Trying To Reason With Those Who Lack Basic PR Skills
If there’s one thing that I find a constant head-scratcher, it’s why bad travel public relations people still have jobs.
It is because they have it so cushy, with clients and companies that every travel writer and blogger craves – food & drink clients, activities and, above all, the hotels and destinations – that they can get away with being slackers?
I worked in Public Relations for more than 20 years. Much of this was in auto racing, which is a highly stressful and demanding area of PR. Race promoters are always afraid that nobody will show up to their event so they want coverage in every media outlet every day starting weeks and months out from a race.
This is not all that difficult in some media-thirsty markets like Toronto, especially if any Canadian drivers are involved in it. But it’s another thing in, say, Los Angeles, where there is so much happening it’s hard to get the media’s attention the week of the event let alone months in advance of it. And even if you do manage to succeed, then something like a car chase can chase the press away from covering your event. Don’t laugh, this has happened to me on more than one occasion.
In motorsports PR, I was under constant pressure to get “more, more and more” coverage. If four TV stations showed up for an advance press event then the promoter would yell at me asking why the other two stations were not at it.
This trained me to jump into immediate action whenever a media person contacted me. If I could not take care of their needs at that moment, I would still get back to them and say “I’ll get to work on it.” That’s because I knew if I didn’t respond right away they could go onto another story and I would have lost my “hit.”
That’s why I go nuts when someone in travel doesn’t promptly get back with me, can’t arrange an interview with the proper representative, fails to understand the logistics or the unique needs of our individual media outlets or fails to execute other basic elements that are a part of providing good Public Relations.
To be fair, there are some pretty lame people in racing PR, too. Most of them are fans who somehow got a low-paying job with a team. The media recognizes these people immediately and knows it’s easier to bypass them to talk to a driver or get information for their story. And I know why they have jobs; it’s because many race teams are simply too cheap to pay for quality PR people.
Now, on the flip side, I have also encountered some excellent PR people in travel. They have been on the ball, quick to respond and can make things happen. They are a pleasure to work with and us media types are quick to go back to them when we’re seeking a story idea. It just seems the lame ones outnumber the good ones more in travel than in any other PR field.
I especially like the Public Relations staff with Tourism Switzerland; they really have their act together. Their press trips are so well planned they make it easy to do your job – just be at the designated spot at the designated time. This means the media can concentrate on the experiences because we know they have taken care of the biggest and smallest details. Prior to the trips they provide journalists with an itinerary so detailed it reminds me of the “minute-by-minute” documents we have at the races.
There’s a reason I have written some 30 PubClub.com articles on Switzerland.
I sure wish there were more people in travel PR that we like the Swiss.
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