Anatomy of a Feature Story

Sometimes it all comes together.

This morning, The San Jose Mercury News ran a page 1 story about Silicon Valley tech companies that sell their products overseas at http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_11765129. Why do I mention this? Because, naturally, one of our clients was featured!

We recently began work with Sunnyvale-based, mobile TV chip company, Telegent Systems. Telegent is literally the first (and only) company to successfully engineer a chip for the reception of free, over-the-air analog TV. Think “bunny ears” on your mobile phone. As we recently learned, there are over 20 million mobile TV phones – all used outside the U.S. – that have shipped with Telegent’s TV receiver. However, because these chips aren’t available yet in devices sold here, we’ve worked with Telegent to uncover potential stories that go beyond just the wonders of the product itself.

Interestingly, though a local paper, the San Jose Merc has devoted some of its best resources to reporting technology developments outside the U.S. that directly affect Silicon Valley. (The Merc also produces online-video documentary on this subject, which, as with its writing, competes favorably with anything produced by the national business press.)

With that in mind, we made sure to let the Merc know about some of the novel things that Telegent has done to penetrate markets outside the U.S. As the paper noted “Telegent Systems, which began shipping its power-sipping chips in April 2007, has so far supplied more than 20 million mobile phones worldwide - including 5 million in China - with its technology. CEO Yun claimed that while other companies battle over digital standards, his company is the first to provide the technological backbone for mobile analog TV, which snatches free programming off the airwaves. He first looked to Asia because that region is the world's trendsetter when it comes to cell phones.”

While it may sound obvious, one of our principal roles as PR practitioners is to help unearth both our clients’ “untold stories” as well identify the journalists for whom these narratives have the most resonance.

A Universal Marketing Truth

As a colleague of Kathleen Shanahan’s at BOCA Communications, I decided it was high time that she stopped having all the fun on our blog. That said, I’m writing my first – and hopefully not last - BOCA post.

My inspiration came from a book I’m reading as well as an interaction Barack Obama had yesterday with Henrietta Hughes. The book, “The New Rules of Marketing & PR,” in spite of its name, also brings to mind one of the age-old “rules” of marketing: the need to demonstrate understanding of your customer’s “pain” AND offer solutions rather than merely promoting your product. Interestingly, as I read this passage, I was reminded of something I saw on TV only an hour earlier.

As anyone knows who has been following the news, Barack Obama has been on the road in an effort to “sell” his stimulus package directly to the American public. During a Q&A in Ft. Myers Florida, a woman by the name of Henrietta Hughes – who recently became homeless - gave Obama a heart-felt plea to provide assistance to people like her and the country at large. Obama – quite naturally – showed what appeared to be sincere empathy and even gave the woman a kiss on the cheek. At that moment, it became clear to me that Obama – as one who has something to sell – truly understands this fundamental rule of marketing: with intense competition (the Republican members of Congress), Obama knows that he has to address how his product (the stimulus package) will solve the very real needs of his customers (the American public.)

Ironically, during the campaign, one of the few knocks on Obama’s political skills was a supposed inability to show that he understood his customers’ pain. Like all good marketers, Obama has demonstrated he’s learned this lesson well.

Devicescape - Building a Brand through Thought Leadership

BOCA continuously will evangelize the importance of owning issues and driving thought leadership to our clients. Unless you are speaking with a highly focused vertical publication that really cares about your product – guess what – reporter don’t care about your product. This is not personal. Again, the right publication will…but BusinessWeek to IDG/Cnet – don’t care.

It is about issues…thoughtful conversation, bigger picture trends. We are in the middle of a massive crisis in the US – and your company needs to provide relevance to bigger themes.

At Devicescape we implemented the Devicescape Wi-Fi Report. The company is in the Wi-Fi space and we need to talk about it. And, there really are big trends taking place…3G networks can’t handle the new rich data services coming from smartphones. It is expensive for the carrier and the Wi-Fi technology is literally better for downloads and streaming video.

In steps Devicescape. Rather than touting its product – we embarked on data finding. Data, data, data…there is nothing like empirical data and great research. We implemented a survey to find out what their customers want and need. Then…we determined the best way to debut the information.

We announced the news at a media luncheon in the UK with Devicescape at its partners The Cloud and Trustive. Note, the company did not stand alone. We got “like minded” companies to partner with us to talk “for real” what is happening in the industry.

So, in the UK, we leveraged the media luncheon, but in the US we leveraged highly credible online outlets such as Giga Om, MuniWireless and Converge! Digest – among others.

GigaOm
More Proof People Really Love Wi-Fi, Especially on the iPhone
http://gigaom.com/2009/01/28/more-proof-people-really-love-wifi-especially-on-iphones/#comments

MuniWireless
Survey shows 84 percent want citywide Wi-Fi, 91 percent expect it when traveling
http://www.muniwireless.com/2009/01/28/survey-shows-84-percent-want-citywide-wi-fi-91-percent-expect-it-when-traveling/

Converge! Digest
http://www.convergedigest.com/WiFi/wlanarticle.asp?ID=26518

This was just not an exercise in PR, it is an exercise in uncovering what consumers, Wi-Fi savvy and non-Wi-Fi savvy, want. We are about to embark on another survey to a test group of non-Wi-Fi savvy folks to review it against our current data. Now, this is real findings, real data and real news. It is also thought leadership and interesting factoids versus product.

London – Paris – Boston

Wow – it has been a few weeks. This is not normal for me or BOCA, but I literally hopped the globe and the states for our clients.

And, it was a complete success. I think I am going to do some different blog posting b/c I just can’t put it all in this – so many different themes from thought leadership, to new business, to pitching to you name it…

But, as Dorothy once said, “there is no place like home.” I head back to San Francisco today and I hopefully don’t leave for quite some time.