Our annual cornucopia of creative goodies
 
Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday. What could be better? You look around you, and you express your gratitude for everything you have, and everything you have to look forward to. And you cap it with a tasty supper.
 
If you’re in the creative-services field, or if you simply rely on others (like us) who toil there, we invite you to sit back and sate yourself with this selection of some of our favorite things to be thankful for.
 
What they all have in common: They’re things we often take for granted. Yet they do so much for us, creatively, every day. So it’s only fitting that we pay tribute in time for Thanksgiving. 
 
The dark room
 
Caught ya off-guard there, didn’t we? Translate “dark room” to Latin, and you get camera obscura. Ergo, photography. 
 
Boy, do we ever take photography for granted these days. Not long after its introduction, the iPhone was used to take more pictures than had been taken in the entire history of photography. That’s mind-blowing. And, of course, that’s just the iPhone, not its competitors. And the iPhone has been around since 2007. 
 
Time was, you’d go to a bookstore (remember those?) and drool over big, coffee-table-sized books... comprised solely of photographs. Sure, those books (and perhaps those stores) still exist, but you get the point. Photography is so ubiquitous these days, that its original magic gets lost.
 
Don’t let it. The ability to transform 3-D reality into a flawless 2-D rendition—not to mention instantly—is a miracle. A captured slice of time, what Cartier-Bresson called “the decisive moment,” that you can study forever. Think of those Civil War photos you’ve seen. Don’t you instantly gravitate toward the faces of the soldiers and widows? It’s because the humanity, and the immediacy of the moment, were captured, and locked forever, into the medium. 
 
Here at Copel Communications, we use photography daily. Even cheesy stock photos can provide surprisingly inspirational material; we wrote an entire article (“Help With Creative Assignments: New Approaches to Stale Stock Images”) about that. 
 
So be thankful for photography. When you’re away from home, and flip through pictures of your kids on your phone. When you’re trying to express a certain emotion in a layout and stumble across that perfect “Aha!” image. When you hire a photographer to put that art to work for you. 
 
The world that exists outside your screen
 
If you’re seeking creative inspiration, nature beats man-made stuff, hands down, every time. 
 
We’re talking colors (tropical fish or birds, anyone?). Sounds (wind in the trees, the wail of a loon). Composition (the propagation of a crystal). Direction (the kinetic motion of a hawk diving, or a deer leaping). Rhythm (waves lapping at the shore, the metered chant of the mockingbird). 
 
If you’re ever stuck on that creative assignment, simply un-stick yourself from your seat and place yourself in a natural setting, and get set to take notes. You’ll come away not only refreshed and invigorated, but truly inspired. We wrote another article on this subject (“How to Draw from Nature [and profit from it]”) and we think you’ll enjoy it. Check it out!
 
The unsung heroes
 
While we work in creative services, and do a lot of ideating on our own, we also rely on a lot of others who are amazing at what they do. True scenario: A hot prospect reaches out to one of our clients, and a deal gets closed. 
 
Why did that prospect reach out in the first place? 
 
Well, it wasn’t luck. You can trace it to a particular direct-mail piece that had been sent their way. 
 
“Direct-mail piece” is a euphemism. Most people refer to it as “junk mail.” 
 
So think about that. For a piece of unsolicited “junk mail” to 1) not get trashed, 2) actually get opened, 3) make an impact, and 4) induce the reader to a) take action, and then b) sign a deal is, well, pretty amazing.
 
There are a lot of moving parts at work here, such as the quality of the mailing list, the timing, and so on. But don’t forget: the thing simply looked good. This humble piece of paper was able to stand out from the stack, and generate enough interest for the recipient to pause before trashing, open it up, start to read, and then let the copy do its job. 
 
Who made it look good? In this instance, it was a particular graphic designer we regularly rely on. He had spent hours, in a dark corner, squinting at his Mac, agonizing over details such as the kerning of individual letters in the words of the headline. Finding the exact right color for each element. Making sure they all supported the key message that was intended to be conveyed. 
 
All that work paid off. Handsomely. 
 
And yet today, that same graphic artist still toils in that same dark corner. We know he’s appreciated where he works, and by us, too. But on days like this, we’re downright thankful. 
 
Last thanks
 
This is where we traditionally insert what’s known as the call-to-action, in which we ask you, humbly, to contact us should you need our creative services. But regardless of how we slide it in, we’d prefer to end this article with a simple wish to you: 
 
Happy Thanksgiving. 

Getting media exposure for your company is like solving a crossword puzzle. It can be tricky. It takes patience. A method for proceeding certainly helps. But here’s the key part of the analogy that will really make you sit up and take notice: 
 
The puzzle taker and the puzzle creator share the exact same goal: They both want the puzzle taker to solve the puzzle.
 
Kudos to New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz for that insight. It’s counterintuitive, but it’s true. Some puzzles are hard, so you might think that the puzzle creator doesn’t want you to solve it. That’s not true. If you fail, they fail. 
 
Now substitute “crossword puzzle” with “news story about your company.” 
 
Your company and the reporter share the exact same goal: They both want to publish big news about your company.
 
Betcha never thought of it that way, did you? 
 
Taking the proper approach
 
We didn’t say this is easy; neither is a Saturday crossword. (In case you’re not a puzzle nut, know that the easiest ones are on Monday, and they get harder each day as the week progresses, with the hardest one on Saturday. [The Sunday puzzle only looks intimidating. It’s big, but not hard.]) The key is to understand the needs of that reporter (or “editor”) out there, and work backward. 
 
So step back for a minute. Put yourself in his or her shoes. What’s your job for the day? Better yet, what’s your dream job for the day? What would be the greatest day of your professional life? 
 
You don’t need a journalism degree to answer this question. You only need to watch old episodes of Superman. Or any old movie that features a reporter in it. Put this way: What does Lois Lane want?
 
That’s easy. She wants a scoop. A big, front-page story. One that no other reporter got to, before her. One that takes America by surprise and by storm—and sells a ton of Daily Planet’s in the process. 
 
Fast-forward from comic books and printed newspapers to social media and viral videos, and the needs are identical. With apologies to Marshall McLuhan, the medium has changed, but not the message. Importantly, the motivation is identical. What reporter doesn’t want to be a star? And if not to all of America, at least to their boss? 
 
The daily grind
 
Now try and picture a typical day in a modern Lois Lane’s life. She still needs “a nose for news,” but her way of “sniffing” is updated. Sure, she can scour the internet, but most of what she’ll find (just like you will) is stuff that’s already been reported. It’s other people’s scoops.
 
So much for secondary sources. To find truly breaking news, you—or Lois—have got to get it from the source, as it happens. When it breaks. How do you do that? 
 
Your local six o’clock news team has a police radio scanner. When they hear a hot call, they roll. They send up the chopper. That’s great for criminal activity, but it doesn’t apply to your challenge. 
 
So think of venues where breakthroughs either occur, or are first announced. Now you’re getting warmer. This is places like: 

• A scientific laboratory at the moment of discovery. 
• An awards ceremony for science, industry, or the arts. 
• A professional, peer-reviewed publication that features papers submitted by those on the bleeding edge of their field. 
• A trade show where the newest inventions and trends are revealed. 
• A symposium where top minds meet and confer. 

 
In a word, Bingo. This is exactly the stuff that today’s reporters follow. 
 
Think about that. It’s not as sexy as it’s portrayed in the movies. There are reporters, right this minute, who are slogging through Journal of Nanoparticle Chemistry (we made that up), squinting through arcane scientific jargon, trying to find the story.
 
Many of them succeed. 
 
Many others need help. Which leads to the One Big Thing we’ve purposely avoided mentioning until now: 
 
The press release. 
 
The press release, at face value, saves the day. It’s the magic matchmaker that connects puzzle-taker and puzzle-creator. It succinctly encapsulates that latest newsworthy breakthrough, before it’s become news, and spoon-feeds it to that hungry reporter. It provides all the basic facts, the angle, supporting photos and video as appropriate, and direct contact info for a straight-from-the-horse’s-mouth interview. 
 
The dilemma
 
Why, then have we spent more than 600 words on this topic before we mentioned the press release? Why even have an article like this at all, when there are press releases out there, saving the day daily? 
 
It’s because they’re not. 
 
It may well be that the world’s first press release—or maybe even the first thousand—were a major, earth-shattering success. Can you imagine how excited Lois Lane would be to see a memo “From the desk of Albert Einstein”?
 
But now, it’s not a help. It’s a glut. Rather than spending her day scouring the internet, Modern Lois spends her day, in dread, wading through mountains (“swamps”?) of press releases and packages, sent to her by email, postal mail, social links, FedEx, you name it. It’s disheartening. 
 
The problem, aside from the sheer volume, is the sheer volume of, well, crap that she gets each day. “ABC Company, creator of the XYZ Widget, releases XYZ Widget 2.0! It’s fully ten percent more widgety than Version 1!” Uggh. 
 
Putting it all together 
 
Now that you have a feel for Lois’ life, let’s take it back to your challenge. You want coverage about your company. Lois needs to break news. So help her. Here are some guidelines: 

• Press releases still work. But make yours truly newsworthy. We had a client who recently was named to the top of a prestigious national ranking for breakthrough growth. That’s okay and certainly brag-worthy, but where’s the angle? Turns out that this list spanned lots of industries, but our client was the only one in their industry. Hmmm.... What were they doing differently? Why had all the others effectively failed? It was incumbent on us to dig through the list, discover this distinction, and recognize it as an interesting and unique angle. 

 

• Follow up. Don’t assume that because you spent a ton on PR Newswire—or spent nothing on any of its freebie competitors—that you’ll automatically be the top story that night on CNN. For that same client above, we crafted a letter, and phone script, which pitched the story to editors, from the perspective of “this is something we think your readers would love to learn about.” Note that “your readers” didn’t mean The New York Times. More realistically, it was something like Monthly Logistics Report (another made-up title). 

 

• Learn. Try this: Today, pay special attention to the news you watch or read. Having read this article, we’ll bet you can now spot, more easily, those “stories” that originated from press releases and company pitches to editors. Try and discern what was in the original release, and what the reporter changed and/or added. (They’re not mere automatons, and they want to provide what looks like fair and unbiased reporting, especially when it’s about a company.) 

 

• Get help. That story on the news about Apple’s latest widget cost Apple about a million dollars in PR to get on the air. Not that you have the same budget—but bear in mind that, even for the big players, this stuff doesn’t just magically appear. It takes a strategy, work, and dedication. Do you have all that in-house? If not, contact us. We can help you, just as we’ve helped many others.