June 19, 2015: It isn’t hard to get media coverage when an organization has a newsworthy announcement to make. The challenge is to get media coverage when there’s no news, and for most companies, that’s most of the time. After all, it’s not every day that you launch a new product, buy another company, or sign an important business contract.
To stay in the media spotlight, you’ve got to get creative. In fact, you’ve got to create some news about your company from scratch. The qualities that make something newsworthy is a topic worthy of its own blog post, which I’ve already written. But making news can be done in various ways. Here are some examples:
Research Using Existing Data
Each year Verizon conducts a study on computer security breaches, reporting the results to the media. This year’s study, “2015 Data Breach Investigations Report,” was released in mid-April. The purpose of Verizon’s report is to determine, using available data, exactly which cyber-threats are most dangerous, who’s most vulnerable, and steps that can be taken to thwart these breaches. Verizon’s report is based on information from 2,100 confirmed, and 80,000 reported security incidents.
What’s especially interesting about Verizon’s yearly report is that it’s directional, i.e. it focuses on the changes that happen year to year. Doing so lets Verizon provide quantitative information about trends in cyber-threats and provide useful suggestions on how many of them can be avoided. The result is a simple but powerful story that’s “news” in its own right. Consequently, Verizon’s report was widely picked up in first-tier media outlets, including Fortune and Industry Week. Verizon’s yearly report also positions the company as a thought leader, trend-spotter and solutions provider in cyber-security, an important area of concern for every business (and every individual). Another advantage of this method is that it’s relatively inexpensive to conduct.
Ranking Nations by the Speed of their Runners
Another great example of this strategy was the subject of a Wall Street Journal article a few weeks back. Shortly after the Boston Marathon concluded, the Wall Street Journal reported on the speed of recreational marathon runners from different nations, using data from a research study conducted by RunRepeat.com, a site that compiles reviews of running shoes. The RunRepeat.com study compared the race results from 12 marathons, three in the U.S. and nine in Europe, in order to rank nations by how fast their marathon runners were. This kind of analysis wasn’t costly. In fact, the only research required was to analyze statistics from past marathons to determine the runners’ finishing times and organize this data by nationality and gender. The results revealed that the U.S., the UK, and five Asian nations were among the 10 slowest nations sampled. This is an excellent example of “making news” by using easily accessible data to tell a compelling story.
Telling a Data-Driven Story by Using a Free Public Tool
Another example comes from Didit, Bridge Global Strategies’ parent company. In late March of 2015, when early reports of a big change to Google’s mobile algorithm began flooding SEO news channels, Didit surveyed the websites of PR firms ranked in the O’Dwyer’s PR Firm Rankings, an annual ranking of PR agencies by revenues. Didit’s staff used a publically-available tool (Google’s Mobile Friendly Test page) to determine which of these sites were mobile-friendly. They reported the startling statistic that almost half were not. Didit’s research findings said something quite negative about how digital savvy the average PR agency is, while subtly emphasized the advantage of using an integrated communications company such as Didit for PR.
Directing Attention to an Event
Sometimes you can make news by catching people’s attention about a special event or activity. One phenomenally successful example was the Celebrity Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS last summer. It raised a staggering $220 million to support ALS research and help ALS patients, and also directed public attention to this incurable neurodegenerative disease.
The ice bucket challenge went viral after proving itself irresistible to celebrities, politicians, and the public at large. Among those who took the challenge were former President George Bush, LeBron James and Kermit the Frog. The video embedded here of Kermit the Frog being doused with ice and water was viewed by more than six million people.
A version of this article originally appeared on the Bridge Global Strategies “Bridgebuzz” blog. Bridge is a PR subsidiary of Didit.
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