The old school media release - is it time to step away?

There’s a school of thought which says the media release – as a way of communicating news to journalists - is dead. Or at least dying a slow death.

We think the reality is far more nuanced than that.

It is true that time poor journalists, who are under pressure to create a higher volume of stories per day, do not have the time or inclination to wade through formulaic media releases to find a relevant angle or story. And there is no doubt the days of ‘spray and pray’ media releases are behind us.

But it’s also true that time poor journalists actively welcome pitches, story narratives and media releases which have been carefully constructed and appropriately targeted.

It’s all about knowing the media and what they need.

In some instances a tailored pitch and story narrative developed for specific publications is the better way to package news and it can lead to a more in depth article.

However for broader or breaking news stories the media release continues to be the best vehicle. With one caveat - a traditional corporate release simply won’t generate good results anymore.

We counsel our clients to approach their media release with a totally different perspective. It begins with leaning into a more journalistic style and actively modifying corporate release templates to something more appropriate. The narrative is condensed with sharp editing and a punchy one or two paragraph synthesis of the news is placed upfront. Lengthy company descriptors no longer have a place in the first paragraph (did they ever?). And interesting quotes the journalists can lift and load are mandatory. These should not lean on filler language or corporate jargon, rather they should be written as you might speak and provide a meaningful insight or perspective.

Next the headline - say goodbye to making the client name centre stage - instead mirror the sort that appear in the publication being targeted.

There’s no denying all these changes are a significant shift from previous media release styles (and indeed many current corporate global templates) so for some clients it can be tricky to align with global when their templates may still be fit for purpose in different markets. However those that have allowed us to evolve their media releases to meet the market are achieving excellent media coverage results.

If you’d like to find out more about our approach, please get in touch and we’ll be delighted to share some examples of best practice and the results we’re achieving.

Looking back on 2023

What better way to close out the year, than by looking back at some of the great achievements of 2023. We are honoured to have the opportunity to work with world leading technology companies - and with their wonderful executives both locally and across the globe. Click the story links to see what the excitement was all about.

We look forward to seeing what lies ahead for us and our clients in 2024.

1. We couldn’t look past the line-up of many of our client’s fabulous women leaders who were showcased in AdNews ‘International Women’s Day’ feature

2. CyberArk’s Regional Director ANZ, Thomas Fikentscher was deep in discussion with Karissa Breen on this year’s emerging leading security podcast ‘KBI Kast’

3. Scope3 founder Brian O’Kelley chatted with Tim Burrowes for the UnMade podcast discussing one of the most important topics of our time - sustainability, and how the adtech industry can strive to decarbonise media.

4. Several of our clients won industry awards this year impact.com as the Marketing Technology Company of the Year for the Mumbrella Awards; two B&T Women Leading Tech Award winners in Ayaan Mohamud, RVP of marketing for impact.com in the Martech category and Georgina Bitcon, Enterprise Sales Director at Meltwater in the Sales category; and two AiMCO Award winners in Meltwater Klear as ‘Best Creator Discovery & Marketing Platform’ and TotallyAwesome for the ‘Best Family, Parenting, Pets Campaign’

5. JCDecaux’s incredible Barbie out-of-home campaign featured in The Australian

6. Qualys’ CTSO, Richard Sorosina shared his opinion on why the cybersecurity industry should stop playing the blame game and get down to business in CyberDaily

7. InfoSum’s GM ANZ, Richard Knott spoke with MediaWeek about how the industry has been responding to major changes in the data space

8. Meltwater’s data insights on The Voice campaigns drove several mainstream and trade media news articles in the lead up to the referendum including this one at Yahoo!news

9. Verint’s VP of Marketing Asia Pacific and Japan, Martyn Riddle shared his opinion on the importance of customers and connections over technology with B&T

10. And finally the feel good story about the advertising industry’s first pantomime produced by IAB’s CEO Gai Le Roy and UnLtd’s CEO Chris Freel was a fun addition to close off the year with a fun twist and it grabbed the attention of many media including AdNews

It's a two way street

In the rapidly changing world of PR, whilst many things have changed (and continue to change), one unshakable truth remains: the value of building and cultivating strong relationships with media.

Such a relationship has several key markers for success.  It should be built for the long term, which means the process is a marathon, not a sprint.  It must be mutually beneficial, a two-way street filled with shared value and respect. And not every interaction will lead to an immediate outcome.  But perhaps most importantly – despite the fast-paced dynamics of our industry, we must always remember we are actually connecting with people – not “them” versus “us”.

As an agency we’ve put in the hard yards to build such relationships and they form the bedrock of our outreach.  It’s also the basis of our council and coaching for each of our clients, helping them develop their own deeply connected long term relationships with their key media targets.  Sometimes that means meeting a super tight deadline, or even providing a requested comment on an adjacent topic to help out a media friend (even if it wouldn’t normally be a top priority). In return you’ll often find a journalist more amenable to lending an ear to your story for the more we invest in them, the more we can expect in return.

It’s all about give and take. A two-way street.

If you’d like to learn more about how we can help your brand build stronger media relationships, please get it touch.

Shaping the future of PR

Einsteinz is a long-standing member of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) and proudly upholds its code of practice and code of ethics to drive PR excellence and results for clients.

In June 2023, Our Senior Communications Director, Sue Ralston, was one of more than 60 agency leaders who attended the PRIA’s inaugural two-day RCG Agency Leader Retreat in the Hunter Valley.  It was Australia’s largest-ever gathering of communications agency leaders and a wonderful opportunity to discuss and make progress on the issues that matter to the PR industry.

We have always prioritised staying abreast of the latest strategic and business thinking when it comes to PR best practice. It helps us continuously innovate, drive new ideas and develop new ways of doing things to best serve our clients interests.

It is a big part of the ‘why’ we have been a go-to technology PR agency for over 22 years. We listen, debate, and take insight and inspiration from our industry peers within the PRIA – as well as contributing our voice to shape future policy. 

Judging - where our expertise meets the market

Industry awards are such an important part of many communications strategies. Indeed Einsteinz has a proven track record helping our clients prepare winning submissions for industry awards. But that is not the only involvement we have.

Our company mantra of “You can’t fake experience” is one that is taken to heart by many of the Award organisations, showcased by the many invitations we receive to judge key media and technology awards.

Our Founder and MD Pru Quinlan has been judging the IT Journalism Awards (affectionately known as the The Lizzies) for more than five years and in 2023 she was joined by our Marketing Director EJ Guren and Senior Communications Director Sue Ralston to judge across several categories.

Sue was was also invited to judge both the PR and Adtech categories for B&T’s Women Leading Technology Awards.

As well as being a great honour and a chance to give back to the industry that we have been working in for decades, judging offers us an invaluable insight into best practice across all aspects of our ever-evolving industry. It’s a virtuous circle of sharing our expertise and learning - enabling us to guide our clients with their own entries in other awards and categories.

Building thought leadership

The media landscape may be rapidly changing but one thing that remains constant is an appetite for for strong opinions. Helping our clients identify and articulate original opinions to bring their leadership and expertise under the spotlight, is one of the services that truly sets Einsteinz Communications apart.

While our writing process for each client will be different depending on their experience, comfort level and corporate considerations, four essential elements remain constant:

1. A clear narrative that takes the reader on a journey of interest and insight

2. Inspiration taken from industry trends and news to help contemporise your story

3. Original thought - perhaps provocative if it fits your brand story - but definitely a unique perspective

4. No sales or product pitches. Ever.

Here are just a few thought leadership pieces we’ve recently developed for our clients, covering a broad range of industries - from adtech, to research, retail, health and security. Click to read the pieces in full.

• Retail Biz - Data clean rooms powering the future of retail

• WARC - Leveraging the role of partnerships in Australia's new path to purchase

• Mumbrella - Decarbonising media - how to turn greenwashing into greenworking

• CyberSecurity Connect - Why organisaions shouldn't put all their eggs in the cyber insurance basket

• Media Week - Organic influencer partnerships driving brands social media budgets in 2023

• Mumbrella - Game of Phones - why brands should take note of the new breed of mobile gamers

• Hospital & Healthcare - Cybersecurity health for the digital health of our healthcare system

• Marketing Magazine - When the ads don't work.

• CMO - Five ways marketers can win in the live sports arena

• Marketing Magazine - Why you need to eavesdrop on social media

If you’d like to see more of our work please get in touch.

JC Decaux's perspective on working with Einsteinz Communications

“Einsteinz has become a true extension of our team and trusted advisers to us for PR. They are real partners and have delivered real results. Above all else, they’re a great bunch of people who we enjoy working with.”

— Katie Morgan - JC Decaux Director of Communications

A trusted partner

“Einsteinz Communications has been a trusted partner of IAB Australia for many years. Pru and the team understand not only the mechanics of PR but the underlying market dynamics that can help drive a smarter comms strategy.”

— Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia

Gaming with influencers

Einsteinz is most active supporting our clients with their content and activation across business to business social channels, but for one very special client, consumer focused social media activity is the priority.

One of the recently completed campaigns saw us identity and partner with key gaming influencers to support ‘FireCuda Fest 2022’, an online promotion giving away Seagate gaming products over six days on Instagram.  

 From a pre promotion teaser campaign to the managing the mechanics, the Einsteinz campaign delivered successfully on the KPIs and provided an excellent foundations for future work with the influencers.

Launching Scope3 in Australia

Last month saw us begin work with Scope3, starting with supporting the launch of its Australian operations and JAPAC hub. Launching a company in this market is always an enjoyable project and in this case it was even more so because Scope3 is a public benefit company with the stated goal of helping the media and advertising industry to measure and reduce its carbon emissions across the entire industry supply chain.

Working side by side with the country head, we helped launch Scope3 in Australia with a whirlwind week of media interviews (including Australia’s most popular business podcast Fear and Greed), as well as a keynote at MFA EX and a launch event which saw 80+ senior digital media executives listen to a series of curated panel discussions over lunch at Hinchcliff House in Sydney.

This project was just the beginning and we’re now managing Scope3’s PR and communications as they scale their business in AUNZ.

Over our 21 years we’ve found many global brands have limited marketing support in place in Australia, so managing events and helping drive industry-facing initiatives has become one of our core strengths. if you’d like to learn more about how we can help your organisation please get in touch.

Building data driven stories with punch

Bringing interesting stories to life is at the core of what we do for our clients and we particularly enjoy the challenge of creating those stories through the lens of data because it allows us to uncover the layers beyond the headlines.

Our team has been working closely with our client Meltwater, a global leader in media intelligence and data analytics, to do exactly this - bringing stories to life by leveraging its capability to source rich data insights

Here are just a few of the stories we’ve crafted recently. Image grabs of several follow.

• ‘We’d rather watch cricket than fall in love’ – The Australian

• ‘Carbon capture and storage: does it work, and does it mean we can keep burning fossil fuels? – ABC News

• ‘Ukraine invasion: Why sunflower emojis are trending online’ – Yahoo! News ANZ

• ‘Election interest waning on social media’ – 7 News

• ‘Social media favours Labor in run-up to poll’ – AFR

• ‘Is the bull market back already (and should you join it)? - AFR

How Einsteinz adds value - six clients share their experience

“Building presence in market, helping us frame and build good stories externally which bring new opportunities from a revenue perspective, not to mention how we are perceived in market”

“Our profile in the Australian market is definitely gaining traction due to the trade coverage we have received since working with Einsteinz”

“Because of your passion and dedication I know our brand is in safe hands in Australia while it is in your charge”

“You are truly an extended member of our comms team and your work for us is invaluable”

“Einsteinz has a strong, current knowledge of the industry, its issues and how are company sits in the landscape.”

“When we went into this we were looking for help and guidance in the market. Not only have we had this, but also a lot of wins in the market and better relationships with the press. You’ve done an excellent job - thank you”

Soap box moments

It is increasingly tricky for vendors to secure earned speaking slots at flagship industry events, but the Einsteinz team understand how to develop compelling submissions that grab the attention of conference producers.

At this year’s Mumbrella360, Australia’s largest media and marketing conference, our team developed and successfully pitched five strong speaker ideas which resulted in main stage slots for Meltwater and impact.com, as well as Masterclass sessions for InMobi, IAB and DoubleVerify.

If you’d like to explore how we can support your organisation and secure ‘soap box’ moments please get in touch.

Magnifying live sports for Magnite

Supporting our clients on special projects is something we whole heartedly embrace, and Magnite’s Live & Kicking Research rollout was a wonderful example. Working closely with the Magnite international team, Einsteinz took on a Fractional CMO mantle, developing and bringing to life three special events to showcase Magnite’s market first research in both Australia and New Zealand, as well as managing the media buy and content creation. From a VIP publisher lunch at ARIA, to an afternoon showcase for agencies and buyers at the MCA featuring Craig Foster as the special guest speaker; as well as a business breakfast in Auckland, all bases were covered.

Interested in finding out more about the Live & Kicking Research? Click here for more.

Check out more event photos here.

Elevating impact.com

Impact.com is a pioneer in partnership management technology and, as an emerging category, it’s important for them to prove value to potential clients and partners.

To support this business goal, our Einsteinz team doubled down on identifying award opportunities and creating submissions for them - with impressive results.

In the last twelve months key accolades include:

• impact.com’s GM of China being selected for PerformanceIN Top 50 list;

• Winning at The Drum Awards for Digital Advertising Asia Pacific 2021 (Most Effective Use of Affiliate Marketing category for client, Canva);

• Wiinning at Asia-eCommerce 2021 Awards (Best eCommerce Campaign Cross-border for client, Love Bonito);

• Finalist in the B&T Awards 2021 (Marketing Technology Company of the Year);

• Finalist in B&T Best of the Best 2021 Awards (Technologist category);

• Finalist in IPMA 2021 Awards

We aren’t finished yet - with impact.com shortlisted for the imminent Mumbrella Awards (Marketing Technology Company of the Year) and B&T Women in Media (People and Culture).

Celebrating 21 years

Last week our founder and MD Pru Quinlan hosted the team for a magnificent celebration of Einsteinz Communications 21st Anniversary.

What made it so very special is that the guests were a mix of past and present Einsteinz-ettes. Some of the most talented and special PR practitioners in Australia. It was a night for reflecting on what we have achieved professionally, the friendships that have blossomed and the support we offer each other.

Dynamic Duo

Einsteinz Communications founder & managing director Pru Quinlan and senior communications director Sue Ralston celebrate the agency's 21st birthday by sharing their incredible origin story, from meeting as prospective family members in 2006, to become fast friends and later colleagues.

Read more in Mumbrella

In our clients' own words ...

“I appreciate the work that Einsteinz does. It’s strategic and you guys always tell it like it is.”

— Regional Communications Director

“This is amazing, you really start as you mean to go on! Exciting times ahead - Thanks so much. Feel like I should be calling you the Dream Team 🙂”

— APAC Chief of Staff

“Einsteinz is one of the best agencies that I’ve ever worked with. They are very creative, help develop great local content and deliver exceptional results”

— Global Head of Marketing Communications

“We’re ecstatic about what Einsteinz has achieved for us over the past 16 months in Australia and New Zealand. Their strategic approach and spot on execution has resulted in an influx of calls from prospects, customers and partners. It’s a fantastic outcome for our business and is helping us build momentum in the region”

— Regional Director

“Einsteinz has really expanded the reach of our PR efforts in the Australian market, helping us to build new relationships and engage with a broader range of audiences. I’ve worked with Einsteinz before in a previous role – I really see a lot of value in what the team does and have been extremely happy with our relationship so far, particularly their focus on making the program relevant and interesting to local audiences.”

— APAC Managing Director

Real time PR

“Really cool to see my passion project getting some great media pickup..... Getting to work on stuff like this makes coming to work an exhilarating experience. Shoutout to Einsteinz Communications for keeping up with our real-time data by providing real-time PR consultation!”

— Elliot Lawry, ANZ Marketing Manager @ Meltwater