Don Crowther’s
GreatPR Newsletter
Published by 101PublicRelations.com

Issue #104

In this issue:

Beware the Trap of Publicity For Publicity's Sake!

You Talked, We Listened Press Kit Training Manual Now Available

What's That Again? Dustbusters On The Dashboard

Are Paper-Based Press Kits Now Extinct?

Beware the Trap of Publicity
For Publicity's Sake!

When the marketers at CKE restaurants (Carl's Jr. and Hardee's) wanted to create a significant bump in sales for their $6 Spicy Burger, they decided to do what most marketers do - run an ad.

But not just any ad would do - they decided to run a music-video type ad starring today's most confusingly famous celebrity, Paris Hilton (who seems to be famous because, well, because she's famous.)

In the ad Paris is shown wearing a swimsuit and washing a Bentley, then herself, a little more Bentley, and a lot more herself. See it yourself at http://www.carlsjr.com/ontv (the actual ad that ran) or the extended-length internet version at http://www.spicyparis.com/ though you may want to make sure that neither your boss or kids are standing behind you when you do.

The ad that aired includes six shots of the hamburger in her hands (and one where she's eating it) for a grabd total of about 2 seconds hamburger exposure time after which the camera quickly reverts to more washing scenes. Then at the very end of the ad you get a mention of the CKE restaurant.

The ad has generated a significant amount of controversy, a reported 802% increase in web searches (though I seriously question how many people were coming to the Carl's Junior and Hardee's sites before...), 4 million hits on the spicyparis website, free showings on news shows, several petitions against it, and some franchisers refusing to run the ad.

So, unquestionably, it generated buzz.

Unfortunately, it did nothing for sales.

Let's look at the numbers. (Skim this part if you aren't a numbers person, but stay with me, because the lesson to be learned here is vital...)

It cost the chain $8 - $10 million to air the commercial, plus, probably another million or two in production, Paris's fees, and website production fees.

But what did it do for sales? Same store sales revenues at Carl's Jr. increased only 1.7%, at Hardee's just 0.7%.

Hardly the kind of boost one would want to see for a $10 million investment. Looking quickly at the numbers, Carl's Junior did $44.2 million in sales during the month, Hardee's did $47.0 million. So, applying the sales increase numbers, 1.7% means that ad generated roundly $750,000 for Carl's Junior and the 0.7% increase at Hardee's added roughly $325,000 to their sales.

Sounds like a great investment to me - Spend $8 to $12 million, get back $1.1 million in sales. And if you like those numbers, I happen to have a bridge that's for sale...

And keep in mind that the $1.1 million was top line sales increase, costs still have to come out of that number! Given that their actual net income percentage is 3.2% of net sales, that $1.1 million in extra sales only dropped $35,000 to their bottom line!

But what about branding? Isn't a 3-4% increase in restaurant traffic worth something?

Don't know, did those people who flocked to the restaurants buy anything? Doesn't look like it!

But what about the 4 million hits to the website? Yep, that's got to be worth something, until you think about what they really came for. Those people weren't hungry for spicy burgers, they were people hungry for something else altogether! To say nothing about the fiction of website hits versus traffic (be warned everyone, they're not the same. In this case that 4 million hits probably means 200 to 500k actual visitors.)

So, what's the value of buzz?

Answer - neither I nor anyone else can answer that definitively.

But what I can answer is that there's one thing I can measure - sales and profits.

Unfortunately, most buzz-focused campaigns don't pay back onto the bottom line.

And there's a reason. Pay attention now, because this is key.

Most publicity-oriented campaigns don't pay back in profit increases because they focus the consumer's attention on the buzz-generator, not on the product and why the consumer should buy from you.

This ad is an excellent example.

The ad hits your screen and you see 27 seconds of Paris Hilton, 2 of the burger (together with Paris) and 3 of the message and branding at the end.

There's a hint here - 27 seconds of splashing, posing, gyrating Paris, 5 of the product. Which do you think people paid attention to?

CKE got everything wrong - they shouldn't have paid Paris - they should have charged her for the advertising exposure. This ad didn't advertise the Spicy Burger, it was an ad for Paris.

And as much as the ad agency world will say that there's a residual rub off from Paris to CKE, the hard numbers clearly show that any rub off was only worth at most 10% of what they paid for that publicity.

As far as I'm concerned, this was a textbook case of failure, CKE should fire Paris, fire their ad agency, and probably should fire their CEO and ad department for being gullible enough to believe that an ad that only showed their product and brand for a few seconds could sell burgers!

OK, Don, calm down...

Key message - never, never, never allow the vehicle that you are using to promote your product (Paris) overwhelm your product itself (the burger). If you do, you're destined for failure.

Could this ad have been salvaged? I think so. Lose the car, lose the water, lose the gyrations. Show Paris sitting in the restaurant eating the burger with obvious delight on her face and in the sounds she's making. Let the camera romance her and the product. Maybe end with a drop of ketchup on her chin that she licks off. Hot music in the background. All of this is interspersed with the name of the burger, the name of the restaurant and their "That's hot" tag line flashed several times onto the screen.

You still get the connection between Paris and the burger. You still get the buzz, the attention, the branding and the website hits.

But this time the burger is the hero, not Paris. Consumers remember the product. Sales go up, money gets deposited in the bank, and you're happy.

Do the same in your advertising and publicity events, and you'll come out the winner!

It's your choice. Be wise.

Interested in knowing about ways to generate media coverage that really builds business? Check out Kick Up a Media Storm: How to Get Free (or Really Cheap) Publicity.

And for tips on how to properly build your brand, we recommend Brand Your Business and
Make Your Profits Explode!

You Talked, We Listened
Press Kit Training Manual Now Available

Wow - last week's request for more information about what you needed in a training manual on press kits and online media kits created a flurry of replies. Your comments made several things very clear:

There's a great deal of interest in a product that definitively lays out the best practices in the area of press kits and online media kits, especially one that will specifically show what elements are needed and what aren't in this key publicity-generating tool

That's why we wrote this training manual!
When asked whether you wanted it in one report or two, you overwhelmingly told us that one report's the way to go.
You gave us very clear indication of where the right price is for this training manual.

Thank you to all who gave us that excellent feedback!

Now, I have a proposal for you.

We know that testimonials are a great way to help people who are on the fence about buying something or not. Unfortunately, since nobody's seen this training manual yet, we don't have any we can show you.

So I'm willing to make a trade.

For the next 7 days, I'm offering this new training manual at a significantly lower price for anyone who's willing to give us feedback in response. That feedback can be good, or bad, depending on your reaction after reading it.

And of course, your purchase is still covered by our company's 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, so if you find that it's not of value to you, you can get your money back. The risk is all ours!

Your feedback will enable us to both improve the product and to (hopefully) have some great testimonials that we can use in its marketing.

And, of course, if that feedback results in a revision of the product, everyone who buys it during this week will receive a copy of the revised training manual too.

And to sweeten the pot, I've decided to give you something else too.

The first 100 buyers (during the next 7 days) will receive an invitation to a special buyers-only question-answer teleseminar where we cover all of the key questions about media kits, how to develop them, and how to use them effectively to build your publicity.

So, if you've ever had questions about creating press kits, now is the time to act, because you get not only a special price, but you also get access to this special closed teleseminar.

Find out more about How To Create Powerful Press Kits and Online Media Kits.

What's That Again?
Dustbusters On The Dashboard

From The Salt Lake Tribune:

"'They told me that if I put a dustbuster in my car I wouldn't get a ticket'

"An elderly Utah motorist pulled over for speeding by Sgt. Larry Wehrli who found a vacuum on the dashboard of her car. Her family members had suggest she obtain a "fuzzbuster" radar detector to warn her of cops."

Are Paper-Based Press Kits
Now Extinct?

The single most frequently asked question in our recent survey on press kits was some version of "Do I still need to have a press kit in today's digital age?"

A second frequently-asked question was "Do I need an online press kit?"

The answer to both questions is a definitive "yes."

You still need to have a paper-based media kit. AND you also need to have an online media kit.

It's unquestionable that online press kits are incredibly powerful. All kinds of advantages stem from a great online media kit:
- Reduced development and distribution costs
- Members of the media can immediately and easily access your materials, without having to wait for it to be delivered to them
- You can send reporters to a page on your online media kit while you're on the phone with them so they can see what you mean while you're still on the phone to explain and pitch it to them
- You can put more content into an online kit than a paper kit, which can then be accessed by only those interested in that specific content
- Online media kits are great for generating search engine traffic

So yes, you definitely need an online media kit.

But does this mean that you don't need a traditional paper-based press kit?

No, you still need one.

Let's look at several reasons why that's true:

There are many situations where handing someone a paper-based media kit is still the most convenient means of communicating your company's key messages, rather than telling them to access the online one (which they may or may not do):
- Trade shows and conventions
- Personal visits with the media (media tours and meetings with reporters in your market)
- News conferences
- etc.
There are some people who prefer to receive your materials in paper-based form.
I met this very issue last Saturday. I was at a convention trying to decide on advertising sources for a new product. When I went to the booths of the different magazine publishers, everyone handed me a media kit, except one (huge media) company, which gave me a card to send me to their website. Though I normally prefer online media kits, in this case, I was in the midst of wheeling and dealing and wanted paper to help me make decisions on the spot. I didn't get it, which proved to be a point against them in my advertising media selection.
You need something to send people when they request a copy of your media kit
You need a stash of paper-based kits to hand to people when they come to you for information (times of crisis, press interviews, etc.) It's always best in these situations to give them something physical, rather than to hope they review your online kit before structuring their story (highly unlikely, especially in crisis situations.)

In summary, you still need both a paper-based kit and an online media kit.

And don't forget that once you've finished creating the content for either your paper-based media kit or an online press room, you're 80% done with the other one too - so it's not that much more work to create both!

Which is why we've combined instructions on how to create both into our new training manual How To Create Powerful Press Kits and Online Media Kits.

Have a great week!
Don Crowther
President
101PublicRelations.com

See articles from the previous issue of this newsletter:

And from the one before that:

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