Securing Coverage in the Boston Globe
See how a very creative pitch helped communicate a complex technology.

Introducing a New Product
Learn how the PAN team created a buzz at the very competitive Consumer Electronics Show.

Top Tier Coverage
See how rising corporate email frustration turned into a Wall Street Journal story.

Thought Leadership
Read how persistence paid off and established this PAN client as a market expert.

Visionary Position
Discover how PAN helped position Genuitec as a visionary and true Eclipse authority.

Lights, Camera, Action! The Importance of Media Training
by Linda Miller, Director

You had a great conversation with a reporter. They asked all the right questions. But when the story came out, it was rife with errors and misquotes, or worse, not enough focus on your company. Conveying your message to the media can be an intimidating challenge. Fortunately, with the right media training, you can maximize the impact of coverage.

Successful interviews come with skill, patience and practice. It's definitely a skill that can be learned and for sure it's one that gets better with practice. Here are some tips to help you develop the skills needed to effectively interact with the media.

Know your messages
Work on the top line and supporting messages you want to convey during your interview and then practice saying them in a conversational way. The media looks for sound bites for their articles, so if you express your messages in simple, easy to understand phrases, you'll increase your chance to see them in print. If you're a PAN client, your team will provide you with briefing materials prior to each interview. The "b- mats" as we call them, will tell you what the reporter is looking for and provide you with insight into his or her interview style. Busy executives tell us they find these materials quite helpful because they provide a good idea about what to expect.

The best way to exert some control over the outcome of your interview is to keep the questioning on track. If a reporter starts to wander into areas you don't want to talk about, you can use three control techniques to help you refocus the interview:

• Bridging: To do this, answer the reporter's question briefly, then emphasize the key points you want to get across.
• Hooking: Answer the reporter's question in such a way that it entices him/her to ask a second question -- one you want to answer.
• Flagging: Emphasize that the statement you are about to make is one the reporter should remember.

These techniques may not come naturally, but when practiced, become easy and extremely effective. If you'd like some advice, a refresher course, or just have some questions about prepping for media calls, please email me. I'd love to hear from you.

Working with PAN:

Lori Wizdo
Vice President of Marketing

How Effective Public Relations Works:
A Boomerang Client's Relationship with PAN
Lori Wizdo, who has been in high tech marketing for years, is the vice president of marketing at Knoa, a leading provider of enterprise performance management and analysis software.

In your experience, how can PR help establish and define emerging and changing market segments?
An active press relations program is essential when you are launching a new company or product in an emerging market segment. While your talented evangelical sales force is selling to the visionaries and early adopters, the PR team is conditioning the market for the next wave of buyers - the folks who are actually going to build your business. These are the people who need some external sanction for their decisions. They seek analyst recommendations, customer stories, ROI examples, and the assurance that they are prudently investing their company's money. That's what we can do with PR. We heighten market awareness of our company's identity and vision. It's one of the most exciting aspects of the marketing mix. It's the dimension with the unfathomable upside. The right press coverage validates you, your product, and, most importantly, your prospect's desire to buy your product.

What are the PR challenges in an emerging segment and how can they be overcome?
I think the biggest challenge is relevance. Editors and reporters want to write about the topics in which their readers have expressed interest. And the simple fact is that no matter how ground breaking your "new" solution is, since most people aren't yet aware of the solution, no one is clamoring to hear about that category of product. And thus, no one is writing about it. The kiss of death is being 'interesting but irrelevant'. The symptoms of this are a series of very spirited and engaging interviews and no resultant press coverage.

The solution is simply to figure out the angles. How do you connect to upcoming stories to gain maximum exposure? How do you reach the right market influencers? It's actually pretty easy to find the connections (well for marketing and PR folks, it is). The hard part is reaching the right balance. You want to 'link' to the hot industry topics, but your positioning of the solution and the category can't waver from your core message. This is another way your PR team can add value-counseling to you on the right positioning to educate the market and show your company and solution in the best light. First get your messaging right, and then make sure every PR event reinforces the message.

How do you make the PR firm an extension of your team?
First off, believe that they ARE part of your team. If you treat your PR firm as "a vendor", you are constantly second guessing and judging. The opportunities are always there to do that. It's a tough business. But, once you accept your PR firm as part of your team, it's all different. You are in it together. You strive for goals. You celebrate successes, you share the disappointments. You communicate. You share the vision. You coach, you mentor, you continually raise the bar -just like you do with your internal team. And the bottom line is that it more fun and more rewarding for all involved.

With more than 25 years in marketing in the software industry, you've no doubt worked with a lot of different PR firms. What do you look for when evaluating and choosing a firm?
Of those 25 years, it's probably only the last 10 where I had top PR responsibility. In those years, I have most often simply hated my PR firm. I'd work with them for a period of six months, then get another and grow to hate them as well.

For the last few years I have been simply delighted to be a partner with PAN. My experience with my teams at PAN has been fantastic. It's a combination of factors that make it work. Over a few years, I've found that the firm has an eye for talent - whether it's the seasoned PR veteran or the intern. My team members have always had a bit of the x-factor. I also respect the values and the processes of the firm. The investment in knowledge sharing and cross-team pollination pays off in innovation. I trust my PAN team because they don't "spin" me - even though they could.

Honesty is a value. This firm has it. But, the bottom line, it's a relentless business. Despite all the things I like, I stay with this firm because they deliver results. (Message Team: Keep Striving!)

Congratulations to Pam Woodford and David Fretwell who were promoted to the role of Associate. Their hard work and enthusiasm for their clients' programs and their teams makes them very deserving of their new responsibilities.

Join us in welcoming the following new PAN team members:
Ani Bardakjian, Marketing Manager
Aidan Bradley, Junior Associate
Jill Reuter, Associate
Jessica Schultz, Junior Associate
Ashley Thomas, Senior Associate

PAN welcomed new clients across all our portfolios since the last newsletter. Our new clients are focused on integrated programs encompassing traditional, online and new media. Read about some of these great companies in our latest press announcement.

Life at PAN: Our Employees Make Us Shine
In this issue, we introduce you to Becki Parkhurst. Becki's a Senior Associate at PAN who excels in every way! She continuously generates fantastic coverage for her clients. Becki is also notorious for sharing best practices with her colleagues across the company. We always look forward to receiving her color-coded, creative and educational emails! Congratulations Becki!


What do you like best about PR?
There are so many things about PR that I love, it's hard to think of just one. If I had to choose one thing, I would say client satisfaction. At the end of the day, everything we do is to serve the client and represent them the best we can. Having a client say, "Great job" is one of the most fulfilling things about PR.

Why did you choose PR as a career and how did you get started?
I chose PR as a major in college because during high school I helped out the local New York Chapter of Special Olympics with their PR, specifically an event called Satin, Silks & Stars. We would bring in soap stars for a gala and all of the donations and proceeds went to the Chapter. So, it seemed a natural fit for a major. Then in college, I interned at CBS News in New York at 48 Hours and it was then I decided I wanted to be on this side of the fence in terms of media relations! When I graduated, intuitively I went to New York to look for work and ended up at Saatchi & Saatchi's Rowland Communications where I stayed for many years before relocating to the Boston area.

What are your day-to-day responsibilities?
Each day is different! But my main responsibility is to pitch the media, business, consumer and trade press. And I love it. Other activities involve working with other team members to brainstorm pitch ideas, draft abstracts for speaking and award submissions, help with plans and anything else my teams may need.

What's your favorite thing about your job?
My favorite thing about my job as a Senior Associate at PAN is the people I work with. PAN has a history of hiring and keeping some of the top talents in the business and I am fortunate enough to be a part of that team.

What are your goals for the next six months?
Over the next six months I plan to continue to get strategic hits for my clients and also dabble a bit in account management.

What's been your best hit in the past 3 months?
Hard to choose! But I think Entrepreneur magazine for Eleksen. The coverage was based on their product, and the audience is head on. But, a close second, I have to say was a great piece in Modern Healthcare for ZixCorp, it really boasted their leadership position in the e-prescribing space.

What do you love about working at PAN?
Wow, so many things really. Well, as I mentioned above, definitely the people. After that I would say that one of the unique qualities of PAN that I admire is their dedication to their clients' needs and anticipating any upcoming needs. On a daily basis, at every level, you see this, and it's very refreshing. And maybe most importantly, the work/life balance. I am able to work from home one day a week if I need to and I have even scaled back my schedule somewhat. I have a six month old at home and PAN has more than accommodated any requests I have made, and has even offered more flexibility than I need! It's amazing. At PAN, I have found it very easy to balance my work and my family, my two loves in life.

What do you like to do outside of PAN?
Hang out with my new family! I also like to blog, go to yard sales, go to wine tastings, go for long walks, read, cook, bargain shop and sleep whenever possible!

PAN staffers attended the Spring Search Engine Strategies tradeshow April 10-13 in New York. SES New York 2007 was the largest trade show anywhere in the world dedicated specifically to search engine advertising and marketing. It's a phenomenon that just won't stop; fully one half of all money spent on interactive is in search engine optimization and marketing. A lot of people came up to us to ask what a "traditional" PR firm was doing at a SEO/SEM show; aside from being the agency of record for SES's parent, Incisive Media, we explained that PR is a fantastic complement to an SEO campaign. Where SEO creates short term visibility, PR validates the brand, as well as creates long term residual visibility on the Web. Ad visibility stops when the ad campaign ends; good PR is forever on the Web.

PAN celebrated opening day with true Red Sox spirit this year! Our employees came prepared with their Red Sox caps and helped cheer on the hometown boys, who beat the Seattle Mariners 14-3. We watched the game on our brand new flat screen TV, and enjoyed munching on plenty of popcorn - popped fresh from our new popcorn maker! To see more pictures, click here.