The Lakeview Blog

The top 3 things to consider before you start advertising from Colleen Gareau

There is not a public relations person on the planet who hasn’t had a client who wants coverage in the news. Sadly, there are many PR people that go to unprofessional lengths to obtain this coverage. I’ve heard stories from journalists about PR people sending gimmicky trinkets to garner attention — trinkets that cost the client money and end up in file 13; that hound journalists with call after call — again costing the client money while earning them a bad rep with the reporter; or sending a War and Peace length news release when one page is what is required. (If you can’t summarize your news, how do you expect a reporter to write a pithy news article about it?) What you need to know are the elements of news — the factors that editors and reporters are looking for. The nine elements of news Timeliness : Freshness matters; it's the new in news . Does the thing you’re trying to pitch have a best-before date, after which it won’t be relevant? That could be a good

Some years ago I read Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath. Given today's prevalence of "alternative facts" and fake news, I thought it was worth revisiting some of their ideas to see if they could provide some rationale for the state of the current news cycle. As the book title suggests, the brothers explain why some ideas live and others flounder and how we can improve our chances of creating and communicating an idea that “sticks.” They use plenty of great examples. Some of my favourites are the completely untrue urban myths that circulate and are believed widely. Did you know that there is no evidence of anyone ever sticking razorblades in Halloween candy? That there is no kidney-theft ring? That the Great Wall of China is not visible from space? Yet many of us believe these stories. Why? The Brothers Heath identify six principals that contribute to our belief. These are: Simplicity: the core of an idea is