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PR No Easy Stroll
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Holding a big event is a lot like juggling, on multiple levels. Like juggling, to the uninitiated, an event like a 5K walk/run or a corporate gala doesn’t look all that hard. You book a hotel room, call a caterer, buy some balloons, right? You toss some dishes and a few rubber balls in the air and you catch them, right?
Yeah, right.
As a PR person of nearly 30 years, I always cringe when people come up to me and say, can we hold a special celebration of yadayadayada and can we do it next week and can all the media come? This is somewhat reminiscent of my earlier post about “the magic box.” We in PR must be wizards who can conjure all manner of national media placements and black-tie galas with a wave of a wand.
As anyone who has ever put on a major event knows, it’s a nightmare of details, calls, emails, faxes, deadlines met (and missed and re-met), last minute changes, challenges both seen and unforeseen, a ton of writing, rewriting, cajoling, calling in favors, and let’s not forget all the cleanup/followup afterwards.
So, to provide some insights into the juggling act which is putting on a major event, I asked Baltimore public relations professional Liz Chuday (Chuday Communications) to offer some insights (Liz does PR for The Red Devils, a non-profit organization formed in 2002 to improve the quality of life for Maryland breast cancer patients and their families; this Sunday, June 14th, the Red Devils will hold their annual “Heart and Sole Stroll” in Columbia, MD)
What's your role as PR person for the Red Devils re: Heart and Sole Stroll? What are your responsibilities?
This is my third stroll. I was brought in late in the game in 2007, referred by another p.r. pro who’d held the job and was moving on. That was a huge vote of confidence from her and I had big shoes to fill. As an aside – I’ve received many clients based on recommendations from other p.r. people, and it’s great to have that networking system in place. I’m a believer that you reap what you sow. If you operate with a high level of integrity, be willing to let someone else get credit, skip the territorial hysterics, you really garner very positive results.
After the first Stroll I was asked by the new executive director, Jan Wilson, and board to put together a post-Stroll performance report. Within a week, I was asked to be their formal p.r. consultant year-round. I work directly with Jan not just on identifying media opportunities, but to help build relationships with our hospital partners, service providers, potential sponsors and individuals who could help further our mission.
Given all that's happening in the news these days, how do you overcome the challenge of getting media attention for your event?
This current recession certainly has taken a bite, but the challenges for garnering press in Baltimore have existed for years. It used to be you had 25 papers to pitch, all with different editors. That number shrank; publications got gobbled by others, so you ended up with perhaps one person controlling content for maybe seven papers. If you rubbed that editor the wrong way you were, as Heidi Klum likes to say, “OUT!”
It’s also fairly repellant that so many media outlets nowadays let advertising buys dictate editorial. There used to be more of a separation between “church” and “state,” but today, some of the fox are guarding the hen house. You can tell that I consider myself first and foremost, a journalist, flak second.
That said, it’s still a business of relationships, even though “who’s on first” changes on a daily basis, with layoffs at media institutions, etc.
I’ve had great luck forming alliances with other p.r. people in town. The Red Devils has 35 partner hospitals and I’ve reached out to the p.r. people at these medical facilities, let them know that we are on the same page, I have their backs and let’s collaborate to get coverage for us both.
The same is true for some of our biggest supporters, such as Komen for the Cure, which has given us grants on state and national levels. We support Komen events and they, in turn, give us media opps to showcase how Komen dollars are put to great use through groups such as The Red Devils. The American Breast Cancer Foundation is also a supporter, and offered to share office space when The Red Devils offices were destroyed by fire last August. Networking with fellow p.r. people is so important. It creates good synergy and we both win.
Also, I’ve made good friends in the media who still have their jobs and they’ve gone to great lengths to help get us press. When I couldn’t reach the EP for morning news at one station, I asked a reporter friend for help. He personally went to her – several times – pitching The Red Devils. I’ve also consulted for years for CBS Television and through them, have a relationship with CBS Radio. That allowed us to get a radio sponsorship with WWMX 106.5 FM which actually UPPED their dollar amount of support this year even in this troubled economy, and added a sales component. Bob Philips and Dave Burgess are behind us 100 percent.
If it hadn’t been for MIX in ’07, we would have been in serious trouble. Most of our registration then was walk-ups. That day, it poured freezing rain with howling winds. Dedicated MIX listeners still came out, and pre-Stroll coverage helped drive people to our website, which since has developed into a much stronger recruiting site. JoJo Girard is one of our emcees and our Strollers really resonate with him. We’re also fortunate to have Cheryl Conner, from ABC 2, joining him this year on stage.
WJZ-TV has gone out of their way to help us with coverage even though they couldn’t be a TV sponsor. We have ABC 2 as our TV sponsor and talent including Mary Beth Marsden and Jamie Costello are very supportive of The Red Devils.
FOX 45 has been awesome. They’ve run a flight of PSAs this year and their public affairs director, Sharon Wylie, is married to a great guy who oversees a Boy Scout Troop that provides moving muscle the day of the Stroll. Fox reporter John Rydell has really helped us out, too.
Friends from waaay back, such as Eddie Applefeld, did an interview on us on WCBM; one of the board members is good friends with someone at WYPR Radio, so they did a story on us; Comcast, which used to be a client before WJZ-TV, came through in a big way; and SmartWoman Online is a media sponsor. Thanks, Jon Witty!
A recipient of The Red Devils services, Ronda Badiang, has become one of our biggest champions, organizing pre-Stroll fundraising events and getting Clear Channel Outdoor to donate five billboards.
Especially in Baltimore, who you know still counts.
What are your goals for your client for this event?
We are a small non-profit, so clearly we don’t have the money for direct ad buys. So, public relations is vital and contributes to the bottom line. My goal is to generate as much good press and goodwill in advance as I possibly can using a variety of methods and thinking outside the box. I’ve also personally paid for some stories to go out over the wires. Getting us out into cyber space is a huge plus, because many people who call to help us have researched breast cancer support groups online and have come up with The Red Devils.
Grassroots “guerrilla” marketing has become so important: realizing the “Power of One,” how you can mobilize one person to make a difference by, for example, sending out 100 e-mails to their friends and colleagues.
I haven’t just focused on the Stroll. We’ve created The Red Devils ambassadors who network for us; host events on our behalf; get their companies to donate or help via cause-related marketing. It all adds up and, it creates new and different story angles to pitch, like the “MD Ride for the Cure” held June 6 that we billed as a pre-Stroll event. This story appealed to some publications that otherwise probably wouldn’t have covered the Stroll because it’s held in Columbia, not in their backyard. So, spreading pre-Stroll events out geographically was very much a calculated decision made to generate press in areas that otherwise would be unavailable to us.
What are you doing this year to build on last year's event?
Building on the good foundation we’ve established. And, here’s an experiment. Let’s see the “Power of One” in action. I’ve just formed a Stroll team, under “Chuday Strollers.” I invite all of you to log on to www.heartandsolestroll.org and register for the Sunday, June 14 Stroll at 10:00 at Centennial Park in Columbia. Here is a direct link to my team page if you want to register as a stroller, walk the walk. Log on to this link below, then click “Join Our Team:” http://2009heartandsolestroll.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=300266&lis=1&kntae300266=9DB6DA8542AB4EB0A64AF374DADE4EA3&team=3329705
If you can’t physically come out and do the 2.4-mile walk around Centennial Lake, no worries. You can be a virtual walker by donating whatever amount you want to the team as a General Donation:
I call this the “Snooze ‘n Stroll” method. Stay in bed. Donate what you can, for every dollar makes a difference. And, invite everyone in you e-Address book to join you. Let’s see what we can generate between now and this Sunday!
What are your fears/concerns? What if it rains or, heaven forbid, "breaking news"?
Hey. Oprah Winfrey featured us several years ago in “O Magazine,” and included us last year in a coffee table glossy featuring “The Top 100 Favorite Stories” to have run in the magazine.
Oprah’s got our back!
And, like I said, we’ve already been through the rain, which – big surprise – is predicted for the weekend. But, the sun will shine the morning of Sunday, June 14!!
As for “breaking news,” my Number One goal was to get as much pre-Stroll coverage as I could to drive people to the website to register in advance. That way, if hell freezes over for The Red Devils, or London Bridge falls down on Sunday, we’ll still have the dollars we need in our coffers.
How will you know if you had a successful event, i.e. what's the "evaluation" phase of your PR strategy for this event look like?
It’s very simple. If The Red Devils staff and board are pleased, I’m pleased. They are savvy enough to know it’s not a game of counting “column inches.” Because with today’s troubled media waters, you could execute a perfect dive and still end up hitting your head on the board.
I hope we surpass last year’s goals for dollars as well as actual strollers, even in this poor economy.
We’ll hold a post-mortem, figure out what went well, where we could do better and next year, aim to surpass ourselves.
Personally, I’m pretty pleased. Just this week we’ve been interviewed on ABC 2’s morning show; WJZ-TV’s Gigi Barnett came out and did a live shot for Channel 13’s morning show; and Dr. Dalliah Black, a Mercy doc who just joined our board, will represent us on Fox 45’s morning show. JoJo, from MIX, did an interview with Jan today; WCBM and WYPR have run interviews; and The Baltimore Sun is coming out with a feature story before the Stroll. Not bad for the week leading up to the “Heart and Sole Stroll.”
Here’s a link to the WJZ-TV 13 coverage. And, a big thanks to Jay Newman, Gigi Barnett, Ron Matz, Marty Bass, Renee Richards and Susan Otradovec for making this happen: http://wjz.com/video/?id=56467@wjz.dayport.com
Anything you'd like to add?
When I was recruited by The Baltimore Sun years ago in a newly-created position of assistant p.r. director, I received a small brown envelope with a note inside. It was from then publisher Reg Murphy. I’d always wanted to work for The Sun and had free-lanced for the morning paper. So, I called up Reg, got him at night in person, and booked an interview for an Advertising Association of Baltimore newsletter. Clearly it was a good interview. Four months, later, I got Reg’s note: “LIZ: WE WORK HARD HERE, BUT WE HAVE FUN, TOO. YOU’RE A GREAT ADDITION TO THE TEAM.”
I’ve often quoted Reg to clients, because that’s my business motto. When I left The Sun to start my consulting business, I vowed to only work for people I like; only promote products and causes I believe in; turn down the “tyrants” no matter how much moola they pay; work hard, have fun.
That’s how I feel about The Red Devils. They are an awesome group of very dedicated, intelligent people who function like a family. Really, a fledgling charity just seven years old, but look how far they’ve come: from their first hospital partner, Howard County General Hospital, to a network of 35 hospital partners, serving many counties throughout the state, with an eventual goal of spreading across MD borders.
The people in this group make you want to give 150%, not just stop at 100%. I’ve been very fortunate in my career to have clients like The Red Devils who give you a reason to get up every morning with a smile on your face (and those of you who know me well know I usually bare my teeth in the early morn so it’s good to have good motivation to smile at that hour!).
Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts. Now go register for the “Heart and Sole Stroll!” Help make a difference. And, if any of your clients want to partner with The Red Devils, let me know. Reach me via: liz@the-red-devils.org
I promise you: we’ll work hard, but have fun, too.
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