How to get national media coverage

National ‘Tier 1’ media (the main broadcast channels, newspapers and major websites) are consumed by ‘the man in the street.’ Even at a Financial Times level, there is a requirement to interest the majority of the readers/viewers which means stories have to be of broad interest. Outside of Apple et al, a product news release just ain’t gonna do that (Latin to street speak in a single sentence, ooo get me, breaking the conventions of writing).

At Chameleon we really push our clients to partner with us to create top quality stories that actually mean something to the outside world. Stories that add value to a discussion, give a bit of colour and yet still tie back to what the company actually does for a living. I say ‘inform, educate and entertain’ so often that my fellow Chameleons have started teasing me (my latest nickname is ‘Reithy’ - Reithy Loynes, try saying that after a few swift halves…)

All companies are inherently interesting, but usually not for the reasons that a product marketing manager would suggest. We work with clients to pull their story up a level or two, so it can be discussed at an ‘intelligent layperson’ level and in context to the rest of the world the readers/viewers inhabit.

Getting a company to talk beyond its immediate comfort zone (what is does, how great it is and its products) is always a challenge, but once the internal confidence is there (and that, in my opinion, is the central point of the agency’s consultancy work) the opportunities are endless.

To emphasise the point, here’s the list of Chameleon clients receiving Tier 1 coverage in the last two months (there is just one link to coverage per client). All, you’ll notice, are taking about things that tie back directly to what they do as companies. What you may not know, but you do now, is that only one of these campaigns was led by a news release. By and large, when it comes to Tier 1 coverage outside of genuine news (a company acquisition for instance), the news release is pretty much defunct.

Company	Specialism	Topic that got coverage
AFOO	Second home lettings	Utilising personal assets in a recession
Concateno	Drug and alcohol testing	Commentary on road-side drug testing legislation
Engensa	Energy efficiency for the home	Innovating in solar financing
GetJar	App store	Predicting the future of the app economy
Motorola Solutions	Mobile comms and computing	$200m acquisition of Psion (granted, a shoo-in)
Mozy	Online back-up	How technology is changing office hours
NMQA	Software testing	Industry experts on RBS’ IT issues
Qualys	IT security firm	Audit of insecure websites
SMG	Customer insight	Report on the UK’s level of customer service (broadcast only)
Spiceworks	Online community for IT pros	Discussion on modern marketing
Westhouse Medical	Medical devices	Opinion on where to list a fast growth company

Whilst great content almost sells itself, effective media relations are still imperative. Those pitching the story need to know how to craft individual angles, communicate with the media and package the story in the most appropriate format.

As an example, during a recent ‘sell-in’ a journalist said “this research is a bit self-serving, isn’t it?” The Chameleon pitching the story replied, “I know what you mean, but the company is an expert in customer service. It’s produced a report based on its own findings of over 100,000 actual transactions. Would it be better that a yacht manufacturer put the report together and talked about it?”

Our attitude is that our client is an expert in its field, so what the company has to say is worth saying, worth hearing and worth reporting.