Corporate communicators and PR agencies are turning to automated software packages to give clients or employers exactly what they want: evidence that they are pursuing the right channels and tangible proof that they are doing what they say they are doing.
Those are tasks that are no longer easier said than done. PR specialists are making sure they are achieving their communication objectives through software packages that offer ways to have more precise and up-to-date media databases (along with special features such as custom research for projects) as well as those that help troubleshoot one of the most least-lauded undertakings in PR today: billing.
Kirke Curtis, COO of Media Map, which offers a range of PR software programs, said start-ups and large corporations linking multiple offices can spend, respectively, as little $1,800 a year for media databases, spreadsheet capabilities and annual editorial calendars, or as much as $250,000, with the average for most companies falling in the $50,000 range.
It's a cost that's divvied out for the same reason that companies seek to better manage their billing or the time devoted to certain accounts: delivering better client service.
"For people in media relations, this plays into a larger issue - being able to tailor what you're doing and not having to rely on some shotgun approach," Curtis said. "You're reaching the right 71 people versus 1,000 who may not even look at your release."
And that's precisely what Tom Figel counted on when his Chicago-based PR house Figel, Inc. took on client JamTV and its funky foray into cyberspace with http://www.jamtv.com, an Internet-based music company, in March.
For the launch, Figel relied on Media Map's database as well as its one-link option to PR Newswire to announce the company's presence at a Jupiter trade show in New York. And those who dropped by the booth ended up being the exact media outlets, CNet, MSNBC, Business Week, Web Week and ZDNet, JamTV wanted in its corner.
When Time is of the Essence
"What our software allows our clients to do is to capture missing time," said Don Boner, manager of programming and acting sales manager of Marketing Resources Plus, a Redwood City, Calif., vendor selling Adman software that not only expedites the billing process but is promoted as a means of improving cash flow.
That's done through a wide span of built-in PR features. They include Job Estimating, which takes into account history on similar work so that every possible expense is included; Job Trafficking, which provides status reports of client jobs to management and account execs; and Time & Production Billing, a module that allows invoices to be formatted according to clients' needs.
"It makes all of our billing much more credible," said Erik Johnson, executive VP and partner of Borshoff Johnson & Co., Indianapolis, a 13-year-old PR firm that has used Adman for seven years. Adman ranges from $2,500 to $10,000, depending on the number of modules and users.
Although Johnson said that the company first turned to Adman to better manage its billing, he said that the advantages are twofold: It offers external benefits by helping the company keep pace in this digitized and computerized era and also provides an internal tracking system - a mechanism to help answer the question: Are in-house goals being met?
Adman also gives the company a benchmark to identify what the embedded, or built-in, expenses are of running a PR agency and to determine what kind of staff hours and business resources should be earmarked for a specific account. It also helps in determining if a specific contract is contributing what execs projected it would to the agency's net income.
Media Contacts
It would be naï ve to think that all PR tasks can be automated. And certainly the foundation of PR - the human touch and constantly nourished business relationships - can't be boiled down to something that's plainly robotic and painfully generic.
But what software like Adman, and others like Media Map's Media Manager or Enterprise Solutions, provide are business solutions that allow communications experts the foundation for strengthening job priorities such as media relations.
Media Manager combines PR workflow automation with intranet technology and in-depth media information. Among Cambridge, Mass-based Media Map's features are PR support services that can be broken down according to industry segments (business & finance, computers, high-tech trade show report, consumer, healthcare and vertical market) or can come with a link to PR Newswire.
Their appeal is that they are updated, and highly culled, databases with "encyclopedic depth," according to Curtis.
But the business philosophy behind Media Map's products is virtually the antithesis of the age-old PR practice of turning to data-thick directories to get access to as many editors' and reporters' names as possible.
"We're not trying to compete with a Bacon's or Burrelles," Curtis added. "We're trying to cover the most strategic media in every industry - for instance, 150 versus 400 in high-tech." (Don Boner, 317/321-2608; Erik Johnson, 317/923-2300; Kirke Curtis, 617/374-9300; Tom Figel, 312/223-9536)
Companies Offering PR Software
Following is a list of media relations software packages and their basic functions.
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Adman, $795 Billing, job trafficking, profit reporting Marketing Resources Plus, Indianapolis, 800/488-7544 |
Media Relations Manager, $1,995 Media relations management Turnkey Computer Systems, Staten Island, N.Y., 718/761-0732 |
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Bacon's MediaSource, $1,095 Prints, builds and exports lists Bacon's Information, Chicago, 800/621-0561 |
MediaWiz, $3,500 Includes Burrelle's database of media Colmans Communications Group, Inc., Marietta, Ga., 770/509-1725 |
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PRoffice, $4,000 Press clip monitoring and management Capitol Hill Software, Lanham, Md., 301/459-2590 |
NewsEDGE, Pricing based on function News source monitoring Desktop Data Inc., Burlington, Mass., 617/229-3030 |
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ClipSCAN, $4,500 Press clip monitoring and storage Software Publishing, Inc., Miami, 305/254-5664 |
Savvy/PR, Savvy Systems, $4,995 Logs product shots, logos and spreadsheets Savvy Systems, Glenham, N.Y., 914/838-0675 |
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Encountering the Media Tool Kit, $249 Issues management McLoughlin MultiMedia Publishing Ltd., Washington, D.C., 800/663-3899 |
SpinControl for Windows, $4,500 Maintains database, schedules activities SpinWARE Software Publishing, Inc., Miami, 305/254-5664 |
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MediaManager/OneLink, $995 Media contact management MediaMap, Cambridge, Mass., 617/374-9300 |
Targeter, $1,500 Media/congressional/investor relations database Media Distribution Services, New York, 800/MDS-3282 |