Keeping a Product Announcement on Course

This week taught us that PR and Rocket Science are more alike than we thought! Sometimes, despite meticulous planning on a solid execution, the outcome isn’t what was expected. Unforeseen circumstances are, at times, unavoidable, but unlike SpaceX’s continuous mission, an agency only has a small window of time to maximize their client’s news. Here are a few tips and insights to turn around a client announcement and save it from a crash landing:

1.      Conducting Thorough Pre-Launch Research: What challenges does the launch face? How can you anticipate them? What are competitors doing and how can you separate the brand? There are several unfavorable factors that can be avoided before a client announcement or product launch with a bit of research. Be aware of any tradeshows surrounding the date of your client announcement and any other industry-leading media announcements that have been planned in advance.

 2.      Learning to Pivot: Quickly determine what is not resonating with the media from their feedback and highlight other angles to the story. While its critical to always lead with the most newsworthy item, perhaps a philanthropic tie in or user testimonial is what the story needs to really resonate.

 3.      Transparent Communication: It is important to keep your client abreast of the media’s feedback. Being proactive and aggressive ensures that you’re always delivering the best possible results for your clients while helping the media tell compelling stories.