PR 101 - When your CEO should get involved
PR 101
Woke up the other night and remembered a nightmare that happened to me a few years ago working for a very young and immature Israeli company.
The company had hired me to do their marketing, which included their public relations activities. As usual, I did not just sit back and do it half-way. I went after Fortune, Business Week, Wall Street Journal, but, on the other hand, I also went after Playboy, PC Magazine, The Robb Report, Mac Home Journal, and anything else that would write about us.
The nightmare involved the Wall Street Journal and Walt Mossberg. Two weeks before the WSJ ran our story, I had a great two page story from Business Week. The CEO and CFO were ecstatic - the investors were besides themselves with praise and excitement about the company and product.
So, two weeks later, there, on the weekly technology section that Walt puts out, was a picture of our product and how it was going to change the world (I did the interview with Walt while on vacation in D.C. - don't EVER think that an Israeli company will reward you for going the extra mile).
In the article, Walt spoke about how small our company was (only 100 people and less then $100M in sales) and that some other company would probably take ownership of the product and own the market.
My CEO and CFO were livid. Now, I worked and lived in Israel. My CEO and CFO lived and worked in Israel. I walk into the office (I lived 15 minutes from the office, had a cell phone, etc.), and there, on my computer, was an email from my PR agency (in Los Angelas), saying that the CEO and CFO were trying to get ahold of Walt and can I do anything about it.
Of course, I had NO clue what was going on. And in short order, I found out what the h**l was going on. And calmed them down (they wanted Walt to put a retraction in the next days paper saying that he was speculating and was sorry for saying what he did).
My PR agency and I were besides ourselves, on EACH SIDE!!! On one side, because we had our company and a picture of our product reviewed by Walt. On the other hand, because our CEO and CFO pissed on all the groundwork that we had laid with Walt (for future products) because they didn't understand what Public Relations was and how it works.
Never, EVER, let your CEO, CFO, or anyone sacrifice a contact of yours. Never ever let someone who was NOT involved in the interview process become involved, after the fact. When you are promoted into a marketing postion or come into a company as a marketing executive, make sure that you get buy-off from the C-level management that you can do what you need to do to make the company a success - without their interference.
Would love to hear some of your horror stories out there.