I’ve been working in PR at Porter Novelli Melbourne for three years, on campaigns for Walt Disney Studios, Rubbermaid, Coles Supermarkets, Stahmann Farms and many others.
What I have to say here is about our workplace; I can’t vouch for others in my industry.
Bloggers vs Media
About two years ago we started really reaching out to bloggers, in recognition of the growing value and influence, particularly of Mummy bloggers.
Even a couple of years ago Australian blogging was relatively uncharted, and many PR people made the mistake of approaching bloggers in the same way as print, broadcast or other online media.
The rise of email has made it easy to overlook the art and value of building relationships, personalising contact and doing research to make sure we’re approaching the right people with the right ideas.
Paid vs Earned media
Most brand companies have a number of marketing services suppliers, and that usually includes a media buying agency as well as a PR agency. The media buying agencies plan, negotiate and book ad space. For bloggers, these are the people who work with Nuffnang and pay for sponsored reviews.
In other media, this would be declared as “advertorial” or “sponsored” content.
Much of our PR business is to earn media attention.
In principle, we don’t pay for media space.
We work with journalists and bloggers to identify information that’s worth telling other people about.
It’s not that we don’t believe your work isn’t worth paying for; it’s that content that stands on its own two feet has greater integrity and authenticity than content that is paid for.
More brands understand the influence you wield, but they are still uncomfortable putting their ideas into an uncontrolled environment that where they can’t dictate what’s said or the dialogue that follows.
Paying bloggers to write reviews allows them to feel they have some control, but readers see this for what it is: paid media. Advertising.
PR companies set out to work with you, to earn your interest, unbiased and unhindered by financial reward.
We should never ask you to change something you’ve written, or ask to see reviews before they are published.
We have no right to do that, and you have no compulsion to do what we might ask.
Your supporters value your thoughts and opinions, and that’s why we want to work with you.
But we do believe we should provide something of value for you if you dedicate time to our campaigns.
To date we’ve never asked for sample products to be returned. I understand for some PR people this can be tricky when dealing with very expensive items, but the principle is the same.
For starters, we will recommend our clients buy banner advertising on blogs.
And, should we ask something a lot larger from a blogger, such as acting as an ambassador for a campaign, we will negotiate a fee, just as we do with brand ambassadors – but we will also declare that commercial interest.
Giveaways
We’ll always work to offer a reader giveaway with a review. But if we can offer you a giveaway, it’s because we fought for it; brands aren’t always willing to give away product. We have to argue the case, but we know giveaways are popular and help drive traffic to the post, so everyone wins.
Approach
There are so many “Rules”, “What Not to Do” lists and PR-blogger horror stories.
If we hear somebody here has sent a “Dear blogger” email, it’s not just me who’ll have words with them about it.
This PR/blogger relationship is a new dynamic for us all.
We’re still feeling our way around and working out how to make it work for everybody.
As an example, we’ve had feedback that you don’t want to pay postage for sending out winners’ prizes. So, we’ve taken that back as one of our jobs.
What’s next?
I’ll be at the Aussie Bloggers Conference in Sydney on March 19.
I hope to meet many of you there. Please come and say hi, and I can ask you about life as a blogger, and you can ask me about life in PR. I’m sure we’ll get along fine.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Louisa,
Thanks for the honesty about this. Look forward to meeting you next weekend.
Andrea
Having worked as a journo and/or editor for more than 20 years, I totally get where PR companies are coming from. We used to get annoyed with them sometimes in journalism as well, but generally PR companies are easy to deal with and quite polite. As a blogger who was once a journo, I get the risk companies take on bloggers, and I view every approach as a positive one. It doesn’t mean I have to accept it, but in all but about two approaches, every company who has approached me has been polite, complementary and supportive. One thing journos get beaten out of them early in their careers is being precious, and I do (with respect) think it is something bloggers have to learn to deal with.
Snap, Bronnie – that’s my history as well.
Interesting to read this from the PR perspective. I think the challenge is that while paid content is just another form of advertising, that doesn’t make all unpaid content authentic.
On most blogs reviews, giveaways and the like stick out. They are conspicuous. Even if they are unpaid, they read as though they are, and many people will assume that they are paid and are nothing more than sponsored content.
The fact is that if a company is looking for a post exclusively dedicated to their PR I will tend to ask for a fee. Obviously, in situations where a product is provided and there are no requirements as to an entire post, this wouldn’t be the case. Really, I think for true authenticity their can’t be a requirement as to the form of the content, or even there being any content at all (and yes I have worked with PR companies where this is their approach).
But I agree that there are ways around this challenge. For example, it is well known that I have a slight shoe obsession. I would be happy to talk shoes from dawn until dusk and there would be nothing contrived about it, regardless of whether I received free shoes or not. Hint: Free shoes will always be well received.
Looking forward to seeing you at the conference!
I agree that there can’t really be a requirement for a post if there is no payment. yes, I might do one if I like the product, and I would have qualms about writing a paid post if I DIDN’T like the product as I alway write honest opinions.
I also might just tweet about something.
I have asked for payment once, and never receiveed a reply. One day you might have a budget for us, especially if we continue to follow the US path.
This was really interesting to read, Mandy, as was Zoey’s response. I look forward to meeting you in Sydney – not long to go now!
Great post, really interesting to get some feedback as to how things work on the PR side.
I’ve seen how a company plans what PR/Advertising they are going to use and know how fearful that company would have been of uncontrollable blog content.
Thanks Mandy
looking forward to meeting you at the conference.
WOW! An insightful article about the other side…I have only just started my blog and doing reviews and writing to PR companies…and I am really grateful that some of them have been very kind to a newbie like me. Receiving “freebies” may seem like a big deal at first but it’s actually a lot of hard work…because I want to provide a truthful review to my readers so I do a lot of testing, taking photos, etc…and then write honestly. I have read some blogs that are “PR friendly” and do not have one single bad word to say about products – but it just seems too fake to me. I don’t know. It’s not my cup of tea.
Anyway, sorry for my random ramblings but great post!
Fabulous post, Mandy! Love that your company has taken the time to come up with strategies for bloggers – we’re not going to be disappearing any time soon!
Your honesty with this post is truly appreciated. Wish I was going to Aus Blog Con – perhaps next time.
I wish you were, too, Bree!
I’ve never really understood how TV advertising (for instance) works. Seeing a 60 second clip about how great a bank is will not influence my decision about a financial provider at all. Nor will reading a paid review. But reading an enthusiastic review from a blogger about new Splat wellies just might give me a nudge to research more. So I must admit I like the way blogging has become a medium for consumers to find out about products.
Great post Mandy! Its great to see how PR works.
I have worked with a few PR companies in the last few months and its been great. I have had a good experience with all of them.
The debate about whether a blogger should be paid or not will be with us for a long time. Only time will tell how things will go in the future….
Excellent balanced post Mandy. I love working with PR companies. I’ve found most of them to be absolutley fantastic to deal with. There have been a few cases, like the ones you’ve mentioned — and I do get the dreaded “Dear Blogger” or even worse “Hi There” and I don’t usually move on from there. There loss right?
For me it’s all about approach, what’s in it for my readers and if it fits my content. I’ve thought carefully about the issue of being paid or not and for me I don’t think it’s a big issue anymore. I won’t charge for reviews I’ve decided. I want a lot of choice for content for my readers and I see PR companies giving this to me to an extent. Win-win all round…
*their
Great post. It’s great to get insider look on how the PR companies work.
I dealt with few PR companies so far and the experience was good and not so good. It’s nice to have this knowledge for the next time I am approach.
As a legacy blogger (blogging for 10 years) I have never tried earning money with my blog it’s more personal to me. But I work with a lot of bloggers who do PR and I loved this post. It has some great basic information from your point of view.
I love how you explain why you don’t want to pay for reviews. Which as a consumer this is how I feel it should be. I feel from the outside, how can I believe these reviews when I have overheard the conversations “I hated the product what should I say or should I not say anything”.
Thank you for this post!
I really enjoyed this post… and was interested to have the difference between PR and Earned Media explained, I think that clarifies a lot for me.
For me I think it is about respect. If a PR company approaches me with an offer in a respectful way, with a tone that makes me feel like what I do is valuable and worthwhile then I am ok with that. I may not take them up on their offer, because not all offers are right for me and my blog…. but that is ok, because we can deal with each other respectfully and perhaps next time the offer will be the perfect fit for both of us.
Hi Mandy – lovely to meet you here – and yes, I’ll meet you in person next week! This is a fantastic post, like Bronnie I’m a former journo/editor who long ago had the precious knocked out of them. You have really good points here and it certainly opens up the discussion for how this will pan out in the blogging world in Australia.
I’m lucky to have a great relationship with lots of PRs who carried over working with me from my time as a journo. I need them as often they are the source of news and images that I couldn’t get elsewhere for my blog.
But now that I blog, I write a different way – a more personal way – and I always trial product first (even if it has to go back). My readers expect that I’m telling the truth, so this is the only way how.
Thanks for writing this Mandy.
I really enjoyed reading it for a PR perspective, as a fellow consultant, and as a blogger of personal and business blogs. I straddle this fine line, and find if you treat bloggers with respect they return it.
I also work as a freelance journalist and have told countless companies (and some PR agencies) they cannot decide what will and won’t be included in a story or see what has been written beforehand. It dilutes the credibility that editorial space or time affords them because savvy media consumers know when something has been paid for.
Thanks again for this post and I look forward to meeting you next weekend.
Johanna
From a blogging point of view, I can’t see the difference between a sponsored post and a pr post. They are the same amount of work, products need to be trialled, they need to be written, promoted, if you have a giveaway that needs to be organised, drawn and sent off. So why should one be paid for and the other not?
In fact, to say a sponsored post is the equivalent of an advertorial is interesting – I’ve always assumed that much of the text, images etc for an advertorial are supplied by the company rather than the magazine? So does this mean a sponsored post is actually less work than a pr post?
The way you describe it, I’m scratching to see what bloggers get out of pr posts. You mention you recommend advertising and sample products. But if someone is buying advertising, they’re getting advertising. If we can sell advertising on our own, this isn’t an advantage. And to be honest if we can’t sell advertising, would you be approaching us anyway. So what is the advantage? Future relationships? Content? Do you cross-promote the blog as well?
Sorry, one more thing related to the comments rather than the original post.
There is a serious flaw in the journalist/blogger analogy – journalists get paid. Perhaps it isn’t that bloggers are ‘precious,’ perhaps journalists are spoilt. After all if you are paid for your writing, you can play around with some of the less tangible benefits of pr. Or rather there is an indirect benefit – your employer gets the benefits of the interview/relationship/advertising etc, and you as a journalist still get paid. Bloggers don’t.
This is not the fault of the pr companies, but it does mean there is not a direct translation – as the OP said, it’s something both sides are still working out. But I don’t think that journalism is a good model to start with.
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