Olympics it does not get a cut for) has driven Avid to issue this meaningless press release, when we should all be gathering around to congratulate them on a good contract on a very prestigious project.
From the shiny silver corner came a perfectly adequate press release, announcing the launch of Final Cut Pro X, the latest version of the editing software. My beef comes not with the release itself but the follow-up call from Apple’s press office, about half an hour later.
“We’re having an event to launch Final Cut Pro X, and all journalists who attend will be given a code to download the software free,” the PR girl told me breathlessly. Which might have been tempting were it not for two facts.
First, one of the most important pieces of news about the new version is that it only costs £180, so by the time I had dragged myself round to Apple’s offices near Heathrow I would already be out of pocket. And second, that the press event was approximately 21 hours from the time of the call inviting me. Which is, for a busy freelance, a bit short notice.
I have written in these pages before that I am an enthusiastic user of Apple products and will no doubt, in the fullness of time, download a copy of Final Cut Studio for the little video projects I undertake. I might even comment favourably upon it in print. But, my dear friends at Apple, you really have to get over yourselves. We love you, but we are not going to drop everything at your behest.
Why am I writing about these two incidents? Because you may not realise how much the trade press depends upon the PR industry. For independent commentators like me a good PR person will keep me up to date with the latest news, tuned to my specific interests, and respond quickly if I have further questions. For the editor of a magazine like TV-Bay a good PR person will be invaluable, suggesting editorial offerings which are relevant to the readership, and ensuring they are delivered ahead of the publication deadline.
Unfortunately, there are good PR people and not so good PR people. And as delightful and helpful as the good ones are, the bad ones are a nightmare. So, you ask, what makes a bad PR person? The answer, when it comes down to it, is that bad PR people are too lazy to do the basic research.
Through March I get the calls asking “Are you going to the NAB show?”. Yes, I registered in December, which you would know if you bothered to look at the published list. Or the PR drone calls the week before the exhibition wanting to make an appointment to meet the MD of the client company and gets upset when I say my diary is full.
The calls around exhibition times are probably the worst disruption. But another grade one irritant is the PR company that has bought a mailing list from someone and has not bothered to clean it. You get news from them that might well be fascinating but is hardly relevant.
I, for example, receive something virtually every day from an American group called the National Association of Black Journalists. I will pause for a moment for you to check my picture at the top of the column. The invitation to join the association Women in Broadcast I filed in the same way.
Some releases are just way off mark. I regularly get invitations to the opening of apartment blocks in Dubai, for instance (without the accompanying complimentary first class air tickets). The most obscure I can recall revealed the latest scientific research that “baby corals dance their way home”. No, I had no idea that coral had a larval stage, or that in this stage they swam, or that marine biologists could get grants to create a “choice chamber” for coral to determine they guided each other through interpretive dance.
Good PR people: you know who you are. Carry on doing a grand job, and I’ll see you next at the IBC Beach.