The 4th PR idea…ok, maybe 3 1/2

One of my mentors in this business is Joe Slay.  Joe headed Martin PR and Slay PR at The Martin Agency for years and I was lucky enough to convince him to hire me (twice, long story).  He also didn’t get too pissed when I left TMA seven years ago to open THP with Josh (another long story).

For years, Joe and I have joked that there are only three PR ideas, especially where media relations is concerned.  Everything else you can come up with, brainstorm, etc. is a spinoff of one of those ideas.  Think about it, it’s true…there will be a quiz later on this.

So when Joe trusted us to help him with his client Carpenter Co. and we sat down to brainstorm, that familiar grin crept up on our faces.  The challenge?  How to drive traffic to Carpenter’s www.sleepbetter.org website that provides great information about sleep and its challenges and also gives good info about the Richmond-based company’s wide-array of sleep products (pillows, bed toppers, etc., chances are your pillow was made by Carpenter, you just don’t know it).

The campaign we came up with generous and forward-thinking client Dan Schecter is entitled “Sleep Better…Dream Bigger.”  After all if you can’t sleep you can’t dream.  The new idea is to add a dash of social media into the “three idea” equation.

We launched the campaign with a national survey about Americans and their dreams (despite economic struggles, more than 3/4 of Americans are still dreaming big).   The USA Today Snapshot is expected any day now.

Then came the social media twist.  A blog.  But not an ordinary blog. 

We decided to go deeper into the survey results, pick an American small town and tell the story of its people and their dreams.  We selected Stephenville, Texas for reasons that will become apparent in the near future (sorry, can’t tell you now).

To write the blog, we decided to find someone with both journalism and blogging experience.  Just last night on @mackcollier’s #blogchat on Twitter, the topic of whether journalists can also be good bloggers was discussed.  Mack says that not all journalists can also be good bloggers, that you have to understand how to engage with readers.

We think this new blog will not only engage but we hope to inform as well.  We’re hoping to follow the NPR model of journalism in which foundations underwrite good journalism.  The difference here is that the blog is “underwritten” by a company and its topic is loosely connected to the company’s brand and products.

For the author, Joe had the perfect person, his friend, G.D. Gearino, a longtime (30 years) print journalist/columnist and author who has also authored his own blog for more than two years. 

Gearino will spending several weeks in Stephenville, telling the story of the town, its people and their dreams.  It is the type of long-form journalism that reporters would kill for but that the current economics of journalism frankly find it hard to support.

Gearino will also be releasing details of the rest of the campaign which will include and event, a celebrity and other fun stuff.  But for the campaign to be a success, the blog is a critical piece.  We will be using other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to promote the blog.  We also would like your help, please:

• Read the blog (Go to www.sleepbetter.org and click on the Stephenville Dreams link
• If like it, please subscribe to future posts
• If you like it and are on Twitter please follow @dream_bigger to get updates on new posts and re-tweet.  We will also use the #stephenvilledreams hashtag
• Comment on the blog and suggest story ideas to Gearino
• Tell your friends and relatives.

As I mentioned the blog will also reveal additional elements of the campaign.  The first couple of posts are up so feel free to begin reading.

So is this the 4th PR idea?  Maybe…maybe not.  But is it definitely one we think that’s worth trying. 

Is it the future of “underwritten journalism?”  Maybe…maybe not.  But will these stories ever get told any other way in the future?  We’d love to hear your thoughts.

BTW, if you think you know the “three PR ideas,” and want to share with others, please comment here.  I’m going to try to keep them to myself for as long as I can 🙂