By Tracy Jones
As a public relations professional, I’m often accused of being a “spin doctor”. Many of those who use the term do so in a disparaging way, coming from a view that all spin is “bad” and designed to mislead the audience.
But is that right? Is spin in itself a bad thing?
Consider this example:
• From one point of view: You work as a licensing inspector at the motor vehicle registry. You implement rules that make it harder for me to get a license and register my car. Your work costs me time and money.
• And from another: I work as a licensing inspector at the motor vehicle registry. I implement rules that ensure drivers and vehicles on our roads are safe. My work saves lives.
So which is spin and which is the truth?
The fact is, they’re both. Both these points of view tell the facts as they are. But they are overlaid with context that gives meaning to those facts. In the case of a licensed driver, the additional context is that rules and regulations do make it harder to get yourself and your car on the road. As an inspector, you know the job you do contributes to safer roads.
So spin is simply the telling of the truth from the context of your own position. You add meaning to the bare facts by putting them into context. And let’s face it, each of us tells the truth from our own viewpoint.
So why has “spin” attained such a bad reputation? And when is spin wrong?
• When it is designed to hurt or defame
• When it deliberately misleads or omits important parts of the truth
• When it is a lie.
There are ways to ensure your public relations consultant does not take you down the path of unethical spin doctoring.
Choose a professional who is a member of the Public Relations Institute of Australia or related world-wide professional body. They are bound by a Code of Ethics that prohibits them from such behaviour. And the Code is enforceable through the institute.
When choosing a consultancy, check they are a member of the Public Relations Institute of Australia’s Registered Consultancies Group. Not only are these consultancies bound by an additional Code of Conduct, their Managers are also required to ensure all employees act in an ethical manner.
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Tracy Jones is the principal of Creative Territory, a Registered Consultancy Group member of the Public Relations Institute of Australia. She is a Fellow of the institute, a former National President and currently serves on the national board.
Showing posts with label agency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label agency. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Creative Territory's Jeannette Button honoured by PRIA
Creative Territory’s Jeannette Button will be inducted as a fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Australia tonight.
Fellowship is one of the highest honours bestowed on a member of the institute.
The induction ceremony comes just days after Jeannette was elected President of the NT Division of the PRIA.
Creative Territory’s managing director Tracy Jones said the team was proud of Jeannette’s achievements and wish her well as she now carries out duties at a national level.
“Jeannette is one of the Territory’s most senior and experienced public relations professionals and a role model for others,” Tracy said.
“She has chaired the National Conference Committee that arranged this week’s PRIA national conference, which is being held in Darwin for the first time."
Fellowship is one of the highest honours bestowed on a member of the institute.
The induction ceremony comes just days after Jeannette was elected President of the NT Division of the PRIA.
Creative Territory’s managing director Tracy Jones said the team was proud of Jeannette’s achievements and wish her well as she now carries out duties at a national level.
“Jeannette is one of the Territory’s most senior and experienced public relations professionals and a role model for others,” Tracy said.
“She has chaired the National Conference Committee that arranged this week’s PRIA national conference, which is being held in Darwin for the first time."
Monday, August 09, 2010
Is your advertising dollar buying you new business?
Advertising can be one of the most expensive elements of marketing your business. It can be highly effective, but the return on your investment will vary widely depending on your business, product and audience targeted.
The Benefits
• It is highly visible and seen/ heard by a lot of people
• It reaches customers who don’t already know about you
• Imparts new information to those who do (such as special offers and discounts)
• If done well, can have high recall
• Places you into people’s consciousness, even if they don’t need your services right now.
The Pitfalls
• It can be expensive to make the ad and then run it (depending on the media chosen)
• It will not reach people who are not watching and listening to the place where your ad is.
Is advertising for my business?
Before you consider advertising, you need to have a thorough understanding of your target audience and what they watch, read and consume. Try asking some of your existing customers where they heard about you. Have they seen any of your latest advertising? What magazines do they read? What radio stations do they listen to and when? What other advertising have they noticed?
Which advertising works best?
There is no easy answer to this question. It really depends on where your customers are at. But some media is better at some things than others, as shown below. We've used examples of Northern Territory media to demonstrate.
Newspapers: Examples include the NT News, Darwin and Palmerston Sun, Centralian Advocate and regional weeklies such as the Katherine Times, Territory Regional Weekly and Eylandt Echo. Newspapers have a short shelf life but high circulation. Depending on the publication, they can be really cheap to advertise in. You pay more for Saturdays and Sundays, colour and specified pages. Be aware that public notices cost more per column centimeter than regular advertising and the ad size is smaller. At the same time, public notices offer highly qualified traffic – people looking in the cars section are actually looking for cars. Newspapers are best for imparting lots of information. Design and layout of your ad will be an additional cost of between $100-$500 depending on size and style.
Magazines: Examples include Darwin Life, Resident, Intensity, fishing magazines and Top End Arts. Magazines generally have a longer shelf life, which means your ad is seen for a long time. Most magazines are also directed as specific target audiences, so readers are better qualified. Some magazines also offer complimentary editorial if you buy advertising. Design and layout of your ad will be an additional cost of between $400-$1500 depending on size and style.
Radio: Examples include HOT 100, MIXFM, Territory FM, KIKFM, Larrakia Radio, 8HA and Sun FM. Each individual advertisement on radio is relatively cheap, so you run a lot of ads. Set a budget and ask the radio station to design a campaign for you. Production of your ad will be an additional cost of between $100-$1000 depending on style, voiceover, music and sound effects used.
Television: Examples include Channel Nine, Southern Cross, Imparja and Channel Ten Digital. Television advertising can be expensive, but ask your salesman to work to a Budget. Less watched shows can be much cheaper to advertise in, along with morning and daytime timeslots. Production costs vary wildly – from as little as a couple of hundreds of dollars to over $100,000. Most businesses can make a simple but effective advertisement for $1000-$3000. Beware of special approvals needed for TV advertising and allow plenty of time for production.
Online: Examples include news websites like www.ntnews.com.au, Facebook and Google AdWords. Online advertising is cheap to produce and run. With improvements in targeting, they can also bring you very qualified inquiries. First consider whether your audience is online.
The Benefits
• It is highly visible and seen/ heard by a lot of people
• It reaches customers who don’t already know about you
• Imparts new information to those who do (such as special offers and discounts)
• If done well, can have high recall
• Places you into people’s consciousness, even if they don’t need your services right now.
The Pitfalls
• It can be expensive to make the ad and then run it (depending on the media chosen)
• It will not reach people who are not watching and listening to the place where your ad is.
Is advertising for my business?
Before you consider advertising, you need to have a thorough understanding of your target audience and what they watch, read and consume. Try asking some of your existing customers where they heard about you. Have they seen any of your latest advertising? What magazines do they read? What radio stations do they listen to and when? What other advertising have they noticed?
Which advertising works best?
There is no easy answer to this question. It really depends on where your customers are at. But some media is better at some things than others, as shown below. We've used examples of Northern Territory media to demonstrate.
Newspapers: Examples include the NT News, Darwin and Palmerston Sun, Centralian Advocate and regional weeklies such as the Katherine Times, Territory Regional Weekly and Eylandt Echo. Newspapers have a short shelf life but high circulation. Depending on the publication, they can be really cheap to advertise in. You pay more for Saturdays and Sundays, colour and specified pages. Be aware that public notices cost more per column centimeter than regular advertising and the ad size is smaller. At the same time, public notices offer highly qualified traffic – people looking in the cars section are actually looking for cars. Newspapers are best for imparting lots of information. Design and layout of your ad will be an additional cost of between $100-$500 depending on size and style.
Magazines: Examples include Darwin Life, Resident, Intensity, fishing magazines and Top End Arts. Magazines generally have a longer shelf life, which means your ad is seen for a long time. Most magazines are also directed as specific target audiences, so readers are better qualified. Some magazines also offer complimentary editorial if you buy advertising. Design and layout of your ad will be an additional cost of between $400-$1500 depending on size and style.
Radio: Examples include HOT 100, MIXFM, Territory FM, KIKFM, Larrakia Radio, 8HA and Sun FM. Each individual advertisement on radio is relatively cheap, so you run a lot of ads. Set a budget and ask the radio station to design a campaign for you. Production of your ad will be an additional cost of between $100-$1000 depending on style, voiceover, music and sound effects used.
Television: Examples include Channel Nine, Southern Cross, Imparja and Channel Ten Digital. Television advertising can be expensive, but ask your salesman to work to a Budget. Less watched shows can be much cheaper to advertise in, along with morning and daytime timeslots. Production costs vary wildly – from as little as a couple of hundreds of dollars to over $100,000. Most businesses can make a simple but effective advertisement for $1000-$3000. Beware of special approvals needed for TV advertising and allow plenty of time for production.
Online: Examples include news websites like www.ntnews.com.au, Facebook and Google AdWords. Online advertising is cheap to produce and run. With improvements in targeting, they can also bring you very qualified inquiries. First consider whether your audience is online.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Author’s corrections – how can you slash your agency bill?
By Tracy Jones
One of the most hated terms in the marketing and public relations world is “author’s corrections”. We hate charging for them, our clients hate paying for them and our designers hate doing them.
Having got that off my chest, I’ll admit that they’re an inevitable and necessary part of our business. But there are ways to make them far less painful for everyone involved.
What are author’s corrections?
Author’s corrections are changes made to the instructions, the scope of the project, the text or the photos you have supplied after work has commenced.
Examples:
Your agency writes a radio script. You request changes. They make the changes and you sign off on the script. This will not incur author’s corrections. However, if you continue to change the script, you may be charged additional costs. If you change the script after your agency has produced the commercial, the costs will obviously be much higher.
Your agency designs a poster. You like the design but want the logo and heading bigger. The agency makes the changes and sends it back to you. At this stage you have not been charged author’s corrections. You approve the second design, but then ask the agency to replace two of the images and change the words in the heading. This may incur author’s corrections because you have made changes to the original instructions.
Why do they cost so much?
It seems simple on the surface to change one or two words. Unfortunately, in many cases this can be a time consuming process. For example:
• If you change the words in a 30 second radio commercial script, you might make the commercial longer than the original 30 seconds. We will need to test the new script to see if it fits in the timeframe and may need to edit other sections of the commercial to reduce the length.
• Graphic design files are very large. That’s what makes them such high quality once they are printed. These large files take time to load and also to save changes. By the time a designer locates the file (which is often stored off the server on a disk because of its size), loads the file, works on the changes, saves it and creates a low resolution copy for you to view, it can take up to 30 minutes to make a minor change. That’s why we ask you to send through all author’s corrections in one go if possible.
• If you add new words to a brochure that has already been laid out, you can push words onto a new line and make the document longer than it was previously. This can bump photos out of place and make columns spill over onto new pages. Once we’ve added the new words we need to check the document to make sure that hasn’t happened. If it has happened, we need to take the time to fix it.
How can I reduce the costs?
• Make sure your text, headings and image choices are approved before you send it to your agency.
• For projects that require design, filming or audio, organise approvals before your agency proceeds to the production stage. It is much easier to change a word in a text document than to reshoot a TV commercial.
• If your agency is working in a text document, consider updating the document yourself rather than marking it up and sending it to the agency. That way you won’t be paying for the agency to make the changes.
• When you receive a draft make sure everyone provides their changes at the same time. Send all the changes through to your agency at the same time. It costs more for the agency to change five words on five separate occasions than to change all five at the same time.
• If your agency sends through something that you are not 100% happy with, tell them what you like about it and what you don’t like about it. This will make it easier for them to get it right.
Most importantly, if you are worried about author’s corrections talk to your agency about it. Any good agency will be happy to provide advice on how to keep costs down.
One of the most hated terms in the marketing and public relations world is “author’s corrections”. We hate charging for them, our clients hate paying for them and our designers hate doing them.
Having got that off my chest, I’ll admit that they’re an inevitable and necessary part of our business. But there are ways to make them far less painful for everyone involved.
What are author’s corrections?
Author’s corrections are changes made to the instructions, the scope of the project, the text or the photos you have supplied after work has commenced.
Examples:
Your agency writes a radio script. You request changes. They make the changes and you sign off on the script. This will not incur author’s corrections. However, if you continue to change the script, you may be charged additional costs. If you change the script after your agency has produced the commercial, the costs will obviously be much higher.
Your agency designs a poster. You like the design but want the logo and heading bigger. The agency makes the changes and sends it back to you. At this stage you have not been charged author’s corrections. You approve the second design, but then ask the agency to replace two of the images and change the words in the heading. This may incur author’s corrections because you have made changes to the original instructions.
Why do they cost so much?
It seems simple on the surface to change one or two words. Unfortunately, in many cases this can be a time consuming process. For example:
• If you change the words in a 30 second radio commercial script, you might make the commercial longer than the original 30 seconds. We will need to test the new script to see if it fits in the timeframe and may need to edit other sections of the commercial to reduce the length.
• Graphic design files are very large. That’s what makes them such high quality once they are printed. These large files take time to load and also to save changes. By the time a designer locates the file (which is often stored off the server on a disk because of its size), loads the file, works on the changes, saves it and creates a low resolution copy for you to view, it can take up to 30 minutes to make a minor change. That’s why we ask you to send through all author’s corrections in one go if possible.
• If you add new words to a brochure that has already been laid out, you can push words onto a new line and make the document longer than it was previously. This can bump photos out of place and make columns spill over onto new pages. Once we’ve added the new words we need to check the document to make sure that hasn’t happened. If it has happened, we need to take the time to fix it.
How can I reduce the costs?
• Make sure your text, headings and image choices are approved before you send it to your agency.
• For projects that require design, filming or audio, organise approvals before your agency proceeds to the production stage. It is much easier to change a word in a text document than to reshoot a TV commercial.
• If your agency is working in a text document, consider updating the document yourself rather than marking it up and sending it to the agency. That way you won’t be paying for the agency to make the changes.
• When you receive a draft make sure everyone provides their changes at the same time. Send all the changes through to your agency at the same time. It costs more for the agency to change five words on five separate occasions than to change all five at the same time.
• If your agency sends through something that you are not 100% happy with, tell them what you like about it and what you don’t like about it. This will make it easier for them to get it right.
Most importantly, if you are worried about author’s corrections talk to your agency about it. Any good agency will be happy to provide advice on how to keep costs down.
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