Executive Series: Doug Wright

Doug Wright is our resident consumer electronics and music tech expert. He has an extensive background representing major brands, including Sharp, Maxwell, Sony, Kenwood, Yamaha and Pioneer. He’s also worked with clients in other industries, including video games, professional video, marketing premiums, health care, financial services and others.

What is the biggest change you’ve seen in PR? 


Media relations. One thing I remember distinctly about my first jobs was how easy it was to get reporters out of their offices. Trade magazine writers and even mainstream media made time to meet with clients over lunch, which helped to build relationships.Nowadays, no one has time. The economy and the way business is done has effectively changed the way relationships are built. Editorial teams are often short-handed, and any time out of the office is at a premium. In fact, it can be difficult to get an editor you do not have a relationship with on the phone.This has made it all the more important to tighten up the other aspects of media relations. Pitches, both written and verbal, must be very efficient and even more compelling to get the attention of writers and editors.

How do you generate news and build buzz for clients?

Finding and engaging key influencers. For instance, you may want to offer an exclusive story to a major media outlet that your client is most excited about. If an exclusive is not possible, seeding stories to top mainstream or trade media under embargo is a great tool as well. This way, you can prepare them with materials/interviews/etc. to publish their stories when the news hits, not days later. It also lets the writers know that your client believes this is big news and will help you cut through the clutter of all the other news they may cover on a given day.

Social media is also key. By helping a client to build strong social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.), they can hint at upcoming news that would be of interest to their audiences. By engaging social media influencers in your client’s field (media, industry experts, enthusiasts, etc.), you can build a great deal of anticipation for a pending announcement and extend its reach.

What is the most challenging thing about PR?

Prospecting for new business. This is the life blood of any agency and it can be a challenge to find the time to find new clients. I have found that the proper mindset is to make sure new business prospecting is part of the normal work week, to be tackled alongside regular client work.

I try to make time to consider opportunities for business among colleagues, friends and new contacts. You never know, a well-timed phone call or email can be the first step to gaining a new client.

Is there anything happening in the industry that you find interesting?

Newsroom and editorial changes. With smaller editorial staff and advertising shifting to online media and other areas, print publications are getting thinner and even transitioning to online-only formats. The editorial landscape is changing rapidly and it is important to keep up to date with changes and new opportunities for more timely coverage.

An upside of a more online-centric media base is its tie to social media. Online stories can be more easily shared with clients’ audiences and other social media influencers to spread key news farther and faster.

What is one thing you wish you’d known when you started out?

Being creative in the job hunt and adapting the job to your preferences. The need for PR is everywhere—in corporations, financial institutions, art organizations, health care companies, non-profits and on and on—so there is a great degree of opportunity to find your passion within the field. As for adapting a current job, I now know you can use your strengths to bring a position even more in line with your interests—and maybe even create a new position. This, of course, needs to fall in line with your employer’s needs and goals.

Innovating Our Way Out of Recession

The news media seems to be reporting many economic indices and anecdotal findings supporting the fact that the U.S. may already be out of its 2008-09 recession. The pace of job losses has stemmed; consumers are slowly beginning to spend (albeit with the help of taxpayer-funded clunker cash and other stimulus funds); the stock market has stopped its free-fall and has risen significantly since the beginning of the year; and even real estate housing starts are on the rebound. Consumer confidence is slowly on the rise.

The public relations and advertising industry also offer an interesting albeit unscientific indication of the direction in which the economy is headed. In the fourth quater of '08 and early into this year, many companies were restricting their budgets or cutting their "discretionary" marketing spend. New business opportunities were few and far between and those that surfaced were prepared to spend a fraction of typical marketing budgets.

But today in the third quarter, there is a renewed flurry of activity -- verified by reports from colleagues at small- to mid-sized firms throughout the country. Start-up enterprises hunting for marketing support are calling again and new business meetings are being planned. Most exciting are the various innovative companies and products that are coming forward. A few examples we've seen in the last few months:

Electric Bikes*- A company soon to market a new line of upscale electric bicycles for consumers hoping to park their cars and get some exercise (with power assist as needed).

DVD Vending Machines- A new brand of DVD and video game rental machines returning the excitement of discovery and impulse shopping as convenient and accessible as visiting your favorite local store.

Blood Pre-treatment to Spot Disease*- A company that has developed a pre-treatment for blood samples that can help close the undiagnosed "window period" for HIV and Hepatitis C.

Clean Coal (really)*- A process for liquifying and gassifying coal without the release of carbon dioxide or the need to capture and sequester it.

Making Static Media Interactive*- A company that has developed a closed circuit system for taking traditional media and making it fully interactive in order to better compete with the Internet.

Our young firm is managing a lead queue approaching three dozen organizations, many of which are innovative and offer disruptive solutions to the markets they are seeking to enter. Microsoft was born during a recession as were many other of today's successful companies. Which of the companies edging their way to market launch will be tomorrow's Google and potentially change our world, our environment and our lives?

We appear to be on the edge of an exciting turnaround as companies begin nudging each other aside as they innovate their way out of recession.

* Companies are currently fundraising; contact us if you have interest in learning more.

Black Ink is the New Black

My career path has spanned a wide range of journalism and communications endeavors -- on-air newscasting for several radio stations; the assignment desk at WCBS-TV in New York; several public relations firms; and even a stint as head of corporate communications for an international telecommunications manufacturer -- in total nearly 30 years.

I've been priviledged to launch and build several hundred companies, take many of them public and support several multi-national organizations. The body of work has spanned numerous industries from trucking to tech; for-profit and not-for-profit to highly unprofitable; and domestic and international.

Despite having worked for so many entrepreneurs and consulted for so many other organizations, nothing quite prepared me for the roller coaster of emotions and milestones related to the launch of my own business.

December 2008 was filled with lawyers, accountants and real estate agents (oh my!). Friends, colleagues, recruiters, clients and other insiders lined up with often conflicting advice.

On Jan. 2, 2009, our fearless team of four launched Feintuch Communications. Three days later, we incorporated. The first months were filled with serving our early clients -- 3rd Dimension, GAIN Capital, Marketcetera and Tervela -- while at the same time, moving, naming our entity, creating our corporate identity and brand, hiring staff, developing systems and creating a corporate culture. All this while trying to figure out the straightest line to black ink -- a formidable task in the heart of the greatest recession in decades.

My wife, Alice, a geriatric social worker and care manager for the Westchester County chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, went from second income status to primary breadwinner. We all tightened our belts to settle in for the long haul to give the new business as much runway as possible.

In April we launched our website and added new services. We disseminated our own launch press release and announcement cards went out. News articles began appearing. And slowly, things began to click. Referrals started coming our way from our ECP Global international network and our network of hundreds of friends and business colleagues from around the world. While we sadly observed many of our friends' firms contract and downsize, we slowly added accounts. Bluenog. Moire. AccelerOptics. The Linux Box. Hanger Network. RadMD.

Last Friday, half way through our sixth month, the lastest chapter started unfolding. Word from an advertising and marketing prospect that we were hired. More good news today from a life sciences company. And so now, as the clock strikes midnight on the east coast, and as I prepare to take my wife to dinner and Broadway to celebrate our 25th anniversary (June 17), the red ink dried up and turned black.

The adventure continues -- staff hiring, new business meetings, launching our new clients, hustling to satisfy our longer-term clients and preparing to speak at the PRSA International Conference in San Diego. To our clients, friends, supporters and families -- thank you. We hope to continue earning your trust... and black ink.

Practicing PR in Troubled Times … Using Communications to Stave Off the Death Spiral

As Henry mentioned in our first company blog post, we chose to launch our company smack dab in the middle of an economic tsunami. With several clients in the financial services sector, we are approaching communications (ours and theirs) with ample research and plenty of special consideration for the current climate.

The financial markets have never been more volatile. Banks, liquidity venues and broker dealers are all starting to look alike – and sell the same products and services. Mergers and bankruptcies happen every day and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its lowest point since 1996 last month.

From a media standpoint, the bar for news has become a pole vault. Each time the North American economy underperforms, it sends spasms through the international markets, making it difficult to get clients in the headlines – unless they are getting indicted!

I am presently working on a whitepaper that examines how financial services firms can effectively practice PR during troubled times. Abandoning your communications campaign is never a good idea – but it’s even more damaging during a bad market. Perception is reality and a company must do everything it can to stay in front of its constituents.

Be thoughtful and proactive in your efforts, make sure you have realistic goals and decide in advance how you are going to measure success. Plan for the long haul and decide how to approach your tactics differently than you would during a boom time. Attend trade shows – but host a hospitality suite with a partner instead of renting out a lavish hotel lobby. Put out press releases - but space them out appropriately and rely heavily on the relationships of your PR counsel for coverage. Conduct analyst tours - but be strategic about who gets an in-person meeting with an expensive flight attached and who gets a phoner.

And, most important of all - don’t expect to see results immediately. It takes a while to steer the Queen Mary with an oar!