PR REQUIRES ONE TO BE NIMBLE
One Consultant’s Case Study of Agility
By Alan Goldfarb
Nov. 28, 2022
As I understand it, to be nimble is to be able to think swiftly, to change on a dime, and to be flexible to circumstance. As a media relations consultant, I was challenged to act adroitly and to be as quick as Jack in order to meet those actionable demands. When I simultaneously had three winery clients to which conditions dictated that I put all my PR and journalistic instincts and experience into action, I was forced to perform nimbly. I believe I did, which resulted in stories and podcast interviews that came to fruition for all of those clients.
With media members responding to my pitches, I not only had to figure out how to accommodate their parameters, which would enable them to get their stories, I was also required to work within the boundaries of my clients’ needs. It was a logistical balancing-act to satisfy both my constituents, which would be comfortable to the journalists and the wineries. All in service to getting my client’s stories told.
In one case, a prominent wine journalist – who is based in Northern California -- was the focus of a pitch about a client who is based in SoCal. The client’s story centers around how the winery painstakingly attempts to lessen its carbon footprint. In so doing, the winery does not sell its wine from 750ml bottles. The task is to keep the wine as fresh as can be. The writer, ever the skeptic, needs proof that this is possible.
I learned that the vintner was coming north to attend a seminar where he could, fortuitously, meet up with the incredulous scribe. And so, I set up a meeting at a place the writer suggested. The client and I discussed the strategy of how to “prove” the efficacy of his method of selling wine in this unconventional manner. It was agreed that the journalist would be presented with the same wine drawn from the same vessel – but from two different stages of the wine’s life. Literally, from the top of the vessel, and from the bottom to prove that the “bottom” wine was as fresh as the one drawn from the top. I knew this M.O. proved the point because before I even took on the client, I insisted that I be served the wine in this manner, too. The wines were equally efficacious.
In another example of staying nimble, there was the case of a writer who needs to drive a long distance to meet with my client but has a requirement that she be able to visit at least two different wineries on the same trip to save on expenses (most wine journalists are egregiously underpaid). Thus, I put her together with another of my winery clients in the same area, which gave her a “doubleheader” in one trip; and therefore, enabled her to assure a better payday.
As for the third challenge of staying agile, another of my clients had come down with a pretty nasty case of Covid, which laid him up for a time. I reached out to the podcaster and worked out an alternative date to meet with the winemaker. It was the easiest case of the three to navigate. Nonetheless, I apparently was successful in saving the day, as the interview went off smoothly at the later date.
The point of all this is to tell you how my experience of working both sides of the aisle during my career – as wine journalist and winery publicist – had enabled me to be sensitive to both sides of the aisle and to stay as nimble as Jack Be Quick.