Views From the Cove
For many businesses, a surefire way to build thought leadership and brand awareness among target audiences is through coverage in key media outlets. Landing a hit in an article is an effective, organic way to reach audiences by having them ‘stumble upon’ your ideas in their normal news consumption, rather than forced upon them in an advertisement.
But, like growing produce, organic does not mean easy; it takes hard work. Convincing a reporter of your expertise is only half the battle. The winning formula comes when a skilled spokesperson delivers meaningful messages at the right time, in the right manner.
Like many companies, Hencove gets into “March Madness.” Our annual pool has nearly 60 entrants – if you want an invite next year let us know – and plenty of research, hand-wringing, and let’s be honest, guessing, goes into completing our brackets. All of this hard work, and agony, has taught us two things: 1) We should stick to our day jobs, and 2) There are valuable marketing lessons to be learned from college basketball.
“Less hoodies, more lab coats,” said PhRMA President and CEO, Steve Ubl as he smirked at his clever delivery to CNBC anchors. In a crisis situation, companies have the options to stay silent, deny, counterattack or reframe. But, while pharma's reframing media strategy is clear, Ubl’s execution misfired.
