Certainly, the proclaimed PR professional did not expect the response she actually received back from prestigious journalist Joe Nocera for The Times. However, after reading her sales, oops I meant PR pitch I might understand why he responded the way he did in his blog blast response seen here. Calling it the P.R. Pitch of the Month (or Maybe the Decade), ouch! In a very bad way.
It gets a lot more publicly humiliating, as he even identifies her by name (Amanda Miller, a vice president at Nike Communications). Considering her title most likely the journalist thought that she should have maybe known better? Anyways, continuing on the journalist also points out the PR firm’s areas of expertise, by doing this making a statement with this citing that the firm could use some help in the area. Did I already say ouch? If so I must repeat myself, ouch!
Nike Communications, which describes itself as “a full-service public relations firm specializing in the marketing and promotion of luxury goods and premium lifestyle products,” Such as children, apparently. Again the journalist lands another jab by stressing that the client the PR pro is pitching mostly likely markets luxury products for kids.
I really wish I could stop here but the nightmare continues on. He then pastes the PR pitch sent to him from the PR pro. At that point all remaining creditability for poor Amanda (PR pro) is all over. Now, I must address ALL the PR pros practicing this method of PR pitching. PR also known as public relations is a strategic plan and approach. PR is how you communicate with your audience, the “Public”. The media are the tools you use to reach your target audiences.
In the case of Amanda our PR pro so many things went very wrong with her pitch. First, she did not consider the audience of the journalist she was pitching. This pitch may have worked for People Magazine, In Style, Celebrity Baby, etc. But the storyline must be newsworthy to the media source you attempt to pitch. However, with news sources like The Times you have to stick to newsworthy tips that will be of sincere interest to their audience (Readers). Amanda approached and pitched a business journalist of The Times about celebrity products and suggesting that children are the new accessories?
This storyline can be concluded with “When Bad News Happen for PR People with Good Intentions”
During the month of June we started offering teleseminars to help people like Amanda learn to pitch like PR Pros. For those of you interested checkout the details right here.