19
Working (with) the Press
When new clients choose your facility for the first time, there are several factors they've considered before picking your studio over the competition: price, convenience of location, specific equipment inventory, recommendations from their peers, and, perhaps most importantly, your facility's image in the recording industry.
Much of your marketing attraction is determined by your credits and a list of your previous clients. Your reputation for putting out quality end product is confirmed by captioned pictures, feature articles, and mentions in our industry's important trade magazines. Framed copies of your accomplishments as reported in print, along with industry awards of excellence, such as Gold and Platinum Record Awards, should prominently adorn the walls of your facility. This means that any time your facility is involved creatively in an award-winning production, even having played just a small part, you ask for and pay for a copy of the award. To have a Platinum record or an industry award on your wall does not mean you have to do the entire project. It means “creative involvement.” You will be surprised at how simple it is to get creative approval from your client and then call the administrator at the record company or production company and ask them to order you an award copy—and offer to pay whatever the cost is to them to obtain it. A quick example: I was the associate producer for A&M Records of Woodstock ‘94 (see Epilogue). They promised me a Platinum record for over a year and nothing was received even though I had continually followed up on the status of the order, which I was always told was “in progress.” I finally called the A&R administrator only to find out that there was no budget for “outside” Platinum awards. As soon as I offered to pay the $100.00 cost, the award was ordered and received within a month and now hangs proudly in my office. The difference is that the award certifies that I did what I said I did. Without the award on the wall, there is no proof that I am not just engaged in the music business sophisticated art of puffery. It is an advertisement of my status and image and also a very convenient conversation starter. At Record Plant, the walls of my office were covered with gold and platinum records. The purpose was to demonstrate to any client who came to see me the proof of the statement that we were the place to record if you wanted to have a charted hit. That image, more importantly, allowed me to charge more for our studio time than I would have been able to charge with no evidence of our hit-making capability.
How does a studio get this attention in the press, and how can you maximize it to further enhance your business? What is your image? The answer lies in the art of the spin. Unless you have the time and the expertise, getting your facility's accomplishments properly reported will probably require a public relations specialist. This industry PR person has developed working relationships with the publishers and/or editors of the key magazines that serve your market niche. He or she is familiar with the properly written press release of the news event that has occurred or will occur in the immediate future, and knows which photographs, properly captioned, will be most likely to be chosen for publication. PR professionals know that the smart way to present an event is to provide both a succinctly written press release (with quotations from known industry professionals) and properly captioned pictures (always with a label attached to the photo), so that the publication has the choice of the article with the photo or just the captioned photo. Giving the editors a choice results in more “ink” being published about your studio. Unless there really is a significant announcement, a press release without a picture has little chance of being published, unless the quotations are from famous artists or other industry luminaries.
Editors are hungry for information about new facilities, equipment, and big projects, and for good pictures of famous clients and where they are working (look at all the news and superb photos you've seen about the making of the latest giant hit movie), all of which gives an incentive for subscribers to read their publications. Editors and reporters also like to hang out with celebrities. Invite them to any event at your facility, and use every opportunity to get to know them and have them visit your studio. Once you know each other, it is much simpler to have a “give and take” relationship. They can call you to confirm a quotation or event that someone else told them happened. In return, they are much more likely to print your press release or photo. However, don't forget that there is never any guarantee whatsoever that your release or photo will be printed. Publication is a last-minute situation, and you may wind up on the cutting room floor, even though every effort has been made by the editor to include your release. You lost out because of some other news event with a higher priority.
An advertisement is created and controlled by the company who pays for it, and therefore most often is considered by the reader to be subjective. News reported in a captioned picture or feature story, on the other hand, is generally assumed by the reader to be checked and verified by the publication, and is therefore accepted as objective truth. Photographs, of course, are undisputed proof of significant events.
The chances of having an event at your facility reported are minimal unless you know how to work with the press. An editor who has to review hundreds of press releases and photos to determine which should be included in the next issue of a publication is looking for articles that talk plainly and clearly about a newsworthy event, preferably in a facility with which they are familiar, written by someone whom they know and reasonably trust to present them with facts. The closer you can get to that ideal situation, the greater the chance of getting your name and your business in print.
The price to accomplish this goal varies from the low cost of developing and printing copies of a great picture you took with your own camera and sending captioned copies to all of the industry trade publications, to retaining a PR professional for a substantial fee to write your stories and submit them and/or photos to the editors who make the publishing decisions. Ask your peers who are getting press coverage who they work with. Approach the editors and journalists who write the features and monthly columns in the magazines and ask them their opinion about whom you should hire for your particular press situation. You may be surprised how a simple common sense approach can result in getting your company publicity in the important trade magazines.
Keep a camera handy or find a good professional photographer you can call on short notice to capture a photo opportunity. Always get the client's permission to take the picture and their approval (and the approval of their management) before you submit it to the press. Try to arrange the photo just before the end of the project, so that the client has left your facility before the picture appears in print. Trust me, they want it that way. On the other hand, they all want their picture in the trades, but because their picture taken in your facility is an implied endorsement of your business expertise, they want to remain in control of where and when their image or quotation appears.
Once your facility or clients have appeared in the press, make copies of the articles and photos with the magazine's logo and date. Post them in a conspicuous place where all who visit your facility will notice, thereby enhancing your image in the marketplace. If it is a really prominent article, pay the magazine for reprints of the article to send to your clientele and to hand out with your brochure and pricing information. All of this will serve to make those new clients feel comfortable that they made the right decision in choosing your facility.
Working effectively with the press can help your business grow and give you that ever-important advantage over your competition. Also be careful to remember the age-old warning: “As forgotten as yesterday's newspaper.” Press relations must be continuing and consistent. You never get too much publicity about your facility. You must keep working with the press to keep your clients and potential clients reading about your studio. They always feel safer working in a facility that is continually being talked and written about.