Why I Approach Public Relations as an Artist, Not an Advertiser

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

I took the photo above inside a museum. A woman was standing silently in front of ten paintings of soup cans, studying them as art. Think about that for a moment. She wasn’t looking at soup. She was looking at an idea manifest into a physical object.

That’s what great art does. It changes the way we see something that might otherwise be ordinary. And after spending most of my career in journalism and public relations, I’ve come to believe the best PR does something very similar.

I don’t approach public relations as an advertiser. We approach every campaign as an artist. That distinction has shaped nearly every campaign we’ve launched.

Art Before PR

Long before I launched this PR agency in 2009, I was producing stories for TV. I won five Emmys during my television career across different categories. The awards are great but what matters more today is the creative range across mediums.

There isn’t a formula to motivating consumers. The ingredients change by the year and evolve with the clients. That process is inherently creative. It’s also very different from advertising, where a company purchases the space and controls the message.

In journalism, nobody owes you the audience. You have to earn their attention.

Continue reading “Why I Approach Public Relations as an Artist, Not an Advertiser” →

5 Storytelling Tips I Learned in the Newsroom That Can Help You Get Media Coverage

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

Before you can pitch a story to a journalist, you need to understand storytelling.

That sounds obvious, but it’s one of the biggest weaknesses I see in public relations. Companies frequently have something interesting happening inside their business, but they don’t know how to turn that information into a story another person would actually want to hear.

I’ve spent most of my career telling stories in different forms. As an Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York, I helped develop and approve stories for television. My journalism work earned five Emmys across different categories. Outside the newsroom, I’ve written and produced an Off-Broadway play and launched my own digital publication. Today, storytelling is at the center of the media campaigns we develop at MACIAS PR.

The medium changes, but the fundamentals of storytelling don’t.

A great television segment, newspaper article, play and media pitch all need to capture attention and give people a reason to keep following the story. If you can’t do that, the credentials of your spokesperson or size of your media list won’t save the pitch.

Here are five storytelling lessons I’ve carried from the newsroom into public relations.

Continue reading “5 Storytelling Tips I Learned in the Newsroom That Can Help You Get Media Coverage” →

Clarity and Focus: The Two Disciplines Behind a Strong PR Story

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

You receive two love letters. One takes an entire page to explain an emotion, while the other uses only five words: “I can’t live without you.” Both communicate affection but only one forces you to immediately understand what the writer is trying to say.

That distinction reminds me of something I learned during my years approving stories as an Executive Producer with NBC and CBS: a story can contain great information and still fail because nobody has identified its center.

I see the same problem today in public relations. Companies have plenty to say. They have data, products, executives, customer stories, research, milestones and industry expertise. The challenge is deciding which piece deserves the spotlight and then framing everything else around it. At MACIAS PR, we call that clarity and focus.

Continue reading “Clarity and Focus: The Two Disciplines Behind a Strong PR Story” →

Are You a Good Candidate for PR? The Answer Isn’t Only About Your Company

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

Several years ago, I wrote an article for Entrepreneur titled “Are You Wasting Your Money on PR?”. The premise was fairly straightforward: contrary to what some publicists might tell you, not every business is a good candidate for PR.

Some companies naturally possess the ingredients journalists want—expertise, compelling data, interesting characters, disruption or insight into a larger trend. Others may get a better return from advertising or other forms of marketing.

After running MACIAS PR for 17 years, I’d add another factor that I didn’t address in that article.

Your company can be a great candidate for PR while you can still be a bad candidate for PR. The difference frequently comes down to how you work with the people you’ve hired.

PR Is a Human Capital Business

Public relations is usually evaluated through outputs: How many reporters responded? How many interviews did we secure? Which publications covered us? But behind every one of those results is a person.

There’s the publicist researching and developing the story. The reporter deciding whether to pursue it. The producer pitching it to an executive producer. The editor deciding whether it deserves space. And frequently a CEO or founder who must trust the process long enough for all those people to do their jobs.

In that sense, PR is a human capital business.

And human beings generally do their best creative work when they’re respected, trusted and motivated—not when every decision becomes a confrontation.

That doesn’t mean clients shouldn’t challenge their PR firms. They should. If you’re paying a monthly retainer, you deserve answers, accountability and a strategy you understand. But there’s a difference between challenging the strategy and fighting the people executing it.

Continue reading “Are You a Good Candidate for PR? The Answer Isn’t Only About Your Company” →

Why Reporters Miss Calls & Forget Meetings – PR Perspective

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

It’s a familiar pattern among many reporters: They forget meetings, miss scheduled calls and sometimes take days to send a video link for an interview. It might look unprofessional to the outsider or client, but this doesn’t mean reporters have lost interest in the story.

After working inside newsrooms at NBC and CBS, I can tell you there is usually a better explanation: journalists are overworked and juggling multiple stories, interviews and deadlines at the same time. In an industry where time is measured by minutes, your interview that is next week takes a lower priority in their mind.

Understanding that perspective is more important to PR than most companies realize.

Continue reading “Why Reporters Miss Calls & Forget Meetings – PR Perspective” →

How PR Makes CEOs and Executives More Interesting

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

There’s a joke in public relations: behind every interesting person is probably a good publicist. The joke works because there’s some truth behind it.

Most successful CEOs have accumulated interesting experiences, industry knowledge and opinions. It’s partially what they learned and saw along the way. But having interesting things to say doesn’t automatically make an executive interesting to journalists.

The difference is often positioning.

At MACIAS PR, much of our work involves identifying the expertise, experiences and insights inside a company that can be developed into credible media stories. The objective isn’t to manufacture an interesting executive. It’s to recognize what is already interesting and position the executive in a way journalists understand.

What Makes a CEO Interesting to Reporters?

Tech CEO tells a reporter what you do but it doesn’t explain why you belong in a story.

Journalists generally become more interested when an executive can bring context to a story or issue. The insight might revolve around data trends or firsthand knowledge of an emerging trend. Whatever the unique perspective is – this is where media positioning begins.

During my years as an Executive Producer with NBC and CBS in New York, I evaluated stories and experts from the newsroom side. I saw plenty of accomplished people with impressive credentials who weren’t necessarily right for a story.

The executives who stood out usually brought something more than a résumé. They brought perspective. And I’m not talking about boring stats or history lessons. Context is needed for stories.

Continue reading “How PR Makes CEOs and Executives More Interesting” →

Client Case Study – Financial Law Firm

Posted on by Mark Macias

The Client

MACIAS PR led an earned media campaign for a prominent New York law firm specializing in hedge funds, private equity, venture capital and real estate fund formation.

The firm already possessed substantial credibility within the financial industry, including recognition by Hedgeweek as “Best North American Law Firm.” The PR challenge wasn’t establishing its legal credentials. It was translating that expertise into stories that would interest influential business and financial journalists.

The Challenge: Turning Legal Expertise Into News

Financial law is highly specialized, and expertise alone doesn’t create a compelling media story.

Our objective was to move the firm’s partners beyond occasional legal commentary and position them as authoritative sources on larger developments affecting hedge funds, private equity firms, investors and financial markets. That required finding the news inside their legal expertise.

Rather than promoting the law firm itself, MACIAS PR looked for areas where the partners’ knowledge could explain changes already affecting the financial community. Regulatory developments, fund structures, investor behavior and emerging financial trends became potential entry points into the news cycle.

The goal was not volume. We wanted substantive coverage in publications capable of reaching the firm’s most valuable audiences.

Continue reading “Client Case Study – Financial Law Firm” →

What Should PR Cost? Find Out Now

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

One of the first questions nearly every prospective client eventually asks me is: How much does PR cost?

It’s a fair question. It’s also one that most PR firms have difficulty answering without first getting you on a call.

There’s a legitimate reason for that. A local PR campaign for a small business doesn’t cost the same as a national media campaign targeting CNBC, The Wall Street Journal or major consumer publications. The scope of work is different and requires different resources. A startup establishing credibility requires a different strategy from a public company trying to influence investors. A crisis communications campaign can require an entirely different level of resources.

But none of that means you should have to sit through a sales call just to learn whether professional PR is even within your budget.

That’s why MACIAS PR created the free PR calculator behind FreePRQuote.com.

And if you’re even considering PR, my advice is simple: try it now. There is no risk in finding out what your campaign could cost.

Continue reading “What Should PR Cost? Find Out Now” →

Hedge Fund PR Case Study

Posted on by Mark Macias

The Challenge

Sansar Capital approached MACIAS PR with a difficult communications challenge. The hedge fund had no established media presence and no website to provide journalists with a credible digital reference point. We were launching a hedge fund brand from scratch.

The investment thesis presented another obstacle. The fund was investing in Iraq and emerging markets across Asia at a time when volatility and war were present. Convincing elite financial journalists to look beyond those headlines required more than stories that introduced the fund. MACIAS PR needed to establish the firm’s CEO as a credible source who could provide institutional-level insight into an overlooked financial market.

The MACIAS PR Strategy

MACIAS PR developed the communications infrastructure needed to support a national and international media campaign while preparing the CEO for interviews with sophisticated financial journalists.

Our larger strategy centered on transforming the firm’s proprietary investment knowledge into newsworthy intellectual capital.

Media training became an important part of that process. The objective wasn’t to teach the CEO canned responses. It was to help him translate complex investment knowledge into clear observations that reporters – and ultimately investors – could understand. The CEO later told MACIAS PR that the media training had made him a better presenter with investors.

Continue reading “Hedge Fund PR Case Study” →

If Nobody Can Find Your Story, Does It Matter?

Posted on by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

Walk into a bookstore with millions of titles and every book has the same fundamental problem: story discovery.

Somewhere on those shelves could be the most insightful business book ever written. It could contain an idea that changes an industry. But if nobody knows where to look for it, its potential influence remains trapped between two covers.

It’s the same challenge with public relations.

Companies frequently come to MACIAS PR convinced they need help “telling their story.” After looking deeper into the business, I often discover a different problem. The company already has stories. What it lacks is a strategy for making the right story discoverable by the right audience at the right moment.

The approach is no different than my time as an Executive Producer with NBC and CBS in New York. That distinction shapes how I’ve approached PR since founding MACIAS PR in 2009.

PR Is Increasingly a Discovery Business

The old model of publicity centered heavily on distribution. Write the announcement, assemble a media list and push the information outward.

Distribution is no longer the scarce resource. Anyone can publish a blog, issue a press release, post on LinkedIn or send thousands of emails. AI has made producing more content even easier. Scarcity has moved somewhere else: discovery.

The strategic question is no longer merely, “How do we distribute this message?” It’s “What will make this particular piece of information discoverable among everything competing with it?”

That requires understanding how journalists categorize information.

During my years as an Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS, I reviewed and approved story ideas from reporters, producers and publicists. The ideas that moved forward weren’t necessarily attached to the biggest organizations. They were the ones that gave us a clear editorial reason to care.

A PR campaign should create that reason before it worries about reach.

Continue reading “If Nobody Can Find Your Story, Does It Matter?” →