Your media relations program may be a success, but does your CEO think so? Mary Kuramoto, U.S. Marketing Mana-ger for Worldinsure US Holdings Ltd., will discuss how to nurture
realistic expectations at the PR Strategies Forum on September 20, in Washington, DC. Here's a sneak peak:
PRN: You've worked in corporate communications for a major retailer, a traditional insurance empire, a pre-IPO company and now an e-commerce start-up. What's your first order
of business each time you enter a new environment?
Kuramoto: First, you have to pinpoint senior management's media philosophy. Is it a conservative company that wants to stay out of the spotlight? A company that needs lots of
press right away? A company that works in tandem with the media? A lot depends on how much the CEO likes doing interviews.
PRN: How do you manage unrealistic expectations among top brass about what a media relations program can achieve?
Kuramoto: Some CEOs assume that just because they have a new product, the media is going to beat a path to their door. I ask them: "If you put yourself in a reporter's shoes,
would you consider this a newsworthy item?"
At Worldinsure, we got VC funding at a time when there wasn't any - $31 million - in April. So we got a lot of play around that. But I find that management still thinks it's a
hot story three months later.
PRN: How do you demonstrate the effectiveness of your media outreach?
Kuramoto: The common industry practice is to measure space and, to some extent, whether or not key messages are communicated.
But for me, the real question is whether the story elicits leads. If nobody dials the phone to follow up with you, you have to ask, did the story get the job done?
PRN: Do you measure coverage quantitatively as well?
Kuramoto: I do both qualitative and quantitative measurement, looking at a six-month lead time, because we're a start-up. Quantitative measurement looks at the number of
articles we've gotten in key publications. Those numbers don't really mean anything, but management wants to see that.
PRN: Where are you focusing your pitching efforts?
Kuramoto: Companies often assume that if we can just get in The Wall Street Journal, everyone will call. A lot of people in our industry read The Journal, but they also read
National Underwriter. For us, it's a lot more effective to get coverage in targeted publications.