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Each issue of CMO Close-up features an interview with a CMO, as well as other marketing executives answering that issue's "Big Question."
This week's feature:
Close-up with Keith Pigues, VP-CMO, Ply Gem Industries
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OtterBox replaces PR releases with e-mail newsletter
Karen J. Bannan
Story posted: May 13, 2009 - 4:24 pm EDT
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Press relations are part of most companies’ marketing programs. At OtterBox, a Fort Collins, Colo.-based manufacturer of laptop, PDA and smartphone cases, press efforts are actually more important than its more traditional advertising efforts, said Kristin Golliher, the company’s public relations executive.
“For our products, people are less likely to buy after looking at an ad than they are after reading a review written by a trusted editor,” Golliher said, noting that OtterBox gets some of its best sales lifts based on editorial coverage and reviews.
In view of this, in April the company started an e-mail newsletter program dedicated specifically to its large database of press contacts—mainstream newspapers and magazine editors, bloggers and Web site editors.
OtterBox also changed its approach. Instead of e-mail press releases it started sending out an e-newsletter, “The Newsletter, News You Otter Know.” OtterBox works with Virtual Press Office, which handles all the company’s media lists, segmentation, design and e-mailing.
The newsletter goes out to “thousands” of contacts sliced into more than 40 segments, Golliher said. These segments, representing a mix of b-to-b and b-to-c press contacts, include business editors; consumer electronics; construction and engineering;EMT and firefighting; government and military; law enforcement; medical media; and travel media.
The newsletters feature links to press releases, product photos and case studies. They also link directly to the OtterBox press room and blog, and allow people to connect with the company via Facebook, RSS feeds or Twitter. A menu across the top has links to five product categories. “We’ve been launching products left and right; and we wanted to come up with a solution so we weren’t overwhelming the press with too many releases each month,” Golliher said. “The newsletter lets us bring all the announcements into one place, a bulleted list, and support them with information, case studies and photos.”
In particular, she said, the case studies pique recipients’ interest.
“Some of these stories are pretty amazing,” Golliher said. “We also get a lot of people who write into customer service and tell these crazy stories. We’re always getting e-mails from managers who say they used to replace hundreds of BlackBerry devices each year and now they don’t have to replace as many. We also find some of the case studies on PlanetOtterBox.com, a site we have where people can share adventures and talk about how they are using our [device] cases. We also get stories from our sales department and direct from our distributors.”
One recent case study came from a police officer who dropped his iPhone in the middle of a Mardi Gras celebration. It was returned to him in working condition after being trampled by revelers.
Since different media segments cover different subjects, the template-driven newsletter is dynamically generated. So far, the approach seems to be working, said Golliher. “It’s caught the attention of a lot of people and, although we don’t have quantifiable results yet, the response has been very positive.”
Press contacts, she said, say they like the newsletter format better than a straight press release. “The thumbnails are all clickable, it’s easy to understand,” she said. “A lot of our focus is on OEMs—getting them to work with us. We used to have to go out and approach companies like RIM, Palm, HP, and Nokia that make devices. Now we are being approached by the OEMs.”
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13 Comments
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Mike Sarles
May 13, 2009 05:00 pm
I was not shocked by this comment since it seems like a pretty standard thing to say these days, but I am very dismayed by the logic.
The OtterBox marketing person stated:
“For our products, people are less likely to buy after looking at an ad than they are after reading a review written by a trusted editor,” Golliher said, noting that OtterBox gets some of its best sales lifts based on editorial coverage and reviews.
Well, duh. Of course that is the case. Editorial coverage by a respected editor in a publication with a positive review is going to be a tremendous plus for sales of a product. That's what PR is all about and why it is so advantageous to get coverage.
Advertising works hand-in-hand with PR efforts and makes sure that the correct message and benefits of your product is visible to buyers or users of your product. And since you can't get editoral coverage every day, week or month or whatever the frequency of the publication, it ensures that your message is there for buyers to see.
I'm not sure if you've noticed or not, but the magazines I subscribe to have been getting thinner and thinner over the last couple of months.
You may say, oh well, that's okay, as long as they're still writing about me, that's all that matters. That is a very short sighted.
How do all those editors find the time to write all those positive articles about your product? Well, it's their job. They get paid. Who pays them? Well, advertising pays for them to write the articles.
Unfortunately, because marketing managers and marcom folks don't want to admit there's a relationship between editorial and advertising doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. I'm not talking about under the table payoffs or advertise for editorial coverage schemes.
I'm talking about the business model of a magazine publisher. If no one advertises, there's no revenue. No revenue, no magazine. Then it really doesn't matter if your PR is in the traditional format or in some new fangled blog, or targeted, sliced and diced newsletter.
Without advertising magazines cannot exist. With out advertising, editors can't exist. Without magazines, we lose a valuable medium for our marketing messages.
So, if you want to have a place where readers can find out about your products and be influenced to buy them by a positve review by a respected editor, you may want to think about supporting it with a little advertising along the way.
Kristin Golliher
Public Relations Executive, OtterBox
May 14, 2009 01:14 pm
I wanted to clarify a few questions that have come up in comments.
First, OtterBox does have an advertising campaign in place. We’ve downscaled slightly by concentrating on more specific outlets, enabling us to reach select customers with genuine interest in our products. While emphasis has been placed on the importance of PR, we are very aware that advertising is an integral part of our PR/Marketing plan.
In regards to our press releases, we still distribute releases for individual product announcements and lifestyle type stories through wire services. Our preferred wire choice is MarketWire—excellent to work with, easy to get in touch with, great story placements and fairly priced. We will mostly be using the newsletter format to reach out to our subscribed media on a weekly/bi-weekly basis to ensure they are not receiving tons of emails about product announcements. We are expecting 40-60 product announcements just this year which would certainly turn into spam. With that being said, combining our announcements into a newsletter format with multiple, clickable releases, photos, case studies etc., allows the media to choose features of interest.
May 6th was the first newsletter, catching the attention of Karen Bannan and leading to the above story. We’re anxious to see where this new format will take us and how the media will respond!
Thanks for the feedback,
Kristin Golliher
Julie Squires
Softscribe Inc.
May 14, 2009 04:19 pm
Thanks, Karen, for up leveling a new approach and congratulations OtterBox for thinking of it. Thanks @LeeOdden for twittering it, which is how I discovered. I'd like to hear from some media on this, which seems like another proof point of the current traditional/social marketing blend. I agree; companies compound their marketing investment when they SEO content (press releases, customer stories,viewpoints) and distribute it - via PRWeb, our preference. What about including a video link, too? I like it that we're all learning together.
Julie Squires
Softscribe Inc.
May 14, 2009 04:19 pm
Thanks, Karen, for up leveling a new approach and congratulations OtterBox for thinking of it. Thanks @LeeOdden for twittering it, which is how I discovered. I'd like to hear from some media on this, which seems like another proof point of the current traditional/social marketing blend. I agree; companies compound their marketing investment when they SEO content (press releases, customer stories,viewpoints) and distribute it - via PRWeb, our preference. What about including a video link, too? I like it that we're all learning together.
Margie Simon
Simon & Associates Public Relations
May 14, 2009 08:57 am
Thanks, Karen, for your interesting story. PR's powerful, no doubt. Also powerful is a solid PR education. One hallmark of a true professional communicator is the ability to convey a message without offending. Yes, we have freedom of speech. We also have the freedom to exercise good judgement. Mike, where do you stand on that?!
Lee Odden
TopRank Online Marketing
May 14, 2009 10:01 am
It seems to me this article is a lot more focused on the newsletters augmenting press releases rather than outright replacing them.
Packing company news in a format that is more useful to the media makes all the sense in the world. Congratulations to OtterBox for trying to be more useful in that way.
The question is, how are the media really responding? The article reports that it's too soon to tell.
I wonder if any testing been done to measure traditional press release distribution vs the newsletter format?
There's still a significant value to distributing news releases (optimized for keywords) via wire services as part of an optimized news effort. There are plenty of blogs and other publications that source content from wire services that would be interested in this kind of content. That interest can turn into coverage and links back to the company web site which are very measurable.
Additionally, the majority of journalists use search to find past media coverage, research story ideas/angles and source potential interviewees. Optimized news content (press releases) can provide the kind of increase in search visibility that results in more media/blog coverage from sites that OtterBox doesn't already have on its radar.
Rick Short
INDIUM CORPORATION
May 14, 2009 10:59 am
@Mike Sarles:
(Respectfully submitted) You seem to be writing from a perspective where the ONLY way for a magazine to be funded is from advertising dollars. You say, "Without advertising magazines cannot exist." Many people fall into the same trap - and it IS a trap.
Magazines need RESOURCES (primarily money). This money does not, necessarily, have to come from advertising dollars. There are many examples of magazines that exist quite nicely with NO advertising (typically funded by subscriber or member dollars).
As a member of the media advisory council of AMERICAN BUSINESS MEDIA, I have studied this issue, and spoke and listened in detail to delegates from the media, agencies, and clients (like myself). To me, it seems that those who believe advertising is THE funding source will struggle and likely fail. I believe that the survivors will be those that exchange VALUE for funding.
VALUE can be defined in many ways, including: making content available to the target audience, providing qualified sales leads (based on collecting reader responses) to the content provider, providing links, enhancing brand & image, etc.
Today's audiences are increasingly disregarding "advertising" (particularly in the technical arena) while valuing meaningful content. Content delivery is an excellent vehicle for magazines to sell. As an client, I am willing to pay for value delivered - but not for advertising.
Aleen Lodge
www.GrapevineCom.com
May 15, 2009 01:52 pm
eNewsletters are an excellent way to communicate - our clients have had great success with this approach and incorporate the eNewsletter and/or eCard into their communications strategy. Twenty years in the newsletter business has taught us that a newsletter has been and will be the vehicle of choice for companies, organizations, etc. looking to communicate with their employees, customers, membership and prospects.
Bob Crawshaw
Maine Street Marketing
May 15, 2009 03:42 am
Hi Otterbox
Intersting story. Is there any chance you send me a link to your newsletter so we Australians could see what you're up to.
I'm intrigured.
Bob
Kristin Golliher
Public Relations Executive, OtterBox
May 15, 2009 04:36 pm
Bob—-You can check out the newsletter here: http://www.virtualpressoffice.com/MailCampaignAccess.do?mailCampaignId=1604. We work with Virtual Press Office to manage all of our campaigns. They basically took the info, text, photos and case study PDFs we created on this end and assembled them together in an easy to navigate, visually pleasing format.
Enjoy,
Kristin
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