Sometimes in PR, ideas survive for generations for no other reason than nobody questions them. This is especially true in PR agencies, where a few people at the top often control a team of acolytes bending to their will.
The offending ideas are then dragged kicking and screaming to pitch after pitch, like the person who always turns up at the pub uninvited.
One of the best examples of this is the PR radio day; or Radio Day as it is known, because it’s such a big deal it requires capital letters.
If you don’t know what it is, it is a really bizarre premise. Clients pay a PR agency for a campaign, which then blows a large hole in its budget to pay a third party company. This company provides studio facilities to host someone – usually a celebrity of some description – to sit in a radio studio and conduct interviews with a host of minor regional and local stations, such as Radio Broomcupboard or Jersey’s number 4 radio station.
That is a flippant point, but it is not unusual to find several local community radio stations on the list to make up the numbers. Community radio is a fantastic local tool, but how odd to find major national companies popping up, pushing campaigns with no relevance to that local community.
The whole experience is painful and stress inducing because PR agencies are not in control of the process, they subcontract another agency to make the calls and set up interviews. This leaves them as hapless middle men in most cases, although they often don’t tell clients this because it spoils the illusion of control.
It is not a process which produces groundbreaking results, it isn’t the main highlight agencies put in their reviews, and it is often perceived as a waste of time and money among PR people. Yet, like a nervous tick, PRs keep putting radio days in their proposals and new business pitches.
Insecurity is at the heart of this. PR campaigns are essentially scary, agencies work very hard with no guarantee of reward, so the idea that a third party company can guarantee coverage is like a comfort blanket.
But this blanket doesn’t keep them warm, it actually suffocates their creativity. Think about it, if most agencies were given a brief to be as creative as possible with a day of a celebrity’s time, a message they needed to get across, and a budget, then how many would say, “Got it, we simply hire an old studio and do a series of bland radio interviews on obscure stations that no one will ever listen to”.
The rub is that although the interviews take place there are very few agencies that will listen to the interviews on air, or even check they actually do go on air. The accepted norm is to get as many stations on the list as possible, then bamboozle the client with numbers about audience figures.
The companies that produce these radio day packages seem to grow exponentially, and with that quality decreases even further. It’s a real shame as radio is still such a fantastic medium.
A BBC producer remarked at a recent event I attended that the problem PR people have with radio is that they think about what their clients want to hear, not what listeners want. They argued that once PRs change that mindset, they suddenly became useful to them.
In order to do this the number one rule is to actually listen to the shows and stations you are pitching to. Understand what you need to pitch to be considered; is it an unusual location, an insight from behind the curtain, an expert opinion? Consider the potential of audio to reach different stakeholders outside of traditional stations, through digital broadcasting, world service podcasts, and the potential of social networks such as Audioboom.
If only the PR industry took the time to actually do this more often – would any self-respecting station really listen to a boring press release-read-out-loud?
Companies which offer radio days will read this and no doubt disagree. Why wouldn’t they, it’s their business and more power to them. But I hope they can use their skills to challenge PR agencies to do better, rather than accept whatever is suggested by whoever books them.
Then the industry might actually be able to make a real creative contribution to broadcasting in a way which is of use to the stations and clients, and finally have the confidence to ditch the dreaded radio day.
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