How a Transparency Slip Sparked a PR Firestorm

I mean we haven't really talked about the because we you've sort of started to talk about the the mistakes. So obviously the show's about mistakes. We're trying to talk about we've sort of got into the mistake here. So what was so for those of you that don't know what's happened, I'll explain.

In October, was it October last year? Um a couple of a couple of PR people who I who I sort of know on Twitter um talked about the fact that they were crit they were saying it that you use the term guaranteed coverage and how can how can somebody guarantee coverage? Because if it's guaranteed coverage, it's an advertori, it's not earned media. Now, for those marketers that listen don't work in PR, are you do you really care about it?

Well, if you're a PR person like I am, from we're all about authenticity, earned media, that is a a key part of what we do. And we say to a j say to a client, you can't just put a story out and it'll get published. That's what that's the battle we PR people face all the time. We've got clients going, I want you to get me coverage about this story.

And we go, Okay, we need to quick craft a story around that. It's not just that. And if you want to get that in the press, you're gonna have to pay for an advert or you're gonna have to do an advertori. So I can see that so that story sort of broke that people said guaranteed coverage is not a thing.

And um and PR Week did an article on the 17th of October, and several people had comments about it. So that's what we're talking about, isn't it, Chris? So what happened at your end then in terms of how did you deal with that? What happened?

Just walk me through what happened and then where you're at. Okay, so if you go you go back, you're right, it was was last October, and what in in actuality, what happened? A few people made comments on social media that were inaccurate, which effectively didn't understand our processes and how we go about our work. Um, I think that some of those people uh had an agenda, but I completely understand that other people then picked up on that and and ran with it.

And I have to say it was an extremely stressful time uh at 72 point. It was particularly uh challenging because two members of our team uh were publicly named online and pictured to extremely professional, hardworking young women within the team who, because we act with probity and and completely ethically, um that effectively they were very, very upset by the whole process of being sort of publicly outed for something that uh was completely inaccurate. Um PR Week picked up on the story because of the scale of comments on social media.

And again, I come back to my point. I I I we should have been more transparent about our processes leading up to that because there is clearly a lack of understanding in the market about how we actually work. Um what we subsequently done is we it it did cause a great deal of introspection on our part. Um so we thought, you know, we looked, we looked at ourselves.

Uh it came out of nowhere really, we weren't expecting it. So uh we looked at ourselves and we brought in um the industry expert Stuart Bruce, who came into the business and he conducted a six-week review where we with with full openness within the business, full transparency, he looked at all of our processes, interviewed several members of the team, and I'm pleased to say that he um his report that they issue six weeks later said that we're not only ethical in what we do, we're actually ultra-ethical.

Because, in truth, the content that we're putting on the wire is has to go through a really assiduous process before we get it there. We don't make claims in our content that we can't back up with evidence, for example. Um, or indeed that our stories are always always based on really robust research, and we are that that's the beauty uh to an extent of working with a newswire, because it means we have to go through these multiple jump these multiple hurdles to get our content to the the quality that we believe it is, and and I think our coverage outcomes show on a daily basis.

Yeah, so I think that's where the confusion is, isn't it? Because people have seen that story and then they've gone, oh right, okay. So I've sent a pre I've seen I had a comment about someone sending a pre I need to find it, where someone's well oh here we go. There's a lady called Iona who tweeted me, uh, and she put when I pitch a reach plc journalist, why do I get a reply from 72 points account team asking if I want to buy their PR services?

So that that's a what do you what what would we say to that? That's a valid question, isn't it? I I've obviously I've seen the tweets, so you know I saw the question you put out. Look, I think um ultimately it that's a very difficult question to answer without more information.

Um however, what we do have occasionally is sometimes our team are bylined in the national media. Just briefly explaining why that happens. Half our team are trained writers and they actually write the content. So because it's page ready, they author the the stories that go out.

And so sometimes they go on the wire with their byline on and they get then get used in the media. And sometimes creatives see those names in the media, assume that they are, staff people at that publication and reach out to them in that fashion. But I don't know if that's the case uh in this tweet, and if I wants to get in touch with me directly, I would be more than happy to look into it.