Virtually every time I meet a business owner for the first time I have to dispel the myth that PR is all about contacts.

It’s almost always about the story.

Good contacts can open doors and set up opportunities. But a great story gives you the biggest shot you’ll get at major PR coverage.

I caught the end of our regional BBC TV news tonight, where they did a live outside broadcast from an Indian restaurant that had introduced a curry so hot, no-one could eat a whole plate of it. And they had to fill in a disclaimer form before they did.

A classic publicity stunt. Getting plenty of valuable air time on a BBC TV show.

Fantastic.

OK, so it must be a slow news day. But you don’t get coverage like that “because you know a journalist”. You get coverage like that because you had a great story at the right time (exactly the timem the BBC had a slot to fill).

Tags: BBC

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Good PR, In the news, Publicity ideas, Publicity stunts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.