Can We Do That?!
By: Amy Crosby
For this class I chose to read Can We Do That?! by Peter Shankman. This book talks about some of the crazy business stunts PR professionals have pulled in order to get their clients some publicity. Shankman is CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc. located in New York City. In the beginning of the book, he starts out with the PR basics and gradually eases up from that point. From Chapter 3 on, Shankman engulfs the reader with numerous accounts of PR stunts than some think prove to be unethical, but Shankman shows us that these stunts are the mere result of PR professionals coming up with a great idea and actually following through with it.
My favorite section of the book is about the WebDive 2000. This was a time when the PR industry was booming and new clients were coming in and new employees were being added to the payroll. The Greek Factory decided to take a new approach to how they looked at clients. They ultimately decided to treat themselves, the employees, like clients. They decided to promote themselves as the agency that loves what they do. Skydiving became the theme around WebDive 2000 and they decided to take all of the employees skydiving. In late May, they posted a message saying, "Want to jump out of a plane? The Geek Factory is thinking of organizing a giant Skydiving Day for Silicon Valley area people. Interested? E-mail us." Within three hours they had filled up 100 spots and had a wait list almost as long. Of course the media stories were spectacular. BusinessWeek did a full-page story online. PR Week magazine gave them the headline "When Thee Geeks Say Jump, Bring Your Business Card," and the first line said, "Want to find out what your clients and media contacts are really made of? Jump out of a plane with them."
In the end, the WebDive was a successful event for so many different reasons. They got spectacular coverage and a host of new clients. The company also got a great story they can all tell forever. Reporters learned that they were truly creative and made friendships that have lasted.
Shankman on "putting ourselves into ruts."
"We settle into routine because it's comfortable. We take the expressway the same way to work each day because it's easy. We go to the burger place on the corner instead of the health food store because it's a block closer. We are trained to take the easy way out. And that's fine for some things.
The problem, however, is when we do the same thing in all facets of our lives. Because we then become complacent. Complacency, as said many, many times, can lead to failure."
From this, among many of Shankman's other brilliant stories we see the following:
-Ideas come when you least expect them to: Be ready, not only to write down the idea, but ready to act on it immediately.
- Treat yourself as the client. Do it the same way you would if you were a client. After all, you're "paying" for your time in other ways; don't waste it.
- Be creative, and don't be afraid to fail.
3 comments:
I think it is really easy to do the basic public relations strategies. These include writing press releases, sending out fact sheets, creating promotional events, etc. I think that good public relations efforts do these basic procedures but add a little bit of flair to each campaign. This book seems to show the importance of thinking outside of the box. It takes a lot of confidence to follow through with unique ideas. As you say, we settle into routines because we know that it will work. But we need to be looking at what works best. Publicity in the local paper is great, but why not getting national attention just as Geek Factory did with their WebDive 2000. I am interested to look at this book because when I'm out in the business world, I'm going to need encouragement to be creative because it is so easy to fall into the public relations routine.
If you think about it, campaigns that were completely off the wall have gotten the most attention and have done their job the best. For example, that ridiculous commercial with girls dancing with square butts for Burger King. Though it may be controversial because it promotes a children's meal, it has gotten a lot of attention-- which was the point. Controversy can be a blessing in disguise. The hardest part of being creative is not stepping too far and creating a bad image for your company. If the skydiving by the company had experienced a tragedy, the company could have been affected their campaign could have been counterproductive. Normalcy seems to keep you in place and unique strategies get a second glance.
Amy, This sounds like a very interesting book. It's valuable to gain the perspective of PR Professionals in a unique approach. I think as students we haven't been able to explore many options, but experience and books like this are helpful for us as we enter into the professional world.
I completely agree with the quote about becoming too comfortable. It has become so easy for us to put minimal effort into areas of our lives. It is important for us to put effort into our work so that we can create something we can be proud to share with our clients.
I found the book you reviewed to be super interesting! I think deep down we all want to think of that innovative way to reach the masses and get a client noticed in a positive way. In our client campaign this semester, my group used a Cut-Out Campaign as a guerilla-marketing tactic. When my group came up with this idea, research and response backed up our initial question, will we get a response? I think the world of public relations is fascinating for many reasons, but reading a book like yours makes me even more excited to get my creative ‘pr’ juices flowing.
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