The difference between a master craftsperson – a true artist – and someone who has done a ‘paint by numbers’ job is often easily discernable to observers. But where do you start in demonstrating your expertise? Like all professionals you have a day job – KPIs to meet, a company to run, clients to engage, a board or investors to answer to. You want to take the next step in your business model and have a hunch that getting some publicity might be one of the necessary steps.

I am often asked what the best way is to attract ‘good’ media attention (getting attention for the wrong reasons is easy).  There are some basic things that, with planning, will ensure you optimize opportunities when they come your way.

Here is where the disparity between a master craftsperson (who relies on contacts, relationships, and expert knowledge of your market and the media agenda) and a paint-by-numbers PR practitioner can become most evident. The latter approach is unlikely to be sustainable – it’s a far better idea to work on the basics so when the time comes and cashflows can sustain it, you are in a position to partner with a professional PR firm that can help you engage with your markets in a meaningful and perpetual way.

After all, luck is what happens when preparation and opportunity meet. It’s also true that while gaining positive publicity is essentially about trust, relationships and content, there are some basic paint by numbers initiatives that can get you closer to your PR goals. Being an expert in your area helps too.

While there are many other factors that affect whether you are quoted or not (eg the news agenda of the day, the availability of journalists, what the competition is saying) here is a list of building blocks that will help get your name or company closer to featuring in the media as an industry or key opinion leader:

1.  Have an opinion – be willing to comment clearly and pithily on industry issues and how they relate to the national / local news agenda

2. Have a quality, creative photo (not a passport- type photo) that demonstrates your personality / what you do

3. Have an elevator pitch for your company and know how to adapt it according to the situation

4. Have a good, relevant (short-form) bio

5. Be open to using business milestones to illustrate economic shifts and trends – for example:

• You are investing in a new strategy / building / refurbishing / market
• You are moving factories / warehouse / plants / stores
• You are acquiring or being acquired by a company
• You have an overseas visitor / international CEO / manager / guest speaker that has relevant ideas for New Zealand
• You have done research on your markets
• You have a new product or service that has relevance to business or consumer markets
• You have invested in a community initiative – are ‘paying it forward’ in some way – or are attracting your community through a creative idea

6. Once you have a few ‘runs on the board’ and are getting quoted regularly and have developed trust:

• Create an In The Media section on your website – this will help you build momentum and share your media milestones with customers and prospects
• Share your media links, such as interviews and opinion pieces, in your e-mail signature, newsletters, and with staff – these create talking points for people within your company. When teams are talking with customers, that’s a good thing.
• Send your loyal clients and prospects a copy of the latest NBR, Unlimited or New Zealand Herald in which you or a company executive has been quoted. It’s a conversation starter.

7. Write a regular blog – this creates another opportunity to share your thoughts/ opinions/ ideas with your immediate community of staff, partners, stores, sales teams, regional teams etc. If they are written in a relevant way they can also be syndicated to mainstream media and used to ‘bait one-to-one coffees with journalists.

8. Learn how to tell stories. Nothing much has changed since sitting around the campfire thousands of years ago. Journalists know their readers like anecdotes and real stories that capture their imagination.

9. Get to know the journalists and bloggers in your area of specialization. Read what they write and be ready to engage them on relevant story ideas.

10. Ask for recommendations of your work on LinkedIn and on your own website – these  add credibility when journalists are investigating your background.

11. Don’t send a “media release” to multiples of outlets expecting journalists to pick it up. They receive hundreds, sometimes thousands a day.

12. Be  mindful of the deadlines and leadtimes of the various media as well as what editorial features they have planned. Bugging a journalist at the wrong time won’t do it.

13. Write a book – it’s not only a giant business card , but another good excuse for a conversation.

LynnMall Shopping Centre is encouraging its retailers and staff to trade in their car keys for pavement-pounding sneakers in support of the annual Walk2Work Day on Wednesday 10 March. The national event, organised by Living Streets Aotearoa, offers free breakfasts to all who pledge to walk to work on the day.

The event is one of two community initiatives that LynnMall Shopping Centre hosts in support of walking. At least twice a week for the past 12 years, members of the New Lynn community have chosen to avoid car emissions and instead enjoy the smell of fresh coffee and muffins on their regular MallWalk at LynnMall Shopping Centre.

LynnMall Acting Centre Manager Linh Luong says the MallWalkers set a great example for staff and retailers. “The Walk2Work Day is all about getting our people thinking about using alternative methods of transport and incorporating that little bit of exercise into our everyday routines. Our MallWalkers are very supportive of this.”

LynnMall Shopping Centre was the first mall in New Zealand to offer MallWalking and over the years, walkers young and old have been showing others how it is done by coming to the mall bright and early for a brisk walk along the passageways.

“We now have over 50 members that take part in the sessions, all of varying ages,” says trainer Zoe Bond. “Occasionally we have mothers who join us, some bring their little ones for a stroll and others take it as an opportunity to have some down time. Others in the group are aged between 50 and 90 years old and we even have a regular walker in her 80’s that joins us.”

“It’s more than just a physical activity for our MallWalkers. It’s a weekly social event they all look forward to, where they often have coffee or breakfast afterwards.

“Walk2Work is a great initiative which has a close alignment with what we do. It is great to see this encouragement to get people out there and increase physical activity in the community.”

Auckland Networker for Living Streets Aotearoa Vincent Dickie says he is thrilled to have LynnMall Shopping Centre on board for the Walk2Work Day and hopes staff and retailers will opt to head to work on foot rather than reaching for the car keys. “We want to encourage people to incorporate health and fitness into their everyday life, and what simpler and better way to do this than by taking to the streets?”

The first 20 participants who pledge or register to walk to work will receive a free breakfast from Walk2Work sponsors McDonalds, One Square Meal, Cyclops Yoghurt and Sanitarium Up n Go. Breakfast will be served in the Lynnmall food court between 8am and 9am.

It’s not everyday that a national sporting tournament is played out in the centre of a shopping mall. However, shoppers at Bayfair Shopping Centre in Mount Maunganui found themselves centre court during August 2009 when a massive glass court was erected in the mall to host the A1 Homes NZ Women’s Open. Around 18,000 spectators descended on the mall to witness a piece of the fast-paced action.

Having seen examples of the glass courts erected overseas, Bayfair and Bay of Plenty Sport decided it would be a great way to bring the sport to the masses, staging the event in the centre of the mall in full public view – from all corners!

It was also the first time in 13 years a NZ Women’s Open tournament had been played in New Zealand, another great story.

The AC team focused on profiling Bayfair’s innovative approach – a NZ first – hosting the tournament in the centre as well as celebrating this milestone event with the local community and high-profile Tauranga personalities.

Results

What better way to commemorate this event than with the darling of New Zealand squash and one of our most successful international female squash players of all time – Dame Susan Devoy! Dame Susan was invited to play a match against the Bay of Plenty’s rookie MP Simon Bridges – a challenge which she accepted without reservation.

This event captured the attention of the public, attracting around 100 onlookers and media keen to see their local MP take on the sporting legend. Despite a considerable absence from the court and retirement from professional squash, Dame Susan showed Simon a thing or two about the game. Needless to say, Simon was an excellent sport!

The event made national TV, when Breakfast took the opportunity to show coverage of the match on the politician’s regular young gun segment that week. The Breakfast hosts had quite a chuckle, at Simon’s expense, about his technique and bravado in challenging such a sporting great.

The NZ Herald, Bay of Plenty Times, Sunlive and Classic Hits Tauranga also covered the event, relishing the opportunity to see their local MP put himself up for the challenge.

The rather unique setting for the national squash tournament was the focus of a piece on prime-time current affairs show Campbell Live. The article titled ‘Squash open gives new meaning to window shopping,’ looked at the angle of reinvigorating public interest in the sport and the innovative approach of taking it to the people in a glass court in the centre Bayfair. Journalist Emma Keeling described the court as ‘oasis for sport’s lovers in a desert of shopping’

Campaign Overview

Blackwoods Paykels' National Manager Paul Watson takes the SME spotlight on NZI Business

Since Blackwoods Paykels was established through the merging of Blackwoods New Zealand and Paykels Bros in 2004, the company has grown exponentially, and the AC team was pleased to help spread the word about its $5 million investment in the business infrastructure and customer service.  

As it aims to become the nation’s leading industrial and engineering supply company, Blackwoods Paykels’ long-term investment is directed at maintaining its quality service and growing market share in their sector.

The fit-out includes a new distribution centre, manufacturing plant and flagship retail outlet to meet the increasing demand from growth sectors such as infrastructure, oil and gas, food production and other local industry, as well as the upgrade of the national branch network, in preparation for the expansion of the new retail model.

To leverage the investment in the Highbrook premises adjacent to the airport, Blackwoods Paykels hosted an intimate business briefing on-site, at which Manukau Mayor Len Brown officially launched the building.

The business briefing guest list was strategically targeted to engage Blackwoods Paykels’ niche audience. By concentrating on target markets and key mainstream media, the impact of the investment was seen in big business headlines.    

Results

The Blackwoods Paykels investment launch gained positive momentum and was well received by the media.

Paul Watson, Blackwoods Paykels’ National Manager, took the SME Spotlight on NZI Business to talk with Corin Dann about the new distribution centre and launch of the new investment strategy. 

The Blackwoods Paykels $5 million investment announcement also featured in the print versions of the National Business Review and the New Zealand Herald, and gained further coverage by featuring on their websites.  An interview on Radio New Zealand was also secured. 

Other online channels such as  btob.co.nz, infonews.co.nz and scoop.co.nz also contributed to raising awareness and positive positioning of Blackwoods Paykels among the business pages.

The leading industrial and engineering supply company Blackwoods Paykels has recently funnelled almost $5 million into its business model. The investment included the fit-out of the new state-of-the-art Highbrook premises, including a new distribution centre, manufacturing plant and flagship retail outlet to meet the increasing demand from growth sectors such as infrastructure, oil and gas, food production and other local industry as the economy picks up.

Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety New Zealand NZ (WISNZ) General Manager Mike Taylor says the total outlay for recent developments, including the fit-out of the purpose-built distribution centre, represents a 10-year investment to re-engineer the business: “Is geared towards building quality of service and market share so we come out of the recession as the clear leader in our sector.”

The re-engineering also includes expenditure on the upgrade of the national branch network, in preparation for the expansion of the new retail model.

The recent merging of the Blackwoods Paykels and Protector Safety branches into a single offering is beginning to hit a nerve with segments of loyal customers, prompting several areas of revenue growth in July-September quarter. Both brands are owned by WISNZ.

 “We currently have a customer overlap of just 25% between the two brands, and combining the product range allows us to serve all bases better and take advantage of the many cross-selling opportunities,” Blackwoods Paykels National Manager Paul Watson said.

“The response from the market to this new retail offering suggests to us that we’re meeting a need, and we’re looking forward to completing the roll-out of our new national network as part of this investment plan.”

A single IT platform was within the company’s recent investment expenditure, which enables customers to buy products across the Blackwoods Paykels and Protector Safety range on one account, and now permits the automation of purchasing via a combined web portal or direct EDI relationship.

Mr Watson said industries’ operational expenditure was starting to pick up, but capital expenditure continued to be subdued: Blackwoods Paykels’ investment is aimed in the first instance at those industries whose capex is on the increase. “There are notable areas of growth –new dairy plants are being constructed, and meatworks operations are picking up again after the drought.”

Blackwoods Paykels is also competing for some of the major current infrastructure projects in the areas of petrochemical, coal and roading, among others.

Manukau Mayor Len Brown, who is speaking at the official launch of the new building on 3 November, said, “To invest nearly $5 million in our city, at a time when it is needed, is significant.  We are going through challenging times, so to have a major multinational company like Blackwoods Paykels making a long-term investment to service the industrial and engineering sectors is a positive signal as we continue to strengthen the economy.”

 Additional Facts

• The new Highbrook facility consolidates five former sites into one
• Staff on the Highbrook site totals 78; across the business, Blackwoods Paykels
• Total footprint of 6,780sqm:
• Warehouse/manufacturing 4,500sqm
• Showroom/retail outlet 690sqm
• Office/amenities 765sqm
• The value of stock held at the Highbrook distribution centre is $9 million
• The distribution centre has approximately 22,000 stock-keeping units at any one time, and 25,000 locations
• The new layout of the distribution centre is by activity rather than product group, increasing efficiency, reducing errors and freight costs (also contributing to cost reduction is the new practice of zone printing and packing on a single packing slip)

Four of New Zealand’s top chefs and food writers are being brought together by Paper Plus for a VIP evening of entertainment and foodie banter. The canapé-and-bubbles-fuelled evening will be hosted by food-lover and Paper Plus books spokesperson Kerre Woodham, with the panelists discussing everything food-related about their latest books and favourite recipes.

In the lead up to Christmas, this grand foodie gathering will offer a bounty of inspiration for entertaining at home with family, friends and loved ones over the festive season.

Well known family cook Allyson Gofton, beloved by New Zealanders as the former host of TV One’s popular Food in a Minute, will be discussing her book Cook, which features her favourite recipes for entertaining at home.

Wellington’s own Martin Bosley, Listener food columnist and owner-chef of restaurant Martin Bosley’s at the Port Nicholson Yacht Club (2007 winner of Cuisine Restaurant of the Year) will be talking about his book Martin Bosley Cooks. The recipes are designed “for the home chef who doesn’t have hours to spend on making a splash at dinner parties or even a work night. I want others to enjoy that feeling of comfort and generosity that comes from preparing good food for others.”

Alongside Allyson and Martin will be Sophie Gray, made famous by her Destitute Gourmet philosophy of serving up tasty, fashionable and healthy home-cooked meals on a modest budget. The 10th anniversary edition of the Destitute Gourmet cookbook, Stunning Food from Small Change (centred around family, friends and good food) has just been published, and at the VIP event Sophie will share how she encourages home cooks to innovate and improvise, and shop smart – what you really need in your pantry, and what you can easily do without.

And the fourth guest, cookbook author and long-time Cuisine food editor Lauraine Jacobs, will be discussing the new book she has edited, A Treasury of New Zealand Baking, to which Allyson and Martin, along with more of the country’s top cooks and food writers, have contributed recipes. The book is being released to coincide with Breast Cancer Action Month, with all royalties going to the Breast Cancer Foundation of New Zealand.

“As we are coming into the Christmas holiday season, with its many opportunities to be with family and friends and enjoy delicious, seasonal homemade food, we thought it was timely to bring these great cooks and food writers together for an entertaining evening of canapés, bubbly and food talk,” Paper Plus Group Marketing Manager Lyle Hastings says.

“They all have great recipes and recommendations for fun, food-filled gatherings with loved ones. Kerre is vocal about her love of good food, so she will bring out the best in our guests.”

Details:
Date: 27 November 2009
PAPER PLUS BOOKS & BUBBLES FAB FOODIES
Date: Friday 27 November, 2009
Time: 6pm arrival for 6.30pm start. Approximate duration: 3 hours.

This is the final metropolitan Paper Plus Books & Bubbles event for the year, and will be hosted in the food capital, Wellington, with a great line-up of authors talking about their latest books and their love of all things food. The speakers are Allyson Gofton, former Food in a Minute host and author of Cook, Wellington’s own Martin Bosley, renowned chef and author of Martin Bosley Cooks, Destitute Gourmet Sophie Gray, whose latest book is Stunning Food from Small Change, and Cuisine food editor Lauraine Jacobs, who is releasing A Treasury of New Zealand Baking. Food-lover and Paper Plus books spokesperson Kerre Woodham will keep the audience entertained and the conversation flowing, and guests will enjoy a complimentary glass of Morton Estate bubbles on arrival with sumptuous canapés from Regal Salmon, with the chance to win a fabulous $500 hamper from L’Oréal Paris. Each guest will also get a goody bag to take home. A fabulous foodie night out not to be missed!

Location: Duxton Hotel, 170 Wakefield Street, Wellington
Tickets: $40 each and available from all Wellington Paper Plus stores or online at www.booksandbubbles.co.nz, with proceeds going to Cure Kids.
More about the panelists:

Allyson Gofton has been cooking for New Zealanders for over 20 years. During her varied career she has assisted Graham Kerr both here and abroad, and became the Chief Executive Officer of the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation. She was also Food Editor for Next magazine for many years and appeared nightly on our screens as presenter for Food In a Minute. Allyson has written 19 cookbooks, including the best-selling Bake and After Work Cookbook. Allyson is a working mum with two young children and a very busy husband who love her home cooking and baking.

Martin Bosley is one of New Zealand’s most highly-regarded chefs, and the owner of the Port Nicholson Yacht Club restaurant on the waterfront at Oriental Bay in Wellington. The restaurant won the coveted Cuisine Restaurant of the Year award in 2007. He writes a weekly column in the Listener and another in the Air New Zealand magazine Kia Ora.

Campaign Overview

Kim Crossman and Ido Drent celebrate with young friends after finishing the Fit2Fly adventure course. Image courtesy of the Western Leader, By Luke Parker

This July the school holidays were a buzz with excitement over the Botany Town Centre and LynnMall Shopping Centre Fit2Fly adventure course. In conjunction with the Foundation for Youth Development (FYD), the malls help launch the Fit2Fly campaign for the second year running.

The adventure course was set up to encourage kids’ activity and to put their skills to test, all for a good cause; the $1 entry fee went directly to the FYD’s Project K programme. 

The two week campaign gained positive media attention, especially with some celebrities who showed their support.  Studio 2 and Shortland Street stars Faye Smythe, Kiel McNaughton, Kim Crossman and Ido Drent all tested their adventure skills as did sporting stars from the NZ Breakers Acadmey and Steelers Counties Manukau.

Results

The Fit2Fly adventure course drew crowds of excited school holiday children; over 2700 children tested their skills on the specially built course and $2900 was raised for FYD’s Project K Programme. 

Sunrise TV included four live crossover weather segments, several ad-lib presentations and interviews from Botany Town Centre, concluding with Josh Aston giving it his all on the course. 

The NZ Women’s Weekly featured a lovely story about Shortland Street’s Faye and Kiel’s involvement in the campaign.

Howick & Pakuranga Times, Eastern Courier and the Western Leader were just some of the community papers who covered the Fit2Fly campaign with articles and great action images of children out on the course. 

Fit2Fly also received great radio coverage with the ZM Black Thunders visiting Botany Town Centre on two different occasions, the two Robbies from The Breeze testing out the Lynn Mall course and Desiree Clark securing an interview on Big FM. 

We also gained great online media coverage hitting both social and educational sites.  The holiday event could be found on Eventfinder and on supporting radio station’s websites, Shortland Street’s network as well as school and educational websites.

Manu Vatuvei and students from Ranui Primary school share a good book. Image courtesy of Photo Sport

In June 2009 Konica Minolta together with the Vodafone Warriors launched Rugby League Reads in Auckland.

The AC team was challenged to show kids that ‘reading is cool’ and to encourage them to learn that reading is a valuable life skill whether they dream of becoming a rugby league player, doctor, fire fighter or dancer.

Children were invited to write a short story or poem about their favourite Vodafone Warriors player for the chance to win a reading session at an Auckland library with some team members. There were four select libraries who hosted RLR 2009, a big thank you to Pakuranga, Waitakere, Glenfield and Manurewa libraries.

Konica Minolta received an overwhelming response from 50 Auckland schools and over 500 individual entries; unfortunately, they could only select eight winning schools.

In addition to the library readings, RLR 2009 included a surprise school visit from Manu Vatuvei. Dropping by Room 11 at St Thomas’s school, winner Zac Chan was presented a signed Warriors shirt by Vatuvei.

Results

The local community newspapers were very supportive and super keen on the involvement of the Vodafone Warriors. We achieved excellent coverage in the East and Bays Courier, Howick and Pakuranga Times, North Shore Times and the Western Leader.

The Vodafone Warriors Community Ambassador Manu Vatuvei was especially appealing and gained coverage in the New Zealand Herald on two occasions; Warriors fire young literary imaginations and Warriors at school spread the words.

Select Vodafone Warriors were also interviewed on radio; Kevin Locke and Manu Vatuvei featured on Newstalk ZB with Mike Hosking discussing their views on literacy and joking about each others reading skills.
Brent Jameson was interviewed on both BigFM and Radio Rhema regarding the RLR programme.

Online media also played a role on helping generate awareness about RLR with articles featured on times.co.nz, nzherald.co.nz, stuff.co.nz, infonews.co.nz and voxy.co.nz

Experienced PR Account Manager Role

You will see from our online newsroom that at Alexander Communications we are all about results. Consequently we have many national clients and run a busy Auckland office. 

Our business continues to grow at pace and we seek an experienced, self motivated and client focussed senior  account manager  to work with us in our Public Relations firm in Newmarket.

Our ideal candidate will already be working in a public relations agency (with at least 3 years experience in an agency setting) and will have strong media relationships and an ability to build rapport with our ambitious and driven clients. You will also be open to learning about how traditional and online PR can influence the client brief in a positive and strategic way. See some of our case studies for how we like to work.
 
With a great track record in achieving results for clients, you will be an organised person and a strategic thinker. Ideally you will have a flair for writing and be able to generate great ideas which result in coverage for our clients – yes our clients want it all!
 
You will present well to clients and always be looking for opportunities and know your way around a computer. 
 
No day will be the same. Apart from this, a professional approach and a “can do” attitude will be a key attribute we are looking for.
 
A sense of humour would be a bonus. If this is you, pop us an e-mail with a cover letter through our website.

We look forward to hearing from you

The Team at AC

About Alexander Communications

                    What do clients expect from a PR consultancy? 

Building media profile? Demonstrating opinion leadership in the media and illustrating industry leadership?Movement of KPI’s such as website metrics, new members, new client acquisition, sales , buzz, connecting them authentically with internal and external audiences?

We find that apart from these stated objectives that introducing one client to another is a highly valued experience – especially where there are potential commercial , idea sharing or mutual interest opportunities that perhaps only you would recognise.

It’s always about the commercial objectives.

Being able to understand and translate their corporate strategy and commercial objectives is a must in todays complex and highly demanding “recessionery” envirionment.

So setting up a coffee between like-minded people in complimentary industries or with skill sets that can add value to each other should definately be on your agenda. It’s a way to ‘pay it forward’ and ensure that your clients are benefitting from quality 1-1 profile opportunities as well as the larger scale conference speaking and multi-media profile building exercises that we do.

So, in whatever consultancy you operate in whether that be brand, marketing, online, PR or business strategy consider having “introductions” as a specific weekly goal.

Introducing clients to each other in a targetted and appropriate way presents commercial opportunities beyond the usual cocktail hour 30 person talk-fest.