Adapting Your Blockchain PR Pitch to Fit the Mainstream Media
When starting to introduce blockchain companies to the media in 2017, excitement was high surrounding ICO projects that piqued journalists’ curiosities to talk to the leaders and visionaries behind these startups. With a lot of ideas unsubstantiated, and having virtually no reporters adept in the tech or even why the industry was suddenly booming, trust between the companies and media broke down. Now that the gold rush is settling, there is a real uphill challenge to gain reporters’ trust to cover stories in the industry. Most publications are exercising extreme caution and due diligence for fear of potentially leading their readers down a dark path. Understanding the shift in knowledge, proficiency, and scale of the crypto landscape can help companies and their public relations executives understand what to talk about with journalists in this post-bull market era of blockchain.
Pitch the Colorful Story
While there’s no questioning the interest to learn more about blockchain and the topic being somewhat of a “media darling,” we have learned some hard and quick lessons when pitching a client that may be helpful for you and your company’s publicity success. Unless it’s a reporter whom you’ve seen their past articles and know for sure they are interested in the technical understanding of companies; generally, the best approach will be making the focus of your story about the more colorful value proposition and thought leadership, versus the latter. Think of it this way… if you were an average Joe reader (but we both know you’re not if you’re in blockchain), how would you present the value your company in the most simple everyone can understand and relate to?
One of the most exciting clients we’ve worked with boasts a truly world-class team, Terra Virtua. Terra Virtua is a blockchain enabled VR/AR gaming and entertainment platform. The management team is former senior-level executives from the likes of Sony, Microsoft, Warner Bros., among others. Quickly we learned no matter how all-star the team was, little shined bright enough to pierce through the little-understood web of blockchain technology which is the enabler to their core value proposition as a company — and truly what makes Terra Virtua just so exciting. For this, we adapted our media pitch and executive coaching strategy to make blockchain almost an afterthought, and just like that, the tone and interest from the media changed.
What was happening was that, while the media was interested in the company, they were losing focus because we were essentially asking them to not only learn about the business but layered on top of that to learn about the subject of blockchain technology as well. Well, that’s a tall order, and ultimately proved to be more of a distraction than a leverage point.
Be Concise and Compelling
When pitching to the MSM, or any media, pretend you are in their shoes and imagine your inbox and cell phone is blowing up with 100+ pitches a day. To cut through that noise, it’s paramount to be concise and compelling. Your story should have real meat on the bones but equally direct and to the point. Have you taken a couple of minutes to review the reporter your pitching focus and interest in their past writings? Have you looked at their social media to see what they’re talking about? Have you gotten a good sense of who their readers are and what they’re interested to read about? Have you researched and provided compelling empirical data for them?
One way to be concise is to consider presenting your pitch in the format of a few bullets and key compelling reasons they would be interested in interviewing and talking with your client. Remember, the goal of the pitch is piquing their interest and build (or continue building) a value-driven relationship.
Lastly, if the reporter cannot confidently understand the technology you’re asking them to, then it should be obvious that they cannot confidently report on it — no matter how innovative, revolutionary and disruptive your company or team is behind it.
Be Flexible with Your Pitch
Another lesson learned is that because of the uncertainty of viability and stickability inherently within startups unless you are Jeff Bezos announcing your latest startup venture in blockchain, your company should polish up their thought leadership profiles in the industry. The upside to this can be even greater than getting that feature article, gloating to the moon about how amazing your company is, that you keep dreaming of — but don’t give up the dream! ;)
When you can position yourself to be seen as a credible and knowledgeable industry leader, that opens up the opportunity to be called upon at a time down the road when the journalist may be working on a new article and in need of a leadership voice, or triggered to think of you when they are conversing with their colleagues.
While not always the case, we have had times when reporters will make introductions to a colleague of theirs working for a different news outlet — and well, nothing can be warmer than that in public relations. Remember, a good publicist is only as good as their ability to build trusted relationships. That’s all the leverage. So ask yourself, are you looking for a one-hit wonder that you believe will change the fate of your business and that short-sighted return, or are you aiming to build a lasting and valuable reputation for your company and position in the market?
If you skipped to the end for the spark notes, well long story short…
Blockchain executives and entrepreneurs should be prepared to exercise patience and consistency for the best, and long-term success of their PR campaigns. Right now, journalists need teachers, mentors they can trust, and any of us can deftly stand up and be just that for them. Focus on positioning yourself as a valuable source and operating with sincerity and integrity, and you will already be light years ahead of the rest of the 7,928 other emerging technology companies pitching the media at the same time.
