Report, Rinse, Repeat
It’s almost Groundhog Day, and by Groundhog Day, I mean the entire winter holiday season. We’re well on our way into the middle of the long, dreary months in which the nightly news and the morning paper are woefully full of stories that seem somehow familiar. The last Saturday before Christmas, for example, will almost certainly bring a story about how retailers are grading the holiday shopping season. Every such Saturday in my media memory has this story, so what should make this year any different?
Wait. Let me back up, because the season of Report, Rinse, Repeat Journalism began several weeks ago with the annual weeklong media fascination with Thanksgiving travel. Never mind that it’s as predictable as the rising sun, and never mind that it’s not news – every year, the same stories. This year the frenzy began on Friday the 16th with ominous predictions of interminable airport delays and roads as clogged as Larry King’s arteries.
Had Thanksgiving fallen on December 13th, it would have been a whole different ball of wax, but fortunately for everyone concerned, the dreaded Nor’easter took Thanksgiving off (instead, we’re dealing with that mess right now). Travelers enjoyed minimal flight disruption and reasonably clear highways at Thanksgiving because back on November 21st the weather was practically perfect. There were some nifty fixes put in place that helped the ease the expected rise in Thanksgiving air travel, but mostly it was the weather.
Then we got sucked into the vortex of “Black Friday” stories, despite the fact that it’s the same b-roll of turkey-stuffed, bleary-eyed shoppers waiting in pre-dawn lines for commerce to commence. So begins the annual blizzard of seasonal coverage that always culminates in the inevitable “After Christmas Sales/Returns” story that seem to now begin well in advance of December 26th. You know why? Because there’s a critical distinction between what is termed “news” and what is termed a “story.” A story without news is called evergreen. News without a story is called the police blotter.
In the calculus of PR, a great story + a unique personality + tangible news impact + the omnipresent “X-factor” somehow adds up to coverage. But when it comes to annual events such as those mentioned above, the “pitch” is already half written, and the equation looks a little more like creativity + timing + “X-factor” = coverage. Okay, that math is probably a little fuzzy (I’m a words guy, not a mathematician), but you get the idea.
The key is to find a bit of personality and a new take on the story, even in the most predictable of events. The sun will rise tomorrow. It’s the mandate of PR teams everywhere to find a way to make that sunrise fresh and new, illuminating something we’ve never seen before. As we wind down 2007, it’s a valuable exercise to crack open the 2008 calendar and let loose your creative juices in a mix of the inspired and the absurd.
Although it’s at its absolute zenith around now, the season of Report, Rinse, Repeat Journalism actually lasts a full 12 months. The happy coincidence is that the season of Report, Rinse, Repeat PR occurs during the very same 12 months (ah, bliss!). What gets us through the year is being supremely creative even within the confined space of canned, dried or otherwise prepackaged press opportunities.