Communication Tools

Media relations suggest a great deal more than press relations. Media relations encompass all the specific skills needed for press relations, but also broaden the campaign to include online resources, third-party supporters, publishing opportunities, speaking engagements, and events like town meetings or press conferences.

Media relations take press relations to a higher strategic level. When a financial firm found its interests threatened by a large-scale bank merger in the Middle East, it didn’t simply pitch stories. It optimized a Web site that marshaled potent data on why the merger should not happen. It targeted a former C-Suite executive, who was a deserving subject for negative coverage. It implemented hopscotch media relations covering four countries, and built so much momentum that local media in the Gulf region had no choice but to cover the controversy as a major news event. The pressure thus intensified torpedoed the merger.

Media relations are based on personal relations with the people who run the media. Media relations entail a concerted strategy, not just to pitch the story, but to create new stories in the client’s interests. Media relations begin with a strategy and evolve new strategy. Media relations leverage every favorable opportunity. Good press coverage is used to generate more good press coverage.

Effective media relations combine the vision to see new possibilities with the experience and acumen to implement them.