· Public Opinion/Research

· Public Relations

Media

• American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors (www.aasfe.org)
• American Journalism Review (www.ajr.org)
• Associated Press (www.ap.org)
• Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. (www.reporter.org)
• Newslink (www.newslink.org)
• Power Reporting (www.powerreporting.com)
• Poynteronline (www.poynter.org)
• Society of Professional Journalists (www.spj.org)
• Project for Excellence in Journalism (www.journalism.org)
• Radio-Television News Directors Association (www.rtnda.org)
• Writer’s Digest (www.writersdigest.com)
• Yahoo! Directory – News & Media by Region (dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/By_Region/U_S__States)

Public Opinion/Research

• Advertising Research Foundation (www.thearf.org)

• The Gallup Organization (www.gallup.com)

• Harris Interactive (www.harrisinteractive.com)
• Institute for Social Research/Univ. of Michigan (www.isr.umich.edu/index.html)
• National Opinion Research Center/Univ. of Chicago (www.norc.uchicago.edu)

Public Relations

• Community Media Workshop (Chicago) (www.newstips.org)
• International Association of Business Communicators (www.iabc.com)

• PR Watch/Center for Media & Democracy (www.prwatch.org)
• Public Relations Society of American (www.prsa.org)

What they say and what it means . . .

. . . in sales materials:

“Strategic”

(We do the same stuff as everybody else, but “strategic” sounds impressive.)

“Dynamic”

(Our sales pitch changes depending on what we think you want to hear.)

“Aggressive”

(Given a chance, we’ll annoy everybody.)

“Full-service”

(We’ll try to sell you anything.)

“Highly creative”

(We’ll make you the laughingstock of the newsroom.)

. . . in help-wanted ads:

“Ability to multitask”

(You’ll do the work of multiple low-wage people for the salary of one, while reporting to multiple bosses, none of whom has any management skill.)

“Fast-paced environment”

(1. Our employee turnover rate is so high it’ll make your head spin. 2. Doing client work quickly is more important than doing it well. We win accounts with a low-ball price and then criticize employees for spending too much agency time completing the job.)

“Join our team”

(A minor league team: high turnover, lousy pay, and the only people making serious money are the owners.)

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PR in perspective: quotations on fame and publicity

“What rage for fame attends both great and small!

Better be damned than mentioned not at all!”

— John Wolcott (1738-1819)

“Fame is what you have taken, character is what you give. When to this truth you awaken, then you begin to live.” – Bayard Taylor

“It often happens that those of whom we speak least on earth are best known in heaven.”

— Nicolas Caussin (1582 – 1651)

“Our admiration of a famous man lessens upon our nearer acquaintance with him.”

— Joseph Addison (1672 – 1719)

“Fame is vapor; popularity an accident; riches take wings; the only earthly certainty is oblivion; no man can foresee what a day may bring forth; while those who cheer today will often curse tomorrow.” – Horace Greeley

“Fame may be earned but never counted on.” – Jacob K. Javits

“What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little.” — Leszinski Stanislas (1677 – 1766), King of Poland

“Fame like a drunkard consumes the house of the soul.” — Malcolm Lowery (1909-1957)

“Fame sometimes hath created something of nothing.” — Thomas Fuller (1608-1661)

“There’s not a thing on earth that I can name,

So foolish, and so false, as common fame.”

— John Wilmot, Lord of Rochester (1647-1680)

“In the future everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.” — Andy Warhol (1928-1987)

“To judge the real importance of an individual, we should think of the effect his death would produce.” — Duc de Levis (1764-1830)

“It is an indiscreet and troublesome ambition that cares so much about fame; about what the world says of us; to be always looking in the faces of others for approval; to be always anxious about the effect of what we do or say; to be always shouting to hear the echoes of our own voices.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 82)

“All is ephemeral — fame and the famous as well.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

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PR quiz

Who was the “father of spin?”

(Answer: Probably the 17th-century Dutch philosopher, Spinoza.)

Toney titles in Agencyland

It once seemed that every ad agency creative or account rep was, at minimum, a “vice president.”

Not to be outdone, PR agencies are taking title inflation (or hyperinflation) to even sillier levels. According to personnel news items in the marketing columns of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, titles within Chicago PR agencies now include “chief inspiration officer” and “senior thought partner.” Which means the hands-on client work is being done by . . . junior assistant thought associates?

About my logo

What’s the significance of the solid line above the words “Nathan J. Silverman Company”?

Take your pick:

• Solid performance
• Level-headed thinking
• Raising the bar in PR
• Consistently thick-headed

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Realizing the extent to which  a single agency employee sometimes handles all or significant portions of the work on one or more of an agency’s accounts, he decided to cut out the middle-man and pursue his own clients rather than a job at another agency, earning more money for his labor and offering more economical terms to clients.

While building his own clientele, Silverman also handled freelance assignments as a senior consultant for both of his former agencies, whom he left on friendly terms.

1983 – Nathan J. Silverman Co. incorporated in Illinois as a general corporation. Business moves from home office to 35 E. Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago.

1987 – Firm relocates to 320 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

1991 – Firm relocates to offices in suburban Evanston, Ill, its present location, to reduce overhead and improve quality of work life.

• Communications counseling.
• Campaign planning and implementation.
• Product publicity – consumer – national, spot-market, local.
• Product publicity – business to business – national.
• Entertainment, cultural, and performing arts PR.
• Public affairs/public policy issues (media relations support).
• Corporate publicity.
• Introductions of new facilities and services, including special events for customers and local dignitaries.
• Corporate reputation PR.
• Professional services PR.
• Project PR writing – trade magazine articles, newsletters, news releases, speeches and presentations, sales letters, brochures, technical manuals, trade show exhibit banners and labels.
• Specialty/niche advertising – consumer and business-to-business ad copywriting.

· Recent work.

· Experience at other PR Firms.

· Credentials.

· Beyond PR

From incinerators to symphonies:
Different clients, same skills

During a single month in the early years of my firm, my assignments ranged from on-site case-history research in a remote area of Alaska for an innovative, client-designed municipal waste-to-energy incinerator to a Boston publicity tour for a record company’s first recording with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Sound crazy? Not to me.

It’s how I was raised in the PR agency business.

My clients have been high-tech, low-tech, and no-tech. It all boils down to the same PR skill set, the same journalistic and promotional instincts, the same professional approach.

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Recent work

Within just the past five years, my one-man PR firm:

• Designed and began implementing a major-market publicity campaign to promote a client that manufactures and sells innovative, high-tech coin-operated amusements. Researched and wrote a trade magazine cover story on behalf of the same client.

• Publicized the relocation and reopening of an internationally famous Chicago restaurant, resulting in radio, TV, newspaper, magazine coverage in Chicago media and national publications, including a front-page news item in the Wall Street Journal.

• Publicized the opening of a nonprofit museum’s new library, garnering local and national publicity for the facility and its principal benefactors.

• Publicized all the regular concert series and special performances of Chicago’s flagship chamber music organization and its resident string quartet. Results included the organization’s first-ever write-ups in the Wall Street Journal’s “Leisure and Arts” sections, a story on the ABC-TV affiliate’s early evening news show, and a feature segment on Chicago public television’s weekly arts magazine.

• Counseled the CEO of a large, industrial products manufacturer regarding the highly sensitive announcement of his company’s acquisition by another holding company. Wrote and distributed letters reassuring the company’s independent sales agents and a news release that generated helpful, non-sensational coverage in all key trade magazines and in newspapers in the company’s headquarters city and branch-plant location. (This was a highly confidential project, kept secret from the company’s regular advertising/PR agency. The assignment came by referral from one of my existing clients.)

• Staged a New York press luncheon to introduce a record company client’s new opera recording. This, combined with associated PR work for the recording, resulted in stories in the New York Times, Washington Post (which also profiled the label and its founder), Billboard, and other music magazines. (Note: Since opening my PR firm, I have handled national publicity for a dozen classical and jazz record labels and a line of audio books.)

• Conceived, researched, placed, and wrote trade and professional articles for a management consulting firm specializing in industrial-engineering, process-improvement projects for manufacturing and distribution operations. This included ghostwriting a large, client-bylined article on continuous flow manufacturing for Assembly magazine.

• Wrote and distributed new-product news and product feature stories (how-to and “what’s new”) for a national manufacturer of home building and remodeling products that resulted in coverage in newspaper home design and real estate sections and consumer and trade magazines, yielding numerous requests for sales literature.

• Handled all PR and advertising (trade publications, mailers, brochures, technical manual, trade show both messages) for the launch of a new East Coast company set up to distribute and install architectural building products from Europe. The campaign produced sales leads faster than the company could reply to them.

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Experience at Other PR Firms

• Posner Public Relations, Inc. Midwest general manager. Launched and ran the one-man Chicago office of this New York-based firm during the office’s two years of existence. Played a starring role or major role on the following accounts:

• • R. G. Dynamics. National publicity for manufacturer of mainstream consumer audio and high-end “audiophile” components.
  • Flying Tiger Line. (International all-cargo airline later acquired by Federal Express). Publicized the introduction of direct cargo service to Minneapolis-Saint-Paul, Minn., and Miami, Fla., including planning and supervising all local special events, photography, public affairs, media relations, all PR writing and local media contact. Set up a Chicago press and civic luncheon to describe the airline’s noise-abatement program.
  • Purolator Courier. Publicized introduction of direct small-package air service to Laurel/Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
  • George F. Fuller Co. Handled reputation-management media relations program regarding this major commercial construction company’s reconstructing of a sports coliseum in the Northeast.
  • Hako-Werke. Announced this large, German industrial conglomerate’s acquisition of a suburban Chicago maintenance equipment manufacturer. Set up on-on-one interviews with the German company’s CEO in Chicago that resulted in a lead business story in Chicago Tribune.
  • Greyhound Lines, Inc. Played key role in grassroots media relations campaign in support of Capitol Hill lobbying efforts (ultimately successful) for federal deregulation of long-haul bus rates and routes. Briefed local editorial writers, editorial page editors, and transportation reporters in key states and Congressional districts and gave news interviews to local newspapers, radio, and television stations. My territories included Nevada, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. In Albuquerque, I appeared on a statewide noon TV newscast in an impromptu debate with the state utility commissioner. Also set up appearances on weekly TV and radio public affairs programs for a company spokesman.
• Harshe-Rotman & Druck (now Ruder Finn Inc.). Account supervisor and account executive in the multi-office firm’s Chicago headquarters. Accounts on which I played a starring or major role included:

• • International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. (ITT). Award-winning “Grassroots” national corporate PR program, which consisted of staging and publicizing state-by-state business news and community relations events. I was the lead agency staffer for the programs in Alabama, Virginia; Tennessee and Arkansas; Montana and Wyoming; and Kansas; and played a supporting, media-relations role in Michigan, Maryland, and Indiana.

• • Skystream Airlines. Introduced this Midwest regional commuter airline’s inventive supply-and-demand discount fares, which I dubbed the “Fare Deal.” Fares decreased as the departure dates grew closer, until all seats were filled. Conducted news conferences in Detroit and South Bend, Ind. Landed a Wall Street Journal story and client was interviewed at length by the New York Times Midwest business correspondent.

• • Audio-Technica U.S. National publicity for consumer and professional audio products and accessories marketed by the U.S. subsidiary of a major Japanese consumer electronics company. Recording-session photos I took to promote the launch of a new product line ended up in Newsweek, Stereo Review, Audio, and Billboard magazines. The company also received front-page coverage in the Wall Street Journal as a result of a story I proposed to the Cleveland bureau.

• • Budget Rent a Car Corp. National publicity. Highlights included having proposed, researched, written, and publicized a “Driver’s Guide to Latin America” that brought in a large number of inquiries through publicity in newspaper travel sections and travel magazines.

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Credentials

• Accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).
• Member of the Counselors Academy of PRSA.
• Panelist at PRSA Chicago forum on creativity in public relations.
• A keynote speaker on public relations and export marketing at world trade conference for small businesses in Kansas City, Mo., and was the subject of a story in the Kansas City Star.
• Prior to entering public relations, worked professionally on-air and behind the scenes in various radio and television newsrooms as a writer, reporter, announcer, and editorial assistant.
• Graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, with master’s (MSJ) and bachelor’s (BSJ) degrees in editorial journalism, with a concentration in broadcast news.

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Beyond PR

Other media- and communications-related experience:

• Writing and performing standup comedy professionally (i.e., for pay) in comedy clubs in Chicago and other Midwest cities.

• Completing a year’s training in improvisational theater with the Second City organization.

• Writing a spoof on employee incentive awards that was the subject of articles in Sales & Marketing Management and Incentive Marketing magazines.

• Serving as Midwest correspondent for the trade magazine Jet Cargo News and a contributor to Screen, the magazine of Chicago film and television production.

• Writing and selling travel destination articles (with photos), published under my own byline in Newsday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and the Chicago Sun-Times, and the travel magazine Home & Away.

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It means:

• Giving a realistic appraisal of an organization’s news media potential and whether PR techniques are likely to achieve its objectives.
• Recommending the simplest, least costly program likely to achieve realistic objectives: “without the BS” also means without the “bloated scenarios” of unnecessarily elaborate and expensive PR campaigns.
• Being focused on meaningful PR results, not just publicity for publicity’s sake. The notion that merely getting your name mentioned in print or on the air automatically creates awareness, generates sales, or “builds the brand” is asinine.
• Adhering to high quality-of-communications standards that reflect media know-how.
• Projecting professionalism in representing clients’ interests before the news media, their own constituencies, and other important audiences.

· Range and depth of experience.

· Good writing.

· Integrity in sales and client service.

· What you see is what you get.

Focused on fundamentals, friendly to your finances

In a PR campaign, as in many other endeavors, small (and simple) is beautiful, effective, and economical.

The 80-20 rule has become a cliché, but it does seem that 80 percent (or more) of potential PR results can be achieved with 20 percent or fewer of the techniques of the trade — the most basic techniques. These are the workhorse techniques dismissed by “strategic thinkers” and “big-idea people” as just “routine” PR.

“A press release isn’t a strategy,” they say. But sometimes that’s all it takes.

One well-written press release or “pitch letter” and a few phone calls directed to the right people often generate as much meaningful media coverage – perhaps more – than slick overstuffed press-kits, news conferences, goofy publicity stunts, media tours, video news releases, and other budget burners that generate more billable hours and markups for the PR firm, but not necessarily more meaningful results for the client.

Simple, economical P.R programs don’t sound impressive in presentations or win lots of awards, but they work.

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Range and depth of experience

With more than 20 years of public relations experience as an agency-based counselor and hands-on publicist (including positions at two prominent national PR firms), I offer sound advice on communications planning, the competitive environment, alternatives, costs, and likely outcomes.

I’ve worked with large and small organizations in diverse industries and personally planned and implemented communications programs — including all writing and media contact tasks — for national, local, and spot-market assignments ranging from crisis management and corporate acquisition situations to sales-oriented, publicity campaigns for innovative, high-quality consumer and business-to-business products, professional services, higher education, cultural institutions, and the performing arts.

Whether an organization is promoting what it makes, what it does, or how it thinks, I can bring more expertise and perspective to a client’s assignment than the boilerplate approaches of so-called “industry specialists” whose sales pitch is that they “know your niche.”

Consider the merits of a four-star PR generalist who’s willing and eager to do his homework.

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Good writing

Good writing is the coin-of-the-realm in public relations, just as it is in the working press. PR agencies big and small bemoan the lack of writing talent. People in the media respond to well-turned phrases and factual writing devoid of hype, puffery, and brag-and-boast verbiage.

Give them anything but the usual, air-headed PR cheerleading.

Clients and my counterparts in the news media respond favorably to my PR writing, and it gets results. I’m proud to say that some clients have gone on to award me writing assignments beyond traditional PR: product brochures, capability brochures, newsletters, and specialized trade and consumer advertising.

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Integrity in sales and client service

This is a two-fold commitment.

First, it means not overselling the value of PR (or, more specifically, media coverage) or over-promising PR results. Some agencies will say anything to make the sale. They’ll dress up their sales pitch in a fake veneer of can-do bravado, regardless of the reality of the client’s situation.

Secondly, it means not trying to look larger than I am, as an agency. If a client’s assignment requires expertise or manpower beyond my resources, I’ll find quality, like-minded professionals to get involved, with the client’s consent.

But I won’t trot out freelancers, subcontractors, interns, in-laws, or so-called “associates” and try to palm them off as employees or business partners.

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What you see is what you get

WYSIWYG — you want it in software, and you should demand it when hiring a PR firm. You need to know who’ll be doing the day-to-day thinking and hands-on work on which your PR campaign will succeed or fail.

Will it be the hot-shot senior executive with impressive credentials who leads the sales charge, or will you end up with an entry-level, low-wage (i.e., highly profitable) neophyte in a windowless office learning the ropes at your expense?

It’s been said that your PR advisor is your “lawyer in the court of public opinion.” Do you want your case argued by the PR equivalent of a paralegal or a first-year law student?

Agencies don’t work for clients. Individual employees do. A PR firm is only a collection of people at a moment in time. Even in a large agency, only some of those people — maybe just one or two — will actually be doing your work.

At my firm, that would be me.

The campaigns and PR materials I show prospective clients are my own work (excluding visual design — I hire freelance art directors for that). Many PR and advertising agencies commonly take credit for the work of long-gone employees and even freelancers no longer associated with their firms.

The investment advisory, “Past performance is no guarantee of future results,” also holds true for every PR agency sales presentation, including mine. But you improve your odds if the PR person doing your work is the same one who produced the impressive results you saw in the agency’s presentation.

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