Murphy's Law would have it that when you're sitting on your haunches hoping for the media to knock, they probably won't - and when you least expect it, your business can quickly become a household name.
In Union City, Calif., Orcon, a relatively unknown company that manufactures aircraft thermal and acoustic insulation, was thrust to the center of national attention when the Federal Aviation Administration last month informed airlines and manufacturers that burn tests for thermal and sound insulation needed rethinking.
The press windfall was unintended - and uninvited.
The press focused on Orcon as the possible source of the silver bullet since one of its patented products, Curlon, is expected to meet new acceptable insulation standards. But the product has yet to be mass produced, putting Orcon in the publicity driver's seat without a steering wheel.
Orcon hadn't planned to be catapulted into the mainstream press nor was it apparently prepared for the onslaught of news attention which came its way. When the FAA announced Oct. 14 that burn tests had to be overhauled - and hence insulation likely replaced on thousands of aircrafts - Orcon's name wasn't mentioned in any of the releases.
But the media was hunting down any products that could fit the bill. While the FAA was fielding calls about the insulation issue, Don Phillips, a writer at The Washington Post, was building his story about the insulation controversy. Two days later, Orcon made an unintended debut in the Post, The New York Times, The Sacramento Bee and The Seattle Times, to name a few.
After weeks of queries, Orcon announced Nov. 16 that it would step up its efforts to produce CurlonO in the next few months to meet industry needs.
Insulating Yourself from the Press
Executives at Orcon stonewalled PR NEWS when we attempted to speak, even about the simplest details. Our experience - apparently not uncommon if you review other media accounts mentioning Orcon - underscores that if your business is functioning in a high-profile industry, it would serve you well to have a media-trained spokesperson who can explain the company's reticence to answer questions without giving the press the round-around.
The media's quest to link the FAA announcements to an insulation product that could fill the void resulted in calls to Dupont Senior Public Affairs Specialist Cathy Andriadis's desk. Dupont manufactures polyester film, the raw material used for insulation blankets.
Orcon's dance into the media limelight isn't cut and dried, or just a matter of good timing.
Orcon hasn't exactly been bathing in this virtual ray of publicity with the kind of savvy a high roller setting its stakes on media glory would. It doesn't even have a PR department and when faced with a question about Curlon, it generally sent inquiring media to President Hollis Bascum who responded with a "no comment."
"I don't think in the two years I've been with the FAA, a broad-base story [about an issue] has been turned around to focus on a single company," says Katherine Cready. She is one of about 15 media specialists with the FAA who fields calls on disparate subjects. They run the gamut from crashes to the dozens of inquiries the FAA faced when it announced that pilots couldn't take Viagra before flying.
Enter Stage Right
At this very moment, thousands, maybe millions, of companies worldwide are waiting for publicity.
But Orcon learned the hard way.
Orcon isn't the first company to garner this kind of unexpected attention. In the 1980s, Genentech, Inc. (its majority stockholder is now Roche) hit the headlines worldwide when news of its drug for heart attacks, t-PA (tissue plasminogen activator), pushed the company into the spotlight. "The company was in every magazine in the world. It was our stepping stone to the big leagues," recalls Paul Laland, director of corporate communications for the South San Francisco-based business. Then the company had 1,400 employees and $230 million in revenue. Now, it has 3,400 employees, and last year it exceeded $1 billion in revenue. (FAA, 202/267-8521; Orcon, 510/471-3410; Dupont, 302/774-4805; Genentech, 650/225-5759)