Leaping Landmarks: Make Sure Your Story Gets Told

This month, we are leaping landmarks here at Design on the Haus—giving you strategies to promote your work on an iconic project. Hausman LLC has represented firms that worked on several iconic projects, including Carnegie Hall (pictured above.) In our most recent post, we suggested that you organize a media tour to generate attention for your work. Today, we are going to address the next step, and a crucial one: finding your firm’s story within the larger story of the landmark.

Of course, you know your own story: it’s the work that you contributed to the project. What’s the larger story? It’s the narrative of the landmark site itself, which may play into public interest in a more captivating way or have a broader appeal than your involvement does on its own.

Don’t allow this overarching narrative to drown out your story, though. You want to make sure that your firm gets the recognition it deserves. Do this by leveraging the larger story to direct attention toward your firm’s work. In other words, ride the wave of the landmark story: write a press release to tell the world about your work.

To do this, find the connection between your story and the larger story. Asking yourself these questions may help you pinpoint it: Why was your firm chosen to work on this project? What innovative techniques did you use? If there were historical elements of the site that needed to be preserved, how did you work around them? Did you use advanced technology like REVIT or BIM to do so? How did you preserve the integrity of the landmark, while also updating it or improving it to make the visitor’s experience better or more comfortable?

Once you’ve found the connection, strengthen your press release by obtaining a quote from an individual associated with the landmark, be it a government official or a member of a preservation committee. The quote should emphasize your contribution to the overall renovation. Keep in mind that it may take longer to get approval than it does to get approval for other quotes, as this one may have to pass through many levels of the agency or government department to be approved. Also keep in mind that due to policies or regulations, you may not be able to get a quote at all.

Finally, think ahead as you are completing your work. Is there a grand opening planned for the landmark? When will it be announced to the media? Find out and keep your calendar up to date so you can participate in these attention-generating events and reinforce your firm’s role in the project. Coordinate the distribution of your press release with the agency to make sure you don’t send it out late.

Following the above steps will help you to keep your messages and public relations activities in sync with those of the landmark and get your story told.

Posted by Beth Connolly

Leaping Landmarks: Promoting An Iconic Project

Welcome to June! Our theme for this month’s edition of Design on the Haus is “Leaping Landmarks.” Hausman LLC has handled public relations campaigns for some of New York City’s most iconic spots: the Statue of Liberty, Carnegie Hall, and the upcoming World Trade Center museum. When you are promoting a project that involves a landmark building, the public relations strategy is different than for a new project. For example, you may be coordinating with different government agencies or multiple PR teams—a topic we’ll discuss at greater length in our next post.

One effective strategy to promote an iconic project is setting up a media tour of the project. (In fact, media tours are a a great idea even if you aren’t promoting a high-profile project.) Bear in mind, you’ll need to get permission to conduct the tour. Once you do, contact specific journalists that would be interested in the covering the project and personally invite them to be the first to view it. Tell them that they will be transported to the project (if it’s in a different city), taken on a guided tour, and able to interview key players while they are there. You will charter a bus or buy their train tickets, accompany them to the location, and set up interviews for them in advance, if requested.

The benefits of doing a media tour are multiple. The media tour helps you because it puts the journalists in a controlled environment. It allows you to make a personal connection with them. You are no longer just a name on a computer screen — you meet them and answer their questions face-to-face. Second, you give the journalists early access to the story and offer them an immersive experience. While press releases, professional photos, and phone interviews are helpful, they can’t compare to actually being at the site.

Keep the following in mind when planning a media tour. First of all, make sure you allow sufficient time to coordinate the event. Getting even a small group of busy people in the same place at the same time for a whole morning (or day depending on the distance of the site) can be a challenge. Second, target the specific journalists you want to attend. It’s a good idea to invite a cross-section of bloggers, trade media, and magazine journalists, among others.Don’t be discouraged if everyone doesn’t RSVP. If someone plans to attend but cancels at the last minute, you should follow up after the tour with materials. Video footage of the event is an especially effective way to pass along the information they missed.

Ultimately, a successful media tour will not only focus media attention on your project, it will also strengthen your relationships with important journalists in your area.

Posted by Beth Connolly

Case Study: Viral Appeal

In our third post this month, completing our May focus on “Different Stories for Different Audiences,” we thought we would give you an example of a company that did a great job delivering its message to its target audience.

Dove’s recent campaign, “Real Beauty Sketches,” released April 14, 2013, reached viral status almost immediately and ignited a passionate conversation about its subject: female self-image. If you haven’t seen it yet, click here to watch the 3 minute  video .

In the video, women describe their faces to a forensic sketch artist who can’t see them. Then, strangers describe the same women’s appearances to the artist. When compared side by side, the two portraits reveal a stark disparity: the women believe they are much less attractive than they actually are. The ad concludes with a single line: “You are more beautiful than you think.”

The video is part of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, which kicked off in 2004 with ads showing photos of “real women” with real bodies in their underwear. By all accounts, the campaign has been wildly successful, boosting sales of Dove products between 6 and 20 percent in the first year after its release, and bringing the company an additional $500 million in profits. The most recent web video has also achieved notable success, with 54 million Youtube views and 119,000 likes (and only 3,000 dislikes).

Why has it been so effective?

This campaign is a great example of telling a story without selling a product. Throughout the Campaign for Real Beauty, Dove has never directly referenced its soaps or other products. In public relations, you shape a brand’s image through strategic messaging, unlike in advertising, where you sell a product. Your PR strategy should be more about connecting your audience with an idea, trend, or broader conversation, and less about pushing your services. PR is not advertising.

In this case, Dove created a campaign targeted to reach a specific audience, its primary customer demographic: women. Dove succeeded in using the campaign as a vehicle not only to get its name in front of its target audience, but to shape the audience’s perception of the company. It wants to be seen as a company that embraces an authentic image of female beauty, and as a company that works to improve society, using its leverage in the media responsibly to counteract the images that women see daily which lower their self-esteem and warp their body consciousness.

Because the campaign is so compelling, it inspired not only conversation, but also spoofs, and some controversy, all of which served to magnify the public attention on the campaign, and ultimately heighten the level of conversation surrounding it.

Posted by Beth Connolly