COMPANY: LexisNexis
TIMEFRAME: April 2005-ongoing
Like any senior PR executive worth his or her salt, Steve Edwards wants his staff to do more than just pitch stories. He wants to see some media hits, and high-scoring ones at
that.
As director of corporate communications at LexisNexis (Dayton, Ohio), Edwards last year started to motivate his PR team with a little inspiration from our national
pastime.
Within Edwards' department of five PR professionals, the "Cy Young Award Contest" rewards the best "pitcher" of the year, based on his or her success in landing media coverage
in the period between Major League Baseball's opening day in April and the final game of the World Series in late October.
"Our brand recognition is very high," Edwards says. "We can put out news releases all day long, and the trade publications will pick them up, so it is very easy to fall into a
release-factory mentality. With the contest, I am trying to get the team to be more 'pitch' focused."
Just like on the baseball diamond, though, the rewards game has some hard-and-fast rules. For instance, each staff member receives points for each "pitch" that results in a
published or a broadcast story.
The points are tracked by Motive Action, which runs an incentive-points program throughout LexisNexis. In addition to scoring points for their media hits, PR staffers
also can win "great performer" rewards, with dollar values that can be used to shop for merchandise.
Too cute by half? Perhaps. But even in corporate America it seems the occasional symbolic "gold star" still goes a long way toward motivating performance and enhancing employee
communications.
PR Manager Bob Sadowski, who handles media-relations support for LexisNexis products and services related to knowledge management, business continuity, librarian relations and
general legal research, says the friendly competition has helped to keep his eye on the ball.
"I am more aware of pitching opportunities that arise, and I'm more proactive in approaching publications and media outlets with story ideas," he says. "I also spend time that
would have typically been devoted to non-critical tasks [by instead] looking up editorial calendars and touching base with writers."
This has led to specific improvements in Sadowski's approach to PR. "I've looked at publications and events that are outside of my typical beat. For example, every January, our
marketing group holds an annual review meeting and awards presentation," he says. Working with the stories that evolved from that presentation, "I compiled this information into a
pitch and sought out publications that covered meetings and events."
The result? Successful story placements in vehicles in which LexisNexis would not likely have been seen in the past, including Convene magazine and the Dayton
Business Journal.
The administrative burden of running the program has been slight, Edwards says, adding that the team members share a Web site to log their own successes.
The site offers a running tally of the scores while Edwards blasts periodic e-mails to keep people up to date, timing the e-mails to coincide with key baseball events, such as
the All-Star Game.
The cost of the program has been minimal, even counting the expense of the rewards points. Edwards already has incentive money built into his budget, and he focuses that
spending more tightly on the awards programs rather than throwing it around as on-the-spot awards or in other forms of performance-based incentives.
The biggest challenge so far: the inherent lack of a level playing field. "The way we are organized, certain PR managers have specific markets that they are responsible for.
So we have one person who is not responsible for any products but, instead, just handles brand awareness - getting our legal experts and our authors into the media," Edwards says.
He adds: "It is a little tougher for that person than it might be for someone who is just looking at a product or a market trend."
So far, no dirt has been thrown among participants; the prevailing spirit has been one of friendly sportsmanship, and even those with an inherent handicap based on their job
descriptions are playing the game merely to spur their own creativity.
From where Sadowski is sitting, the competition has led to an improved spirit of camaraderie throughout the PR department.
"I think the friendly competition has brought our group closer together," he says. "Even though we're 'competing' with each other, we are all in this for the greater good -
successful public-relations placements of LexisNexis - and we all are quick to lend a helping hand or a piece of advice to get a one of our colleagues' pitches placed."
Contacts: Steve Edwards, 937.865.8838, [email protected]; Robert Sadowski, 937.865.8816, [email protected]
A New Game On The PR Field
Here's how the PR executives at LexisNexis organized the "Cy Young Award Contest" to motivate successful media pitches. Players get points and "great performer" reward dollars
for each pitch that results in getting the company attention in a published piece or broadcast story. The item must be the result of an actual pitch and not just from the
distribution of a news release.
- The "season" began Monday, April 4, as an adjunct to Major League Baseball's opening day. After the World Series, points will be tallied; the winner gets one day off, $500
in "great performer" dollars and a personalized baseball signed by LexisNexis CEO Andrew Prozes. - A player gets points and $75 in reward dollars for each successful lower-tier trade publication placement or local broadcast pitch (e.g., California Lawyer, Law Firm
Inc. and/or any of the American Bar Association section publications). A player gets additional points and an extra $75 in reward dollars if he or she nabs a cover
story in a lower-tier trade pub. - A hit in a top-tier publication nets two points and $150 worth of "great performer" dollars: Such top-tier hits include American Lawyer, ABA Journal, USA
Today, Wall Street Journal, AP and CNN. Additional points and reward dollars are given for cover stories.