CLINT EASTWOOD as Frankie and MORGAN FREEMAN as Scrap in Warner Bros. PicturesÕ drama ÒMillion Dollar Baby.Ó The Malpaso production also stars Hilary Swank.
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I recently watched an interview of Clint Eastwood by a covertly hostile newspaper reporter (aren’t they all?). The reporter sought to invalidate the movie icon by trying to paint him as old and out of touch with the entertainment tastes of “modern movie goers”.

Eastwood calmly put her in her place by talking about basic “older” values like honesty, trust, compassion, and courage. And the need for the new to provide certain deference to the old.

It was enjoyable to watch Eastwood so cooly dismantle the reporter’s thinly disguised malicious intentions. And it brought to mind what some might consider marketing’s step into a new age and a resulting dismissal of the “old”. A dismissal they do at their peril.

Let me explain.

There is no question that some wonderful new developments have appeared on the marketing playfield. AI comes instantly to mind and why I have partnered with Tony Rockliff, a true AI guru.

I mean what we can now do with this tool in the world of marketing is jaw-dropping. Here’s Tony’s site: https://aiconnectionclub.com/ And I am proud to be partnered with him.

I remain the survey guru, but once you have the results of your surveys, what do you do with them? Which is why we are joined by the third member of our super marketing team, Barry Coziahr of Stampede Branding https://www.stampedebranding.com/.

What can Stampede Branding do? No, no. The question is what can’t

Stampede Branding do? Linkedin appointment setting, Google Ads, Sales Funnel, YouTube ads, Web Development, Podcast guesting, SEO, email automation, Social Media Management, Influencer Marketing. I could go on.

Modern. Marketing.

Then there’s the “old”, a key part of which was and is public relations-   PR. But of course, it is not old.

The marketing genius and author of the classic Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Al Ries, said the following:

“The truth is, advertising cannot start a fire. It can only fan a fire after it has been started. To get something going from nothing, you need the validity that third-party endorsements bring. The first stage of any new campaign ought to be public relations.”  Positioning in PR Al Ries and Howard Geltzer

Many small and medium sized companies neglect PR, but they don’t know what they are missing. Everybody uses social media these days. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about radio and television.

I had a client in the Midwest. He was a Veternarian and he had a radio show every Saturday. He took calls all morning. People wanting to know this or that about their dog or cat…or why their parrot was swearing. The radio show was successful, and was instrumental in helping his practice boom.

Okay, so maybe you’re not a health care professional. But you may well have some aspect of the product or service you sell that could attract the attention of a radio or TV show producer.

PR.

If you sell locally, you may well be able to contact a local radio or TV  show producer and book yourself. But if you want professional help, there is a company in Florida that specializes in booking people on the air. They have been in business for years booking people. https://theprgroup.com/ I have used them to book me on radio and they are “pay for play”. In other words, you aren’t charged unless they deliver.

There are also other avenues.

Besides my survey company, I am a writer, of both fiction and non-fiction under the pen name of John Truman Wolfe.

https://tinyurl.com/3p6dfj9s

I often self-publish, but I retained a publisher for one book I wrote exposing the real cause of the global financial crisis. And the publisher booked me on a national radio show. As a result of doing that show, I

sold several hundred books. So that is another avenue, if you are an author and have a publisher. It’s in their interest to get you “out there” selling books.

Author or not, radio can be very effective in getting the word out about what you sell; but TV can take you to a whole new level.

Here’s a story that I have not told anyone but my wife. It’s funny now, but wasn’t at the time.

As I said, I write fiction and non-fiction. The non-fiction sells much better that the fiction. Unless you are John Grisham, Stephen King, or J.K. Rowling, it’s very difficult to get booked on the media promoting a fiction book. But, for me, fiction is a lot more fun to write; more creative.

I knew it was difficult to get booked on media promoting a fiction book, but I thought I’d try. I called a friend of mine, Laurie Jessup. Laurie is a professional PR. Has been for years. https://www.jessupcommunications.com/

She lives in the Tampa Bay area, is very good at what she does and I thought perhaps she might be able to get me booked promoting my latest fiction book on a local TV show. I called her and asked for her help to get me booked on a local network affiliate there in Tampa.

She said she had a good relationship with the producer of the local Fox affiliate, and she would call the producer and let me know.

(As an aside, as an information point, the real gold, the truly valuable  assets of a PR firm are their relationships with media producers. The show producers will take their call and the PR can pitch you and your story).

A few days later, Laurie called.

“My producer friend is no longer with the Fox affiliate in Tampa.” She lets this hang in the air for a bit. Then, “She moved to Fox National in New York. And I got you booked on Fox National, their morning show, Fox and Friends. It has the largest morning audience in the country.”

I’m stunned.

“The only catch is that they want to interview you about your book on the financial crisis.”

It didn’t take me long. A guest interview on Fox was a big deal. “When is the interview?”

I fly to New York. I’m up at 6 am. The show has sent a limo to pick me up. I greet the driver, who opens the back door of the limo for me to get in. I start to get into the back seat and dropped something on the street. I don’t recall what I dropped, but it was worth picking up. I bent down, grabbed the fallen item, and then… riiiiip. I had split the ass of my pants wide open.

I’m freaked. I don’t have a second pair of slacks, and we have to get moving to make it to the show on time. The driver witnessed the whole thing. I stand up, my sport coat draped down my backside and I asked the driver to get behind me and see if the coat covered the rip, which ran from the top of my pants all the way down my butt.

“No. As long as you stand straight, the coat covers the rip.”

“Let’s go.”

I sat in the green room with other guests and chatted. When the producer called me, I stood erect, walked down the hall and into the interview room. The host invited me to sit, which I did.

The interview went well. I knew the subject cold, of course. It was a little shorter than I was hoping and there was a glitch showing the address of where to purchase the book. It finally displayed, but not as long as it should have. I left, walking very erect out of the studio.

You can see the interview here if you like. It’s short. https://www.strategicfinancialintelligence.com/product/

I was happy to have done a Fox interview but was a little disappointed that it was shorter than I was hoping and the link showing where to buy the book didn’t display as long as it should have.

But by the time I got back to the hotel, changed into my sweatpants and logged onto my computer, the book was a best seller on Amazon.  ?.

The power of PR!

The marketing tools available today are truly remarkable: AI is a whole new marketing world, and with marketing channels from sales funnels to guesting on podcasts, there are so many platforms on which and with which you can communicate.

And of course using surveys, you are able fine tune what you communicate so that it parallels the mind of what your public needs and wants.

And PR opportunities for you abound. (But, I’m sure it is abundantly clear to you here that the most important lesson from all of this is… don’t bend over and pick something up off the street before a national television show!)

Best,

Bruce

Bruce Wiseman

President & CEO

On Target Research

www.ontargetresearch.com

Br***@**********an.net

1-818-397-1401