AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) touted the enhancements it made to its networks in the first half of 2010, noting it has poured more than $8.2 billion into its wired and wireless networ
This past Sunday was one of the biggest days in recent television history as Lost, the hybrid science fiction fantasy adventure series about a group of airplane crash survivors on a deserted island, concluded after six seasons and 121 episodes. The show went through ups and downs in popularity and continues to provoke strong reactions, both positively and negatively, among critics and viewers, but ABC did a fantastic job promoting the series finale and attracting a huge audience in the process. In the age of digital cable, Internet, DVR, Hulu and video games, ABC showed that old-fashioned marketing/PR techniques with some modern twists could work successfully in the present day media environment.
Some of the tricks that ABC used included the following:
1. Setting a deadline: PR professionals are driven by deadlines. It adds pressure to hone focus on a project and do the best work possible in a limited amount of time before moving on. ABC set a deadline of six seasons for Lost to wrap up the story. This gave the writers and producers of the show a limited amount of time to tell their story, giving each individual episode much more value. Also, this prevented the show from growing stale and fans getting frustrated with no definite plans for an end in the future. Without deadlines, projects can be delayed indefinitely and the quality of work, more often than not, declines.
2. Having a strong idea to pitch: The finale of Lost might seem like it pitched itself. However, it took many ideas and brainstorming by the writers until they came up with the right one. The same challenges take place for the PR professional. Having a strong, creative idea for a client that grabs the attention of the media makes it easier to secure briefings or finding placement for a release or story.
3. Image building: Lost built up the concept of mysterious questions surrounding the island and the survivors, using sharp writing, interesting characters, and carefully placed promo spots to keep viewers interested week in and week out. A strong PR campaign must carefully build an image for the client that makes it attractive and causes media to follow the client closely.
4. Using multiple media channels: Lost was a TV show, but it also had a comic book, a website, games, and many other mediums to promote itself. The rise of mobile and social technology gives PR professionals multiple ways to promote their clients. Newspapers, magazines and publications shouldn’t be forgotten, but the modern day PR professional should embrace the advantages of using multiple media channels in creating attention for clients.
5. Leave them wanting more: Lost left most of the 13 million viewers of the finale with remaining questions. This caused people to surf the net, chat with friends and debate the topics that were left open. PR professionals should do that for their clients. A successful briefing, speech, event or release should whet the appetite for people to want more, creating buzz and keeping them interested in following the client and doing whatever they can to find the answers to questions on new products or developments.
Following the simple steps above will keep agencies and professionals away from pitfalls, not unlike the smoke monster and the Others that the survivors fought off week after week. PR professionals must be willing to adapt while sticking to the fundamentals to avoid becoming, well, lost.
