da bet7k： I certainly don’t want to over simplify our role, but for me PR has always been about;
da spicy bet： 1. Understanding the story
2. Understanding the media
3. The relationship that you have with the journalist
From a personal perspective, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some fantastic journalists (many of whom I still deal with) and some great brands and clients. While this doesn’t automatically make me the next Matthew Freud, it has allowed me to gain an important understanding of the media beast, what components need to be present to make a good story and the angles that the media will be interested in.
Like any good agency, Lineup Media has to be fully aware of the daily news topics and what the media are covering (club news, player speculation and match incidents). We get our daily news intake from the national newspapers, online sites, Twitter and the radio.
Having a news overview allows us to make a decision on what relevant PR opportunities we have at our disposal and how we can turn these into coverage opportunities.
In the case of clients like FFC, we work closely with them to create PR-able stories, which follow the current news agenda and focus around stories we think are of interest. A good example of this are the Fan Polls created on the FFC site. These not only reflect topical footballing issues but also give us a true indication of what real fans are thinking.
So how do we work with the media?
As you’d expect from the World’s favourite sport, football is covered in all of the UK’s main national media – print, broadcast, online, social – and thanks to the likes of David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard, the sport has migrated from being purely back page news, to a more favourable position within the national news agenda.
The ‘celebrity’ footballer has also allowed PR’s an even greater opportunity, being able to target entertainment pages, fashion sections and gossip columns.
Targeting the online media, some stories can now go live within 20 minutes of being first sold in!
Our ‘pitch’ technique is all about understanding the media you are speaking to, ideally knowing the journalist you are about to call and knowing what the key points of the story are – meaning you grab the journalists interest from the start. There is nothing worse than having to ask if a journalist is still on the other end of the phone (which of course has never happened to me).
Knowing the above will allow the journalist to make a quick decision on whether it’s something that would be of interest. Just because one media isn’t interested, it doesn’t mean that another one won’t be!
With all of that said, we are only human and sometimes don’t always hit the sweet spot. It’s at these times we are happy to discuss with the journalist what it is they are looking for and what would work best for them – let’s not forget, a bit of give and take is how all good relationships work.
Whether we’re working with online journalists, national newspapers sports desks or men’s magazines, it is all about offering them content that their readers will enjoy reading and engage with.
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Ali Sheik is the founder of Lineup Media, a national PR agency specialising in sports, consumer, food, digital and travel clients. A calm and logical Arsenal fan, he is happy with Arsene Wenger and knows that success is only a season away.