Today, it’s my pleasure to share with you some exciting news — two recent developments that together mark a big step forward in our agency momentum. In a press release issued yesterday, we announced that Recyclebank has retained the firm to serve as the company’s PR agency of record, handling all corporate, partnership and consumer communications, effective immediately.  What began last year as a small retainer to build awareness of the company’s innovative partnership program has now grown to multi-faceted, full-service relationship encompassing communications programs targeting all of the company’s core audiences: consumers, corporations and cities and municipalities nationwide. Under the watchful eye of Tyler Perry, Recyclebank has grown into one of our largest accounts, now serviced by a bi-coastal team of five people and growing.

Which leads me to our second piece of news — Bateman Group also announced today the opening of our new offices in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope! With Recyclebank as a flagship account, our plan for the Brooklyn office is to focus primarily on working with companies located in the New York Metropolitan area looking for consumer lifestyle and consumer technology PR expertise. The new outpost will also support current Bateman clients located throughout the Eastern U.S., Canada and Western Europe, particularly those accounts where having team members based in a time zone closer to the client’s own is a service requirement.

We’ve always taken care to build a geographically diverse client roster to protect against regional economic slumps. When the recession hit Silicon Valley in late 2008 and leads from Northern California slowed to a trickle, we found great companies eager for our special brand of communications in places like Hamburg, Germany (CoreMedia), Madrid, Spain (Panda Security), Reading, England (The Open Group), Toronto, Canada (Platform Computing) and Stamford, Conn. (Protegrity). Even though today we’re seeing a steady resurgence in business from Silicon Valley, we continue to work towards our goal of becoming one of the most respected agencies nationwide. Our expansion into New York City today represents the first of many important milestones in that quest.

As for Recyclebank, allow me to share one of our first major initiatives as agency of record. We’re spearheading media efforts for Recyclebank’s Earth Month “Green Your Home Challenge”, a nationwide consumer contest running from April 1, 2011 through April 30, 2011 that aims to educate, motivate and inspire people to live more eco-friendly lifestyles. Be sure to check it out!

Earlier this week on Tuesday, March 1^st, Bateman Group along with fellow boutique PR agencies Mindshare PR, Kulesa Faul, Page One PR and Borders+Gratehouse co-hosted the third in an ongoing series of professional development events. The events — jointly organized and produced by all participating firms — are informal, intimate learning opportunities designed to encourage authentic interactions and, ultimately, cultivate stronger, mutually beneficial relationships between and among PR professionals and industry influencers we serve.

This most recent panel discussion brought together three of the most prominent names working in IT trade journalism today — Eric Knorr, the editor-in-chief of InfoWorld; Doug Dineley, executive editor of the InfoWorld Test Center; and James Niccolai, deputy news editor for IDG News Service. Yes, all three work for the powerhouse publisher IDG; however the similarities truly end there. Each panelist hailed from a different corner of the IT trade eco-system, including editorial direction and oversight, product testing and reviews; and breaking news. The result was a lively discussion moderated by Bateman Group Managing Director Lisa Melsted and attended by more than 30 PR professionals of all experience levels.

The discussion was successful in preempting the iPad 2 announcement, which took place on March 2^nd, and focused mainly on the changing tech journalism landscape, i.e., what’s driving it, what’s shaping editorial content, what are the hot trends, etc. Without further ado, here are some highlights from the panel:

1. Biggest challenges in the tech media landscape: The first question set the tone for the discussion by addressing how quickly media is evolving. Eric spoke about the shift from print to online that has caused journalists to rethink what content they publish and how they publish it. To the dismay of many of our clients, Eric reiterated that IT journalists are no longer covering product news like they used to, but now tend to focus more on larger trends. James expounded on Eric’s initial thoughts by stating how the need for immediacy has directly affected journalistic accuracy. He also mentioned the need for journalists to develop their own voice while still maintaining impartiality since the advent of blogging has led more journalists to create narratives and styles of their own.
2. Rest assured the Internet still rewards value: Amidst an ϋber-plethora of Facebook, Apple and Groupon articles, many of us in the PR industry have a hard time getting coverage for lesser-known brands. Eric Knorr told us that quality content is still the biggest driver in tech journalism. Doug chimed in saying that the advent of online metrics, such as article page views and organic search rankings, has caused journalists to consider keyword usage in headlines, but the body of the articles remains mostly unchanged. The panel agreed it will be interesting to see how tweets and Facebook “likes” will be measured moving forward.
3. New delivery platforms translate into new rules of engagement: Today’s iPad announcement emphasizes new delivery platforms that are becoming increasingly mobile. Tablets are built on multimedia capabilities, while mobile devices such as smartphones clearly point to a trend of needing information at one’s fingertips. Gone are the days when journalists were only expected to produce compelling content because they are now being expected to expand their capabilities to include podcasts, video production and active tweeting. The promising aspect of this trend is that journalists are learning to deliver relevant content based on the context of their audience, which bodes well for our clients Baynote and CoreMedia.
4. Hot trends in the tech industry: According to the panelists, emerging trends other than cloud computing  and the omnipresent “mobile everything” include “Big Data,” new open source distributed software frameworks such as Hadoop, the consumerization of IT, power efficiency, desktop virtualization and browser-based computing. Eric asked the obvious question, “What’s next for Windows now that its truly losing relevance” due to the shift to web-based services. In an audience of PR professionals, the inevitable question was asked: “What articles drive the most traffic?” The answer: “Best of” and technology awards articles have perennially done well at InfoWorld, and Doug shared that any article on free tools or Open Source were quite popular as well. (As an aside, I have to agree with him–thinking about how that applies to my life, at least 25% of the apps on my iPhone were downloaded after I read a “best iPhone app” article, and probably all of them were free!) Eric mentioned that articles about IT culture were also popular, such as the world’s “dirtiest IT jobs”. The Quora question that asks about the preferred alcoholic beverage among the IT security community would be an interesting one if it ever takes off – I’d have to go with Cosmos as the dark horse here.
5. PR Pet Peeves: After seeing the flaming of an unprofessional PR flack on TechCrunch earlier this week, we had to ask about PR pet peeves. James mentioned ambiguous press releases that leave journalists wondering what they’ve read after they read it. Okay, it’s a “solution” but is it software, hardware, a web service or what? Doug’s pet peeve was being pitched on a technology that he doesn’t cover (read: PR people need to perform their due diligence before pitching targets). It was assuring that all of the panelists actually do read emails from PR professionals, but lack the bandwidth to always reply.

Based on all of this great insight from Eric, Doug and James, it’s no wonder why IDG and their mainstay tech media properties like InfoWorld have not only survived but actually thrived during this difficult transition to digital publishing. They’ve done this by having foresight on those trends expected to dominate industry discussion in the future and being the first to put a stake in the ground on these issues. Case in point: Search for “cloud computing” in Google and you’ll see InfoWorld’s “What cloud computing really means” article from a year ago ranks second in the organic search results. They have also evolved quickly. When InfoWorld moved their entire content model online a few years ago, many assumed it was the end for them, but this couldn’t have been further from the truth. IDG publications have also been early adopters of social media channels like Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic, and are quickly adapting to new user devices like the iPhone and iPads. But what’s most at the heart of their success is that each of their media properties has stayed true to their core audience and brand.

These panels allow us to look at things from the journalist’s point of view, leading to more thoughtful angles and pitches that will ultimately translate into improved media relations. If you’re interested in attending our next panel discussion, please feel free to contact us.

Part 1: A Historical Perspective

When I started out in this industry 20 years ago, I loved to hear the senior staff trade anecdotes about the PR agency workplace prior to the PC era. They would have me and my fellow “Generation Xers” in stitches with war stories about press releases written on old fashioned typewriters and mishaps involving poorly applied white out (or “liquid paper”). Or how press releases were sent back and forth to clients via snail mail, so approvals would often take several weeks until the arrival of FedEx reduced this process to a mere 3 or 4 days (still one of the most “disruptive” business services ever launched, IMHO).

Fast forward to 2010 and I find myself in the somewhat uncomfortable position of sharing my own war stories about the PR industry before the arrival of email and the Internet. The “millennials” recoil in horror at my tales of standing at a fax machine for 16 hours straight on the day of a product launch. They laugh when I attempt to convey the pure joy that accompanied the arrival of our first plain paper fax machine, ending years of frustration with chalky, filmy thermal fax paper rolls.

One way back memory members of Generation Y have a hard time believing is this: THE BUSINESS PRESS REGULARLY COVERED NEW PRODUCT NEWS!  It’s true. In early-to-mid-90s, I worked with several product divisions of Digital Equipment Corp  and we could almost guarantee coverage in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Boston Globe, Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, et al for just about every single product launch ─ even for complex technologies like microprocessors. How was this possible?

Prior to the Internet, coverage of the technology industry was dominated by two dozen or so companies. Among them were familiar names like IBM, H-P, Intel, Texas Instruments, Oracle, Dell, Cisco and Sun Microsystems along with fading brands such as Digital Equipment Corp., Silicon Graphics, Data General, Wang and Informix. The media’s obsession with entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley start-up culture had yet to materialize.

With less companies to cover and lots of print pages to fill, it was common for business media to agree to pre-briefings on product news on Friday and hold it over the weekend under verbal embargo until Monday morning. That’s when the coverage would literally pour in from all the trades and business media. We would average about one new product launch each month, which allowed all of us to amass impressive clipbooks ─ not to mention forge genuine relationships with the members of the business media. I took this all for granted for a long time and boy I sure do miss this pre-Internet phenomenon.

Obviously, today things are much different. Not only in terms of how embargoes are received, but in the kinds of news items that capture a writer’s attention. Just a few years ago, product news still held some allure in the trades. News coverage relied on a steady stream of products and their new capabilities and enhancements. Since 2007; however, there’s been a slow shift with fewer journalists covering product launches. Three reasons for this change are abundantly clear:

1) Shortened News Cycles: The Internet has reduced news cycles from days to seconds.

2) Page View Journalism: The rise of digital media and its ability to measure page views is providing journalists and bloggers with insight into what readers actually want to read about. Concurrently, publishers are increasingly focused on driving more traffic and page views to appeal to advertisers.

3) Increased Noise Level: Unless you’re a closely watched brand like Apple, Google or Facebook spending millions on a product launch event or a pedigreed start-up with tier one investors and well-known entrepreneurs at the helm, a story on your product launch is unlikely to cut through the clutter.

So, the question remains… Is the product launch dead?

Whether or not we like it, things are changing fast. I don’t believe product launches or embargoes are dead just yet, but they are going by the wayside, slowly but surely. Whether you have an embargo in place or not, the quality of the content, the media strategy and, once again, the content, is what will get you maximum results. We as PR professionals need to adapt and evolve our strategies for the product launch. In part two of this series, we’ll be sharing some of our newly formed best practices and recent successes helping clients launch new products into this new environment.

Last week there was a rare occurrence at the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper announced a change to its editorial policies. Moving forward, the newspaper will no longer honor news embargoes. The only exceptions are for exclusives or if the news is simply too big to be ignored. This became a catalyst for lively discussion among my colleagues about the changing media landscape and how we should adjust our media strategies to maintain client results.

This news is significant for a variety of reasons. First, it’s more proof the mainstream media landscape has been permanently altered by market acceptance of blogger journalism. Second, it’s also an indication some mainstream outlets are asserting themselves more aggressively in the online battlefield. With news cycles condensed to almost real-time and the consumption of news now a 24x7x365 paradigm, mainstream media are discovering the value of their brands despite the movement of ad dollars to new media. What’s so important about breaking stories? What’s the actual value? Can it be monetized?

The answer is yes it can. What’s at stake here is that the traffic goes to the publication that posts the news first. As competition for traffic and ad revenue intensifies, this makes embargoes all the more fragile. With journalists’ major focus being to break news, a trend is emerging. We are more often seeing a serious decline in the quality of the stories being written – not enough attention to detail, no fact checking, a forgotten hit of the spell check button. We have all experienced the “I don’t need a briefing, I will just write something from the release” situation, which often times results in a follow up “thanks for the story; unfortunately you’ve got some of your facts wrong” scenario. Will this shift towards no embargoes change that? If getting a story exclusively, the hope is that the journalist will take the time to speak with sources, do some research, and put some relevant industry context around the story. It should be noted that many journalists do this regardless of the time frame.

The second implication relates to our clients. For major launches, we invest months into planning, strategy, content development, securing third party references and coordinating analyst briefings to support the messages. As a result, clients expect a high return on investment: multiple press and analyst briefings, and a significant volume of top tier features resulting from them. As more and more publications move away from the embargo, however, this is definitely going to change. A big part of our job is setting client expectations; this will certainly come into play when we need to employ an exclusive strategy for major news. While one thoughtful, lengthy piece in a top-tier outlet can pack quite a punch, a client’s business cannot always be hit with just one publication.

I do not think that this is going to become an industry wide policy shift, but I do think we will see more and more outlets (that have the brand cache to do it) shifting their policies. I am eager to see how far the dominos go with this trend, however, and to further discussions on how this impacts PR.

Introducing the first Bateman Buzz Meter!

We are constantly scouring the Web for the latest in technology news and PR/social media strategy, and come across a lot of content. The Bateman Buzz Meter is our take on the best and worst from the last 30 days. 

(Click on the image to view it in full screen)