the TRUTH about big publicity

Here’s the the TRUTH about some of the big publicity you see others getting…
I have a client who was recently contacted by a team that produces a television show for a former supermodel. She was ecstatic – who wouldn’t be? This HUGE former supermodel knew her product existed and wanted to feature it on her show.
Dream come true, right?
Wrong!
It turns out anyone can be on this show for a simple one-time payment of $20,000. They get four minutes on the show with their product prominently displayed, AND they even get to use that video on their website so everyone can see that this huge celebrity basically endorsed their product by having them on the show.
Here’s the real skinny on the publicity…
The show airs in the early morning hours on a channel most of you have probably never heard of. Basically, you’re paying to be associated with this supermodel, but you’ll have to do all of the legwork to figure out how to leverage the appearance. You can stick it on your website and social media…but the big issue is, will it get you $20,000 worth of business to offset the cost?
My client wanted more assurances about what she’d actually get for her money. It wasn’t that she was opposed to spending the money (although it threw up red flags for me). However, she didn’t want to just throw money away either. So, I asked for a case study in our genre (health and beauty), and I was given the name of a company that was on last July. I was told they loved their experience so much that they paid extra to get the license to use the supermodel’s name in their marketing. I followed up and went on their website, and they aren’t using anything from the show or the supermodel anywhere on their website. And they were just on last July!
You know what that tells me?
The publicity wasn’t valuable.
If being on that show, and being associated with that supermodel, was growing their business, I’m pretty sure I’d find evidence of it on their website. I did not.
Two lessons in publicity can be learned from this:
- Just because you see someone’s product or service being featured somewhere doesn’t mean it’s better than yours. It might just mean they bought it. There are LOTS of pay-to-play opportunities in TV and radio.
- Don’t spend money on these kinds of opportunities without doing your research! Just because it sounds cool doesn’t mean it delivers results.
And here are a couple of FREE publicity things that you can do instead. They will likely get the same – or even better – results:
- Pitch yourself for TV segments that aren’t pay-to-play. They exist all over the place.
- Partner with influencers in your niche (on Instagram or YouTube, or even bloggers in your space), who often only require free product, on some targeted social media posts or blogs.
Want to learn more about the BEST way to land television appearances? Learn all about newsjacking – the fastest, easiest way to be featured as an expert!
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