SECRETS AND SUCCESS OF ENTERTAINMENT PUBLICITY UNVEILED AT FIRST EPPS/ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES/UCLA EXTENSION EVENT
Entertainment publicists learn the secrets of a great publicists and media campaign - Keynote speakers included Daily Variety Publisher; FINE LIVING Network President; Chairman of The Academy of Television Arts & Science and Top Entertainment Journalists and Lawyers
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) October 23, 2003
“We focus on education, and that’s what differentiates us from other organizations,”
President Scott Pansky of the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society (EPPS) told more than 400 at a one-day industry conference for professionals and students at the Television AcademyÂ’s Leonard H. Goldenson Theater in North Hollywood, CA., over the weekend (Saturday, Oct. 18, 2003).
“Whether you agree or disagree with the outcome, Governor Gray Davis was really a victim of bad PR and Arnold Schwartzenneger was a benefactor and relied on very good PR,” said Chairman Dick Askin, Academy of Television Arts and Science. “You can see how important image and branding are to the entire process.”
“When I first took on my job I did what all the market research people tell us to do and looked at what we presently have and what we need to have in the future,” said Dr. Barry Bortnick, UCLA Extension Journalism, Public Relations and Fundraising programs. “I look at all the public relations programs such as corporate, agency, nonprofit and PR in general. It was clear that there wasn’t one course that attracted great enrollment and great evaluations from our students. It was clear that a whole track in entertainment publicity was needed. This whole series of courses in film, television, music, video and the field in general taught by Henri Bollinger and Julian Myers, which has become widely acclaimed and the granddaddy of them all.”
“In many ways we are living in the era of the publicists and adaptability is key characteristics to a great publicist,” said Executive Vice President and Publisher Charles C. Koones of Variety, Inc. Koones is responsible for global business operations of the Variety franchise: Variety, Daily Variety, Daily Variety Gotham, V Life and Variety. com. Variety, which started as a weekly, is in 83 countries and turns 100 years old in two years.
“This is a time of instaneous information,” said Koones. “There’s no denying that. The person who sits and manages that information and the manages message in many ways sits on center stage. It’s not just an era of instaneous information, but an era of entertainment obsession. You marriage those two and what you have is free youth that is more complex, higher pressure, higher risk, and arguably for more important than it has ever been. It’s because you can draw a clear line between the message and the money today more than in the past. A studio publicist’s message to America has everything to do with tens of millions of dollars sales on the weekend and the way it positions an individual descends or ascends their career.”
Koones offers four ways to becoming a great publicist:
•Provide honest and clear communication
•Pick your shot when you have a lot of information – keep your powder dry
•Go beyond today’s message and provide understanding, context and strategy
•Take a deep breathe. Lighten up and have fun. We’re not curing cancer here
PR pros learned effective publicity techniques, strategies and took advantage of networking opportunities at the daylong conference, which featured everything from working with celebrity clients to case studies on cause related marketing to prime time TV shows like Survivor and the trendsetting DVD campaign launching of Lord of the Rings.
“I am living proof of the importance of these people (publicists) in this room,” said Ken Solomon, president/CEO, FINE LIVING Network. “We wouldn’t be here without you, and yet I think your profession is probably, by the majority of the outside world, the least understood by just about everyone as to what you do. Everyone thinks they know and they really don’t know.”
Solomon is a good example of what publicity can do. He has chief management responsibility for the new and fast growing television and online brand from Scripps Network. Under Solomon’s direction FINE LIVING developed from concept to launch in little more than a year, beginning its national rollout in March 2002. Its all original TV programming lineup now reaches nearly 19 million households – a highly impressive track record recognized by the television industry and the general business community.
“They said we were crazy, and they were probably right,” explain Solomon. “This 125 year old newspaper company said we’re going to launch a fourth brand following the success of HGTV and do ourselves at a time when the advertising market was crashing and people were saying ‘even if you start a new television network how will I find it?’ We would not exist today if it weren’t for the role of public relations branding and marketing. Personalization of media means you have more constituencies to talk to. The challenge will be to find those individual constituencies and make sure the message is heard.”
Solomon played video news clips of FINE LIVING Network’s coverage revealing to PR pros that “it’s all about the message.” FINE LIVING set up make shift Island off of Manhattan where people “live like they mean it.” The national and NY media market coverage was overwhelming he said. Other examples included: “a day of nothing” broadcasting from summer locations. He said by appealing to all platforms publicity reaches the world. “you can’t make a mistake in one medium like the Internet or Film.”
“The world has changed from the ‘no comment syndrome’ to trying to get our message across,” said Martin R. Pollner, partner, Loeb & Loeb LLP, New York. “The world is so attuned by cable and so on. The information is incredibly fast, but could be very daunting and dangerous to the careers of people, who live and hopefully do not die by the media or press.”
Pollner offered two tips to remember during crisis communications. 1) Always be truthful. “The worst thing you can do is to lie to the media.” 2) A cover-up is the worst thing that could happen, specially since the Nixon days. “Often media sources are better than the FBI, especially the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Try to get the message across and try to paint [the client] empathetically. We try to get the media out of adversarial relationships.”
Pollner has built a reputation for resolving highly sensitive cases throughout the country. He has represented celebrities and other prominent people such as Steven Seagal, Naomi Campbell and Joey Heatherton, not to mention Denis Rich in the highly publicized probe of former President ClintonÂ’s pardon of Marc Rich; and Monroe Trout, the prominent owner of a multi-billion dollar hedge fund, concerning a complex extortion scheme in various states and foreign countries.
“We came up with a campaign that was not dependent upon talent participation and to capitalize on talent when they were available,” said Amy Gorton, director, publicity, New Line Home Entertainment, Inc., who along with Jennifer Sandler, manager, PR, broke new records and set new trends in the launch of the movie “Lord Of The Rings Two Towers” on DVD. “Be very upfront in your pitches. We let the retailer, the media and consumer know that there was no second release. We earned almost every DVD award including the ’Best DVD Release of the Year.’ We also launched the day after the Oscars, because we knew all the stars were in town. We also involved the fan clubs, which adds to the story and attraction.”
Sponsors included: Daily Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, PR Newswire, P3, BAJA FRESH, UNIVERSAL, Loeb&Loeb LLP, Bacaradi CÕCÕ, C&S SALES, BMI, TPEC, EIC, DKG MUSIC, WAXMARKETINGINC. and the Anaheim Angeles.
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