How To Unlock the Power of PR

Hospitality PR expert Jane Torrance opens her world of wisdom and practical strategies to unlock the power of PR for your brand, bar, product or personal profile.

Jane Torrance, from JTL PR, is an outstanding food-and-beverage PR specialist with more than 20 years in the business. Check out the podcast here. We teamed up with Jane to create this How-To guide that applies to venues, personalities and brands.

Unlock the Basics First

Attitude, strategy and having the right assets available are the magic ingredients to working effectively with PR

• Make sure you actually like your PR and have a good rapport with them, it will make working with them much easier, especially when it comes to building trust and working fast.

• Establish a way of working right at the beginning of a relationship – everyone is different so take into consideration your communication styles, the best time of day for communicating and the rhythm of how you can work together.

• Give a good brief: A PR is only as good as the brief they are given, and while part of the PR job is to elicit the right info, it’s important to take your time to really explain your business, what you perceive your USPs to be and what you want to get out of the process.

• Be honest! If there is anything that might hinder your trajectory or pop up further down the track – be it a product recall or an interview you weren’t happy with, even a skeleton in the closet, be upfront and honest. Even the greatest PR can only solve or work on the problems and goals you identify.

• If you have an idea of what outcome you want, tell your PR.
  Jane says, “I had a client who I got a massive amount of local PR for many years ago (TV / print / radio and online) and he told me he wasn’t happy because he wanted to be world famous and wanted to be in the New York Times.”

• Speed can be of the essence, so prioritise being available when you are working with PR on a project. Understand the importance of making quick decisions (even confirming an interview time) or being able to provide any info requested by your PR in a timely manner.

  
  “If I get a media query, I drop everything to try and turn around an answer immediately. Media are so busy, juggling a number of stories at once and a burgeoning inbox so replying quickly – even just to acknowledge you’re on to it, is crucial.”

• Media Training: If you need it and you’ll wanting to do media interviews, ask for media training - even if it’s a quick 1-hour refresher. It pays dividends in the future, enabling you to clearly communicate your message to its intended audience. There’s a big difference between a radio interview and an interview for print or online.
  
  Tash says, “As an interviewer, working with a subject who is clear and concise on the message they want to communicate makes it a thousand times easier to get the right content into the story. It’s also important for when someone has something they don’t want to say — my job is to uncover anything I might find interesting for a story but that isn’t always something you want to give away, whether it’s financial performance or product secrets. Media training can ensure even your facial expressions steer a journalist in the right direction - towards the story you want to tell.”

Getting Strategic On It - The Brief and the Messaging

To execute a PR strategy properly involves taking a brief, writing a plan and strategy – and importantly working out a budget which you can only do if you have a plan, which is more than just a collection of idea. This includes assembling assets for media – press info, bios and images, then creating a media pitch document. You need to know who you are pitching to, what the angle is and why it matters to that audience. This includes considering a draft shot list for any photography or video requirements and that we anticipate all images that will be needed depending on the channels and media we are targeting.

Make sure you agree key messaging and strategy before you embark on any project – big or small.

Assets, Assets, Assets – We can’t stress how important it is to have good assets to support any kind of PR or social activity – you can have a great product or story, but if you don’t have good assets, primarily high res images, but also key information, a business backgrounder and or bio then your toolkit isn’t complete. Update this at least once a year or when any significant achievements or changes happen.

Tash says “If I can learn the basics of your bio and background by reading a constructive and thorough bio and backgrounder, then my questions will be sharper and our interviews will be more focused on the immediate topic or news angle. The better prepared you are, the easier it is for me to do my job efficiently and effectively.”

What does a successful PR partnership look like?

Everyone has a very different requirement so don’t be constrained or prevented from talking to an PR agency or specialist to see what they can do for your project. It can be any manner of things, from a quick three-month project to launch something new or a couple of short bursts of activity a year focused on brand building and profile building.

What should it cost?
A retainer relationship with a PR means set monthly or weekly goals for engagement, stories, content placement. If your strategy requires an always-on approach, this is a good way to ensure there are regular targets to achieve. But the downside can be, not all activity is as relevant or meaningful as it could be.

A project-by-project relationship still requires the same set targets and goals but in a more specific and focused way. This approach also relies on a product or venue also investing in ongoing marketing and brand awareness, so that project-based PR has a baseline to leverage off.

It’s all about building consistent awareness that you can leverage off as your strategy requires.

“Personally, I don’t believe in having clients on retainer. It definitely works for some brands but for mine, to remain authentic and to not try manufacture stories, I prefer not to.”  - Jane

When is the right time to engage with PR for your business, brand or profile?

It really depends on the brief and need.  There is no one size fits all in PR. If it’s a product, usually at launch and then when there is something news or noteworthy to talk about. It could be an award, a new product added to the range, an opportunity to talk about it if it coincides with an “international day” or week such as Negroni week / International Burger Day or delivering hot cross buns for Easter.

But most important — make sure you don’t leave this part of the process to the last minute. In an ideal world, plan to start talking strategy two months out so you can execute effectively and properly leverage the skillset of your PR.

“I get so many calls from people who “are launching next week” or who launched last week and then decide they need PR.” - Jane

If its profile raising, that’s less time-sensitive as often clients need to have an ‘always-on’ view to this part of the work.

What you need to know and understand in the NZ market

The landscape changes daily.

Many print publications are moving to a digital first strategy with premium (or all) content sitting behind paywalls.  

On-demand television is increasingly popular and the twenty-somethings don’t even watch television. This is the same globally – but journalism is hurting and journalists are short staffed. You need to consider which channels will actually reach those you want to target.

• You need a website and to make sure your SEO is set up properly

• You need to share and re-share every piece of available digital content on a regular basis so that people can discover you ‘organically’ - your USP might be just the thing someone is searching for online

• You have to think of PR as just one element of your toolkit – you also need to dedicate time to your social media! This is so important – you have a group of dedicated followers so engage with them, keep building the audience and communicate regularly

• Make sure you’re a member of any supporting body like Restaurant Assn of NZ or Hospitality NZ - they have a wealth of info at their disposal.

• There are no guarantees in PR.  If you want guaranteed placement, take an AD.

Stay tuned for more How-To guides on marketing, ad spend and more. Got a burning question you want help with? Let us know!