The next 100 news items in any next year

NEWS EVERY WEEK.

Ever try to figure out something new to share with the media every week? It may occasionally seem an impossible task. We assure you, there is always something you're doing that's worthy of coverage. Some ideas: New product versions or variations. Promotions and special offers. New ties with other products. New distribution or OEM deals. New sales. Performance statistics. New literature, or tech bulletins, or white papers. Personal or trade show appearances. Think about how and where you spent your time this week, what you've been doing, what's gone on in meetings or happened over the phone. Somewhere in all of that is the ore from which we can refine at least items, and very likely a lode of news.

LAUNCHING NEW PRODUCTS.

In the 6-8 weeks before a new product launch, you can secure "first looks" and early reviews, run "tease" campaigns, positioning and counter-positioning and optimizing interest in the launch itself. We encourage you to plan a message stream (weekly schedule) in advance.

TIP! Rank your choices for Bulletin items more or less in this order:
        1 Major new products not yet announced
        2 Other new products not yet announced
        3 New product announcements
        4 Trade show come-see announcements
        5 Product-now-shipping announcements
        6 New service announcements
        7 Promotion and contest announcements
        8 Sales and promotion results
        9 Application stories
        10 Product/sales statistics (e.g., relative growth)
        11 New literature announcements
        12 Other stuff

OUR 100, YOUR 1.

Can anyone actually forecast your next 100 news items? Perhaps! The point of this exercise is to understand that many parts of just doing business (things that might "fly under the radar" of traditional press release development and distribution) can trigger a journalist into writing you into the news.

YOUR NEXT 100 NEWS ITEMS.

TRADE SHOWS (items 1-24)

In almost every corner of every industry, any company faces at least four major trade shows per year. Whether or not you exhibit at these trade shows, they are significant both to the marketplace and to the press, and therefore must be an integral element of your message planning.

If you are exhibiting, you undoubtedly have one or more feature products or announcements for each show. In the best of all possible worlds, these are new products, scheduled to ship the day the show begins; in a less optimum world, they are nonetheless what he attendees will all encounter, regardless of how much sooner or later than show time they debut.

There is a lot of old-school thinking about trade shows that suggests not disclosing anything at all about new products until the day of the show, then holding a press conference at the show to announce it. More modern thinking uses a critical-path approach to create attendee curiosity just before the show, making the new product itself a draw to the exhibit.

Alas, empirical observations show that most trade weeklies of the week before a show are not read until their recipients return from the show. This suggests treating the issue of the previous week as the last opportunity to influence attendees.

Let s fold in one more time-tested factor: in all of marketing communications, response levels begin to optimize with the third exposure.

But wait a second - what about those old school guys who want to meet the press at a trade show? Is that such a bad idea?

Not at all! But the press conference venue is still very ill-advised. At a broad sampling of trade shows with hundreds to thousands of press attending, by far most of the exhibitor press conferences drew fewer than 10 reporters, and many drew none.

Many companies have taken to sponsoring media events at trade shows to take advantage of the large numbers of journalists in attendance. This geographic coincidence provides an opportunity for personal exposure to key products and people for less than the cost of a media tour, usually with more journalists than a media tour can reach.

On even smaller budgets, many companies simply adopt the practice of offering small souvenirs or mementos to editors who come to the booth to look up a PR person or key executive, whether by appointment or by whimsy.

But what if you aren't exhibiting? If your competitors are, it's an important time not to cede the spotlight to them. Use the same window to tout your newest and best goodies. Also, just because you're not exhibiting at a trade show doesn't mean you can t run a trade show special promotion.

Now let s take a look at the six weekly items you may want to consider using just previous to a major trade show.

  (6 weeks before the show:)

  [COMPANY] TO DEBUT [NEW PRODUCT] AT TRADE SHOW      TS#1234
   Come to booth 1234 at [trade show] for the world premier of
   [new product]. First looks are available to you on a limited
   basis and we ll have details for you in a week or two, or call
   [Contact].

  (5 weeks before the show:)

  WHAT'S IN [COMPANY S] [NEW PRODUCT]            TS#1234
   It's a feature set that'll make the competitors sweat:
   [feature, feature, feature] and more. And just for the [trade
   show] launch, check out the intro special: [price]. Talk to
   [contact] for details.

  (4 weeks before the show:)

  WATCH THE WIRES FOR THE [NEW PRODUCT] INTRO        TS#1234
   Watch BusinessWire next week for the official announcement of
   [Company's] [new product]. Call [contact] for info, pix,
   specs, data, reviewables, interviews, booth appointments, etc.

  (3 weeks before the show:)

  STOP AND SEE [COMPANY] FOR A T-SHIRT, A CAP AND NEWS   TS#1234
   As if seeing the new [new product] isn't enough to get your
   reporter s instincts energized, those shameless PR guys at
   [Company] are upping the ante with a T-shirt [or cap or
   whatever]. Just look up [contact], show him your press badge
   or write I read Newstips on the back of your business card.

  (2 weeks before the show:)

  CALL NOW FOR A ONE-ON-ONE WHEN YOU SEE [NEW PRODUCT]   TS#1234
   [Contact] admits it: [new product] didn't come to him in a
   dream, didn't spring forth full-grown from his loins and
   wasn't a gift from little green men on a UFO. That leaves a
   marketing team, an engineering team and some key corporate
   executives who worked pretty hard to make it come true and who
   still have some openings available for interviews during the
   show. Book yours early and [contact] may even be able to save
   you a T-shirt in the right size.

  (1 week before the show:)

  FIVE REASONS TO SEE [COMPANY] AT [TRADE SHOW]       TS#1234
   We've already told you that [new product] is the neatest thing
   of its kind, that key executives are on hand for interviews
   and that [contact] is making a big deal out of giving you a
   T-shirt, so there s three reasons. Reason four is a chance to
   go hands-on, or at least to see how exciting it is for the
   rest of the crowd. And reason five is that this isn't all
   there is to show you. Oh yeah, reason five and a half is that
   it gets you off your feet for a few minutes; maybe we should
   have started with that.
 

NEW PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE (items 25-54)

Most companies introduce at least two major new products (or services) in any given year.

Every new product (or service) goes through many gestations, but the strategy and tactics for any one product will always shake on enough twists and variables to make it a unique case, even in the face of many similar predecessors. For example, if a new product will compete with or displace earlier products from your company, tactics must assure that reseller shelf inventories of the old product will be exhausted before the new one arrives, since returns can be costly. There also must be a set of upgrade strategies in place, not only from your earlier products, but also competitive upgrades to help erode the others market share.

The phase of product life during which prototypes undergo testing by a product developer s internal staff is called the Alpha Test phase.

When the developers consider the prototypes more mature, they may go to selected individuals outside the company, all sworn to secrecy through some form of NDA, or Nondisclosure Agreement; this is the Beta Test phase.

Selected journalists may have an interest in previewing a product at this point in its life cycle. The quid pro quo of this early access is that the focus will be on the interesting new twists that the new product will bring to the marketplace, with a great deal of forgiveness for any blemishes on this early version. There are many pet names for pre-release hands-on coverage; generically, let s call them first looks .

We re beginning to see some of the elements that go into the sequence of messages by which new product introductions can evolve over time. We ve introduced enough terms for the moment; the other examples here should be pretty self-explanatory.

  [COMPANY] DEVELOPING [TECHNOLOGY] FOR FUTURE PRODUCTS

  NEXT-GENERATION [CURRENT PRODUCT] TO HAVE [TECHNOLOGY]

  [COMPANY] OFFERS WHITE PAPER ON [TECHNOLOGY]

  [NEW PRODUCT] GOES ALPHA; [FREE] UPGRADE FROM [OLD]

  [COMPANY] GRANDFATHERS [OLD PRODUCT] BUYERS
   (Meaning they ll get the new version free - one of many
   transition strategies)

  DETAILS EMERGING ON FEATURES OF COMING [NEW PRODUCT]

  WATCH THE WIRES FOR WORD OF [NEW PRODUCT], COMING [WHEN]

  [NEW PRODUCT] GOES BETA; FIRST LOOKS NOW

  [NEW PRODUCT] SHIPMENTS SET FOR [WHEN]

  [RESELLERS] SIGN TO SELL [NEW PRODUCT]

  [COMPANY] TO HIT [CITIES] ON [NEW PRODUCT] PRESS TOUR

  [COMPANY] ANNOUNCES LAUNCH PROMOS FOR [NEW PRODUCT]

  WATCH THE WIRES: [NEW PRODUCT] SHIPS

  MARKETPLACE SIZZLES AS HOT [NEW PRODUCT] ARRIVES

  [PERCENT] OF [OLD PRODUCT] USERS TRADE UP IN FIRST [PERIOD]
 

SALES PROMOTIONS (items 55-58)

Many things can drive a company's desire to use promotions, from income to zeal, from quotas to competitiveness, from opportunity to seasonality.

Whatever the motivation, four as a number of promotions per year comes up for companies about as often as seven comes up in casino craps games, which is by far most of the time.

The important thing to note is that while any given promotion may target either end users or resellers, most promotions affect both, and news items can reach reporters covering both.

So think in terms like these:

  [COMPANY] SEES [BUYER BENEFIT] FROM ITS [TRADE PROMO]

  [PRODUCT] [END USER PROMO] TO IMPACT TRADES

  [END USER PROMO] TO BEGIN [WHEN] WITH [EVENT]

  [TRADE PROMO] TIES [PRODUCT] TO [PRODUCT, EVENT, ETC.]
 

PRESS RELEASE "BED-WARMERS" (items 59-70)

How many press releases do you issue in a typical year? Some companies are happy with three or four, some are frustrated they can't do more even though they issue hundreds. We'll assume you generally issue one to two releases per month. Press releases are - and will probably always continue to be - a very common component of PR programs. So what good can a separate news item do for news that will be arriving in a release anyway? Plenty!

For example, the tactical distribution strategies of Newstips Bulletins versus releases tend to be very different. Release distribution (whether by mail or wire) tends to target one person per publication; Bulletin distribution targets individual journalists. Normally, the wire editor or reporter who gets a release feed is the best person to see that story into the news - but news isn't all a publication covers!

Consider the columnists and reviewers or the industry gurus, for example. If a Bulletin item tells them important news is coming on the wire, they're more likely to look for it, to be receptive to it, perhaps even to contact you directly and ask for a copy. Now extend the same phenomenon across the many beats that may each or all have an interest in a story and you can soon understand the value of "bed-warming".

So a Bulletin reaches more individuals, opening more alternatives within a publication, as well as more of the smaller publications. And it gives a release a chance to "raise its hand" and be noticed when it does cross the wire. The format of these Bulletin items is something like:

  WATCH THE WIRE FOR WORD OF [NEWS TOPIC]
 

APPLICATION STORIES (items 71-74)

One of the nicest things about offering good products or services is that some buyers will appreciate them enough to actually send you "fan mail" and tell you so. Others will find novel applications or ways of using them, worth sharing with the world.

You always have the option of placing that kind of a story, one place, once; it's a good option to take, since it brings prestigious placements and strong stated or implied endorsements.

But you also have the option of offering a snapshot capsule of the story as a brief news item and letting interested journalists contact you. Using the Newstips Bulletin, it's something like doing thousands of query letters with a single paragraph. Some example items:

  [PRODUCT] USER SAVES MILLIONS, HELPS PLANET

  [PROFESSIONAL] INVENTS WAY TO [TASK] WITH [PRODUCT]

We'll assume that an opportunity for one of these pops up four times per year.

STATISTICS (items 75-82)

Here's a bag to reach into every time you think there's no news: if nothing else has changed your numbers have - or they haven't, in which case there's news in that! We'll assume that you rotate through a statistics-based story about every six weeks.

Think about sales:

  [PRODUCT] [DOLLAR/UNIT] SALES CLIMB TO ALL-TIME RECORD

  LAST MONTH'S [PRODUCT] SALES BIGGER THAN YEAR-AGO QUARTER

  OLD-AGE "LEGS": [AGE] [PRODUCT] STATS SAY SALES STILL STEADY

  UNIT SHARE DOWN, DOLLAR SHARE UP AS [PRODUCT] SCORES PROFITS

Orders always lead or lag inventories, and either way, there's news, and an artful way to make it good news:

  [COMPANY] FINALLY TOPS [PRODUCT] ORDER RUSH VIA PRODUCTION
   They knew demand for [product] would be strong, but nobody
   could guess it would go nuts! As soon as the demand hit, they
   upped production, but not fast enough - until now. With luck,
   lead times will shrink to normal and allocations will go away
   in the next few weeks; ask [Contact].

  CUSTOMER DEMAND FOR [PRODUCT] OUT-SURGES PRODUCTION
   [Product] seems to be about as popular with customers as
   kisses are with newlyweds! No matter how much [Company] cranks
   up production, orders keep arriving faster. Ask [Contact] how
   much faster they can go faster and everything they're doing to
   try to deal with this in the meantime.

  Distribution channels themselves offer measurables:

  [PRODUCT] PRESENCE UP [xx]% AS [COMPANY] ADDS OUTLETS

  DEALER DEMAND CUTS [PRODUCT] SHELF TIME TO HALF OF YEAR-AGO

Naturally, there are (for any company) some statistics you don't want to share, some you don't mind sharing and some you want to crow. Remember, you don't have to disclose any absolute numbers when a relative number (% or ratio increase) can tell the story. Almost every organization has at least one individual with an innate knack for what we might think of as molding statistics into cosmetics; find that person and you'll discover some brag bait you may not have known was there.

REAL AND "VIRTUAL" LITERATURE (items 83-88)

There's another class of new "products" that many firms forget to publicize, but which can offer excellent yield: product literature, both real and "virtual". Consider:

  [COMPANY] ISSUES NEW [PRODUCT/LINE] CATALOG

  NEW [COMPANY] WEB SITE OFFERS INFO, HELP, MORE

  NEW [COMPANY] WHITE PAPERS EXPLAIN [SUBJECT]

Whatever collateral literature, catalogs, product sheets, application notes, white papers, testimonials, user stories or other customer information you may have, it may all lend itself to this treatment. And that can apply whether it's a traditional printed piece, a fax-on-demand document, a (Web site or BBS or online service) download file or almost anything else.

We say almost anything else because of a telling exception. When you receive an award from a magazine or prepare off-prints or reprints of an article that has appeared in a magazine, it's unlikely that competing magazines will help you publicize that.

Let's assume you have a new literature piece of some kind to talk about every two months.

"BOOKMARK" ITEMS (items 89-94)

Unless breaking news crowds your Bulletin schedule so much that there are never any lulls, look forward to those times when there's nothing hot happening to reinforce your product, your category and your interest in hearing from journalists. Perhaps:

  [PRODUCT]? ASK [CONTACT] WHERE INTERESTS MEET FOR YOUR BEAT
   There's been so much news to tell, we have to remind ourselves
   to take a moment now and again to make sure you know what's
   hot and what's cool about [Product]. Say the word and you can
   get a press kit, info, pix, a bigwig to interview, product
   hands-on or whatever makes sense. Or just call [Contact] to
   talk about why it does or doesn't make sense for your beat.

We call these "bookmark" items, because they help journalists remember who you are. For those who have been or should be covering you, it's a call to action to make sure their files are up to date; for those who haven't, it's an invitation to discover some common ground. We'll assume you find an opportunity to use one of these about every other month.

"UNDER THE RADAR" announcements (items 95-100)

The availability of the Newstips Bulletin in many ways shifts the mind set of a PR program planner. With it, additional announcements no longer need involve additional releases or advisories (each with some incremental cost of distribution). So, in plain terms, announcements that might "fly under the radar" in a traditional PR program gain an opportunity for airing once releases are available. For example:

   * New packaging
   * Joint marketing agreements
   * Positions on industry issues
   * Executive personal appearances
   * Customer support program improvements
   * New company backgrounders

Conservatively, you might identify such an item at least six times a year.

Doubling up - but first, planning

Have you taken a moment to consider these suggestions in the context of your own PR needs? For "beginners", there's an initial weekly panic: Oh gosh, how will I ever think of something meaningful to say this week?! But for veterans who have been doing this a while, the frustration is more an embarrassment of riches: How can I work everything I want to say into this week's item?

We strongly recommend that you periodically use this White Paper in reviewing your own upcoming announcements. List them all - even write them all - long before they can possibly run. Be as precise or as loose with their possible run dates as circumstances allow. And use this exercise to develop a Message Plan. Then enrich that plan to identify those items that should also become advisories, releases or other tactical PR deliverables.

There isn't an organization out there that doesn't have more news than it thinks it has, nor a journalist out there who doesn't want the option of knowing about it.