Reality TV is Great PR for Business

Is a uniform company interesting? If I asked you to watch a show a company that makes uniforms you would ignore me. However, a reality TV show, millions of people watched an executive from the company fumble around trying to work a real position there. The same company is trending on Google. That means the TV appearance is creating an interest in the business. How the capitalize on that will be an interesting questions. To have millions of people suddenly at our site and leave is a tragedy. You have to only hope that they are capturing some of that traffic.

The main reasons businesses participate on Donald Trump’s show is the publicity they will get. It’s a 1-hour commercial about their products and services. Not to mention the get access to some top executives who are looking for work. They can recruit while getting publicity! What people fail to realize is that those companies pay to be placed on the shows. There are companies that just work on product placements. It’s a huge industry. Because there are many similar products, a company will pay to have their product on a show instead of the competition. Sometimes it’s just about blocking the competition. Company X many realizes that if Company Z gets that kind of exposure, it could take them over the top. Reese’s pieces surpassed M&M’s when it appeared in the movie E.T. M&M was asked and said no. I wonder what happened to the executive that made that decision?

Reality TV gives attention to locations, as well as products. Trump Tower tours are up! People love to take pictures in front of the building and tell people they were there while in New York. Golf courses that get featured see more people after being on TV. Some are patrons who have a renewed desire to be on the course after seeing it on TV. Many are new people who are interested after seeing it on TV. Reality TV can also promote events. One of the Housewives visited her husband who was in a play. I do not think the play was still running when the episode aired, but it could still be considered good PR for the play and other actors involved.  Getting your jewelry or clothing line worn is easy. If you can get the attention of a star and give it to them, you could be lucky and have them wear it on a show. Then if they were asked about it, they would talk about your brand. Just give them the jewelry or clothes for free and you have a deal.

The Sarah Palin/Gabrielle Gifford’s Publicity Connection

A lot of people were horrified to hear of Gifford being shot. Social media was buzzing with questions and updates and quickly came to the conclusion that Sarah Palin has somehow induced it. Many journalist wrote about her style of interview and how she had Democrats in ‘Crosshairs’ on her website. They felt it might be dangerous and many said so. Regardless of which side you fall on, Sarah Palin now has some bad publicity to deal with. Here are some of the things she could think about doing.

If you are in business long enough you will have to deal with some bad publicity. Everyone has unhappy customers. Some unhappy customers go to the press or put it on a website to complain. I personally have complained via the web about a company I was unhappy with.  You have to realize it is part of business. You can choose to let the bad publicity sit there. What will happen? Well, you cannot control the consequences. You might have a lot of potential customers turn away from you. You could open yourself up for other type of lawsuits because people see vulnerability. If you never clear it up, you will never know when it will come back. I never recommend ignoring bad publicity, especially in an emergency.

I do recommend being ready for these emergencies. You can do a lot of things to help mitigate the backlash. You can make sure only one spokes person from the company talks to media. Right now, as I write this article, Sarah Palin is advocating that people pray. Will it answer all her detractors? No, but it will make some people feel that she is concerned about the trend that is happening and her contribution to it. For a lot of people that is enough. After all, she did not force the man to pull the trigger.  Palin did have the courage to speak for herself and not allow a spokes person to speak for her during this tragic time. Having a spokes person speak for you when bad things are happening makes you look guilty. No matter how great the spokesperson is, the public will feel you are avoiding their gaze because of guilt.

In the face of bad publicity you can do a good deed. When the founder of Facebook realized that he seemed like a jerk, he made a huge philanthropic donation on Oprah so that people could see he was a good guy. After that he was named Time’s Man of the Year. Of course, it was not just because he gave the donation, but that helped!

Dr. Wright is the founder of PR Fairy HQ, a publicity site for business owners to learn how to get the publicity they deserve. You can get a free Los Angeles Media List when you visit www.prfairyhq.com