Public Access Information, PSA's (Public Service Announcements) & Press Releases

A good way to market your business, products or services without the direct media costs of advertising is to generate Publicity. Publicity is advocacy communications without direct media cost. You engage in publicity events and activities in order to generate interest in the company and its products and to increase sales. Publicity is generated by your business through the creation of newsworthy events and information. These efforts will have a cost in materials and labor, and the events themselves may be advertised.

Publicity is generated when the various media find your events and information to be newsworthy and therefore include your information and events as stories in their editorial content not in the advertising space. This happens more frequently as you develop relationships with the media and the people that work there.

Publicity can include Public Service Announcements, Press Releases, staged events, Media Listings and other efforts to gain mention or coverage in the media.

Publicity should not be confused with Public Relations even though they use many of the same tools to get "free" media coverage:

Public Relations (PR) - use of the media without media cost to disseminate favorable & credible news about a product, brand, firm, organization, or a person. The goal is usually image building more than to effect sales or consumer behavior directly. Tools are press releases, the exclusive story, interviews, the press conference, the photo & caption, the bylined article, speeches, and house publications.

In this lesson we will focus on PSA's, Press Releases and Listings with the objective of marketing our products and services and with the intent of doing so as a publicity campaign in support of our paid for marketing and advertising efforts. Below is a diagram to put the activity of Publicity in the context of marketing.

• No Media cost
• It is interesting to the audience
• It gains attention
• It's believable and trustworthy
• It's effective

• Can't control the message
• Can be negative
• Takes much effort to get it

The main tool used to get publicity is the Press Release. This will be covered in detail in the next lecture material. All media may choose to include you in their editorial content if you have a "story" of interest to their viewers or readers.

The primary tools of Publicity efforts include:

• Press Releases,
• Staged events,
• PSA's
• news conferences,
• speeches,
• reviews,
• interviews,
• freebies,
• invitations,
• grand openings,
• Listings
• and company newsletters.

Publicity is gained through Press Releases and these other activities when the information is considered to be "newsworthy" by members of the media.

There are several tools special to particular media.

Listings - Print Media usually has community event listings, a bulletin Board, or other features that allow you to submit and "list" your special events. Broadcast media may also have similar airtime availalble but are less likely to provide much space.

Internet/WorldWideWeb - your websites, other business websites list or link, BBulletin Boards, Discussion Groups, Listservs, Search Tools (Engines & Directories), Usenet Newsgroups, File Archives/FTP, etc. may also provide similar functions. (See Links Page/Publicity)

Television and Radio - Publicity is gained through PSA's when the information is considered a "public service".

For non-profit organizations (PBS, College Radio and TV Stations, etc.), the "public service" aspect is waived by "underwriting" wherein the business makes a donation in return for non-advertising sponsorship mentions.

Most media offer a public service known as Public Access Information. In the case of TV and radio, the broadcast media are required by the F.C.C. to retain air time for public service announcements. This air time is known as Public Access Information. Non-profits, such as college radio stations and publically supported boradcasters such as PBS also offer this air time.

Publicity begins with relationships. You need to foster a relationship with the editors and article writers in each local media through visits, materials, freebies, lunches, phone calls, emails and other communications in order to get publicity in that particular medium.

The first step is usually to create a database of names and contact information for people playing key roles at the media organization. This database will be used for all types of publicity efforts. Once you have done this, you begin the process of generating Public Access Information and PSA mentions in the media.

Contact Person: Identify the appropriate Contact Person, and make a first contact, usually the...

• News Assignment Editor
• Public Service Coordinator
  ...by phone, fax, E-mail, mail, etc. Not in person.

News Coverage/Publicity
To gain access you must generate the news and information and package it in a newsworthy form that serve or interest the audience of the media you are targeting. The following guidelines are used to measure whether information merits coverage in the media.

• Is the story newsworthy?
• Does it have strong impact?
• Is it important to or does it concern a great number of people?
• Is it immediate?
• Has there been a similar story or event recently?

Note: You may pursue it as a Press Release, publicity effort as well.

Public Affairs Programs - Obtain a list of special programs and features in the particular media. This takes time and effort. You must research the shows, editorial content and special features for each medium, then make a database of the information. Look for special program and features as...

1. Title
2. Audience
3. When it airs or how frequently it appears
4. Contact person, usually the producer or writer
... call to set up interview, allow 4-6 weeks lead time.

Public Service Announcements (PSA's) - An announcement for which no charge is made and which promotes programs, activities, or services regarded as serving the public interest. Usually you write the announcement and the editor of the media edits it for content, style, grammar and punctuation, content and "spin".

The Promotion Manager screens for the following criteria:

• non-commercial message in nature
• non-political message in nature
• non-controversial message in nature (may be reviewed by the General Manager)
• serves a need, addresses a problem or is of community interest
• doesn't intentionally include name of a commercial business or advertiser outside of the service nature of the message
• doesn't compete with the station or its advertisers
• acceptable quality of production, technical standards, and engineering.

Public service access space and PSA's are available to non-profit organizations, governments, government agencies and other groups or individuals, including business, whose announcements are viewed as serving the public interest. Usually requests exceed supply: a station runs 80-100 per week.

General categories are:

• Bulletin Board - An audio segment for beginning or end of a broadcast day.
• Slide/Booth Announcement - airs with a "signature" (logo, name, phone number), brief copy.
• Films - usually by national campaign companies.
• Videotape or recorded message - may be produced in-house
• event announcements - listings, calendars, special sections or announcements
• Sponsorships - "brought to you by..."

Once a "spot" has been produced "dubs" (copies) can be made and sent to other stations as a cooperative service.

Underwriting - PBS, college radio/television stations and other non-profit media use the concept of underwriting to give sponsorship information based upon donations and not requiring the "public service" aspect to qualify. The donations can generally only be used for repairs and maintenance or for management salaries. The announcement may include the business name, location, phone number, web address, email address and a very brief description of your products or services, voiced is a slogan-like manner.

Paid PSA's - Paid advertisements, tied to a Public Service event where part of the "Ad" is for the public service event and part is your commercial message. These are usually avaialable, if at all, at a reduced rate compared to the cost of ads. However, you seldom get as much time as a paid ad. On the other hand, the tie to a public service event is seen as positive in nature.

Each media will have its own guidelines for PSA's that you must follow to have any chance of getting accepted. Most media receive far more submissions than they can announce.

One of your first contacts with the media should be to inquire about that particular medium's guidlines, Typical guidelines include...

• Typed and double-spaced on your company letterhead
• 3-6 weeks lead time
• Timed out at twenty seconds or 30-60 words (sometimes they say 8-12 lines up to 30 or 40 seconds)
• Contact information for you
• State whether or not you are a non-profit organization (Many media only accept PSA's from non-profit organizations or fit them in first)