Bad Pitch Blog

APRIL 4, 2009

'You know it: Market caps are messy! But why did Kate Ennis attempt to prove it without any real facts when writing to BusinessWeek to try and get them to write about the growth business of incontinence? I get we all have a job to do, and pitching a product line like this is definitely sticky.but come on! In a recession when the reached Personal Finance columnist has a lot of serious, timely and real work to do, the below just reads like total poop.

Pitching 57

Pitching Education Writing Trends 57

Bad Pitch Blog

APRIL 8, 2009

'Despite the fact that news happens pretty much while you sleep, PR is surely not an overnight process (to say the least). In PR, as with so many facets of life, patience is a virtue. We hear about “instant gratification” every day. Everything from digitally recording boob tubes to Lipton’s Cold Brew teabags is engineered to give us exactly what we want when the whim overtakes us.

Radio 47

Radio Course Engineering Web 47

Bad Pitch Blog

APRIL 23, 2009

'“I think that I shall never see, a media kit that doesn’t kill a tree.” With apologies to Joyce Kilmer , we were gearing down from Earth Day festivities when Tamar, a senior editor of MTV.com and the managing editor of the MTV Buzzworthy blog , dropped us a line. We’re old enough to remember the first video played on MTV (it killed a radio star in fact) and I’m hometown proud of Taking the Stage , so we were more than happy to help them shine some light on some poor pitching.

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Pitching Radio Fashion Resources 45

Bad Pitch Blog

APRIL 19, 2009

'PR people can be really bad at their jobs. That’s the simple truth. But sometimes they are so horrible that they make us all look bad. At BPB we get a lot of crapitches (my word) sent for our edification and bewilderment. I was fairly taken aback, however, to see someone actually texting a pitch to a well-respected freelancer who laughed all the way to my inbox.

Pitching 45

Pitching Hotels Tourism International 45

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Internal

Bad Pitch Blog

APRIL 16, 2009

'A few Twitter folk recently discussed how to pitch the media using social media. The seemingly Zen answer is to pitch them by not pitching them at all-- participation is key. Huh? Inevitably, and understandably, someone starts to whine when you start talking about social media and using it to do your job better. "I have too much to do as it is and this is just one more thing I can''t get to.

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Pitching Web Social Media Report 43

Bad Pitch Blog

APRIL 22, 2009

'Several of us at RLM were talking about how important it is to be email centric. So we made up some rules. Enjoy. Pass along. Viral-it-out! 1. Be concise and to the point. Do not make an email longer than it needs to be. Remember that reading an email is harder than reading a printed document and a long email can be very discouraging to read. 2. Don’t use that tone with me!

Viral 40

Viral Print Communications 40

Bad Pitch Blog

APRIL 12, 2009

'During the rainy late winter, I had a damning thought about the industry we bake in: maybe PR professionals aren''t as necessary as we were to the corporate culture. In years past, the "science" of our industry was seen as a sham that we could put over on whoever contracted us. We did our jobs and, as long as we were charming and insouciant, most clients seemed to think we were in the way or a nuisance.

Knowledge Base 40

Knowledge Base Education Public Affairs Corporate 40

Bad Pitch Blog

APRIL 10, 2009

'“If you’re savvy and energetic, you can do your own PR without special skills.” A few years ago, I wrote Full Frontal PR: Building Buzz About Your Business, Your Product, or You as a basic PR primer. It is informal, yet incredibly useful. It is packed full of anecdotes, basic definitions of industry terms, lots of charts and checklists, and many other tools, all with a very clear layout.

Pitching 40

Pitching Construction Local Report 40

Bad Pitch Blog

APRIL 2, 2009

'Conference calls! We all do them. They can be a great way to touch base without having to fly anywhere, so long as you keep some simple rules in mind. Intuitively, you might think that a conference call is more informal or – ahem - easier than face-to-face. Not so. In fact it’s often harder to get your messages across over the phone. Remember that body language is a huge part of human communication, and you don’t get the benefit of using it when your conferee is in another time zone.

Conference 40

Conference Pitching Meeting Print 40

Journalists receive an overwhelming number of press releases daily, making it hard for your news to stand out. While some news is valuable, most is not.

Media

Bad Pitch Blog

APRIL 30, 2009

'Whatever happened to reality? Reality is the name we give to silly TV shows and sometimes to novelty Web sites where someone is seen acting silly. Yet there is another, actual reality that PR pros must take a hard look at when they pitch a story that nobody wants. So how do you take a Plain Jane hook for a milquetoast product and turn it into something that''s going to get consumers stoked?

Travel 40

Travel Film Pitching Trends 40

Bad Pitch Blog

APRIL 28, 2009

'I used to think that Public Relations was a scam. I’m just being honest, here. I’m willing to bet that many of my friends still think that PR is basically smoke and mirrors. Who can blame me? There are a lot of stereotypes regarding PR professionals, and most of them aren’t flattering. When people think about pros in our biz they associate us with these words: confident, ruthless, attention-getter, relentless, name-dropper, more like that.

Communications 40

Communications Radio Energy Report 40

Bad Pitch Blog

APRIL 17, 2009

'Lately I’ve realized that “PR for the sake of PR” is not really necessary nor a good idea in this crazed era. I think it’s time for good work to be measured against honest business objectives. What that means, then, is 2009 PR realities trump personal relationships. Companies can not afford to retain an agency based on a principle’s taste in restaurants and/or golf courses.

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Agency Corporate International Internal 40