I once worked with a guy who was boasting about winning blanket international publicity for a new product, the first  British-designed-and-built sports car for 30 years. I think his success had more to do with the quality of the story than his personal involvement. Rarely do we get the chance to work with story material of such obvious appeal; the rest of the time we have to get seriously creative.

For example, years ago I was asked to make recommendations to launch a new range of corrugated steel cladding panels, the kind you see wrapped around industrial warehouses and some retail stores. The target audience was architects. The client wanted a big, high-profile press event and I knew we’d have to pull a rabbit out of a hat to deliver that. Here’s what happened. Seeking inspiration, I visited a retrospective of world-renowned architect Sir Richard Rogers, designer of the iconic Lloyds of London building.

As I wandered around peering at the models and display panels, one thing caught my eye. It was an image of Rogers posing with business partner Mike Davies.  What intrigued me was that every item of clothing Mike Davies was wearing happened to be red. I got talking to a fellow visitor and he told me Davies was renowned for only ever wearing red. That sparked an idea and I rushed back to the office to research it. As you can see from the photo here and in a recent interview in The Independent newspaper, red is Mike Davies’ favourite colour. Among other advantages, dressing this way saves him time choosing what to wear each day. Now what’s all this got to do with painted steel cladding panels?

Well that one photo started a chain of events that led to what the client described later as the most successful product launch event his company had ever seen.  After I’d tested out my idea on a couple of people, I called the hugely impressive Mary Spillane, who I knew was an expert on personal image-building and invited her to present at our event. The idea was to pick ten leading architects and explain what the colour of their clothes said about them (contrary to popular myth, architects don’t always wear black).

Our other guest speaker was the late Professor Tom Porter whose quirky insights made him a delight to work with. We turned the event into something much more fun and interesting, using lighting effects in the event rooms and even colour-coding the food and drinks. Colour was, of course, the link between all of this and the new product being launched. The client’s presentation, which could easily have been dry and boring, centred on how the colours for its new product range were chosen and the challenges of finding paint formulations that were up the technical task, while also being visually attractive.

The audience of architects and media loved it; all the reporters left with a great angle for talking about a potentially dull and boring product and the client enjoyed great media exposure. Not as much as the all-new British sports car, of course, but enough to remind the client he was working with a fun, creative agency that knew how to coax a rabbit out of its hat.

Some people find this Youtube video of a mock-plaintive junior at PR agency Ten Yetis amusing. Maybe it did the trick but it left me feeling a little embarrassed for her. If I was her client, I’d be wondering if that’s all there is to pitching journalists – and wondering if I didn’t need a little more marketing savvy injecting into my PR efforts.

Why, for example, was there not one single good reason offered up to the journalist to write about the product in that video? Why do readers need to know about it, why is it better than similar apps? It’s not like there wasn’t enough time – she had plenty to plug the product name (three times I counted). Maybe it’s a pile of crap and maybe that’s why, as a pitch attempt, this PR flack’s effort was pretty lame. Just my view of course, based on the information available at the time of writing. Am I right or am I being too harsh?

Note: a couple of days after writing this post, I was directed via a Twitter follower to this blog entry about other ‘quality’ output from Ten Yetis PR. And today, a very experienced trade magazine editor read my post and told me “they do the kind of PR that makes you want to kill out their emails before you even read them.”

Whether or not you’re a fan of Tony Blair, one of the welcome things that came into being under his watch was the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) in 2000. This gave UK citizens a legal right to information held by most public authorities. American citizens have had this right for some time, of course, and the UK is now one of about 85 countries that have introduced similar rights. Now, back to this post’s subject: how can you use FOI as part of your organisation’s PR activities? There is no universal answer as it depends on what your organisation does and what it’s aims are, but here’s an example I orchestrated a few years ago, which might prompt some ideas.

Pre-recession (and a change in government), I was working with a trade association of large construction companies. It wanted to put pressure on central government to maintain its promises to increase capital spending on public hospitals, transport, housing and schools. Part of this campaign was an annual monitoring report on the subject and I was asked for ideas to make the report a little more newsworthy. Among my suggestions was to make Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the facilities management departments of the top 20 NHS Health Trusts, asking them about the size of their respective repairs backlog, and in particular, the amount of work still outstanding to meet basic hospital fire safety regulations (these had recently been tightened).

From the answers we were able to compile a Top 20 worst-to-best league table for hospital fire safety. Releasing this alongside the usual annual report gave a potent illustration of the scale of outstanding repairs in UK hospitals and an attractive talking point for journalists. It also gave us a story angle for local media. The whole thing cost very little and worked very well indeed, providing a platform around which the trade association’s chief executive could make his key points. He was able to do so in The Financial Times and numerous other national and regional media outlets.

As a tactic worth considering, I don’t think it matters whether you sell to the public sector or not. All you need is an issue that you want to be associated with and a little imagination. Plus there are now websites geared around making multiple FOI requests easier to administer, such as www.whatdotheyknow.com. A little time spent browsing the requests and responses made should soon provide lots of ideas. It will also produce some fascinating trivia. For example, I just found out that Royal Mail used a staggering 870 million elastic bands in f/y 2007-8. If your company supplies these and Royal Mail is not on your sales prospects list, it’s time to correct that situation quickly.

We turned to Andy for his reputed mix of journalistic objectivity and sector knowledge. As a small company, we sought a PR professional who would contribute the breadth of experience we required while considering us a valuable client. Had we joined a large agency, we would have languished in the lower ranks of a client portfolio. This approach reaped dividends. While Andy’s company has thrived, he continued to build the relationship with us.

In helping to grow our brand, he brought an astute perspective of what is still described by some as a ‘soft’ sector, and combined creative input with shrewd treatment.  Andy has also brought added value. He generated business for us and introduced us to new prospects. He has also been quick to advise us against spending on projects he considered would not work and would be costly. Always, Andy has an ear to the ground and is focused on our business needs. He chivvies us, sometimes chides us but we always know he has our best interests at heart.

Getting your ideas on paper so that people want to read them is hard. But, harder still is the next step, getting the words published in a prestigious publication. Andy is an expert at both. His ability to take my often inchoate thoughts, convert them into an interesting article – and then place the article appropriately has truly been amazing. In addition, he’s a pleasure to work with, adds tremendous value, and always gets the results. I highly recommend him.