Story Assistant
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What PR Pros Can Learn From YouTube
Author: Matt
16 Dec
I’m sure by now you’ve learned or heard that YouTube is currently the third largest search engine with 85 million unique visitors in November alone…
Compared to Google and Yahoo, YouTube is growing three times as fast with a yearly growth rate of 35% compared to 11% (Google) and 6% (Yahoo). I’d say Google has a lot to be thankful for here in 2009 as reported by the WSJ yesterday.
As PR and media relations professionals, I believe we have a lot to learn from this reality – people (including the media) crave video.
We’ve been incorporating video into our Awareness Campaigns for clients for well over a year now. One way has been creating vlogs which are part of an online library of video content for their websites and even “vitches”…yes, you heard me right a vitch, a video pitch:).
Learning from YouTube’s popularity, we’ve come up with 3 reasons you and others should strongly consider doing vitches:
1 – Direct Contact to the Resource - The media’s needs continue to evolve and change. Traditional press releases are more for SEO today than for influencing a reporter to write about your company or client. An email pitch gives you limited time and words to make an impression. You might have great success picking up the phone…but time is even more of a crunch as newsrooms get cut and beats begin to pile up. Try capturing your next pitch on a Flip Video of your resource (not you), send the link to the video quickly outlining what the media contact will see in the video and see what happens. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
2 – Entertain Don’t Educate – Don’t get me wrong, it’s valuable and necessary to educate the media, but in today’s environment you might consider taking more of a lighthearted approach to convincing them of your story or resource. You don’t need to be “funny” but just by doing a video vs. written pitch you will allow them to sit back in their cubicle and give them a fresh change of pace to trying to figure out where their story is in your pitch or release.
3 – Broadcast Requires Video Footage – The vitch is especially influential when pitching broadcast including TV and radio. If they’re going to have your resource on as a guest they need to be sure they have someone who is going to be of value and is ready for a “live” interview. If they see your resource can carry the conversation for 60-90 seconds (the longest these should be) they’ll certainly feel much better about booking them as a guest.
Curious to hear if you’re vitching. If so, how’s it going? If not, why?! Looking forward to this conversation!
Author
Matt
Twitter: StoryAssistant
Facebook: Matt Batt
Linked In: StoryAssistant
22 Responses for "What PR Pros Can Learn From YouTube"
I like the concept of vitching, however, my only concern is whether people will open and look at the video? You have to deal with the compatibility of the equipment the reporter/blogger is using, what if the end recipient can’t view video or they don’t have speaker, and how developed is your relationship where they will open a video attachment (virus potential, unrecognized sender).
Overall, I think this is a trend, however. Video plays an important role in business and I think the trend will obviously only increase. I personally haven’t used a vitch, but I think I would in the right situation.
Great post.
What I failed to communicate in my post was these videos reside on YouTube – for many different reasons including the reason that you bring up…compatibility. I don’t think speakers are as much of an issue anymore but perhaps its worth consideration.
The nice thing about including a YouTube link in your email is the ability track how many views you get to the video. Surprisingly (or not) we’ve found the Vitch to be opened and viewed by a good percentage of the media we send them to.
The other thing you can to with a Vitch is using it with a client when there is a desire to respond directly to a reporter base on their story. They love the personal touch and approach! Thanks Kasey!
Not sure I’m down with the term “vitching” (sounds like an admonishment from a Jewish grandmother), but I certainly agree that video can be a great way to pitch reporters. I’ve used this tactic recently with a software client. Rather than try to explain in a long email how the software works, I wrote a brief intro and then linked to a quick demo video and videos of my client’s customers talking about how they used the product.
Reporters get so much email that it’s hard for them to keep up and when they do get a chance to check it, they often can only skim. If you can get them to watch a quick video, however, you can often pack in a lot more information and engage them more in the same amount of time it would take for them to read an email.
I really like this idea, Matt, especially for pitching broadcast, or even radio.
I think the value is that it’s different from the usual pitch and the journalist has the opportunity to see and hear the person they would be working with for the story, quote, etc. An outgoing or fun CEO or spokesperson in video could potentially lift a story over the top to gain more coverage. It can make the journalist say, “I want to talk to this person!”
The only caution I have is what Kasey brought up. Will journalists actually take the time to click the link and look at the video? You seemed to have answered the question through your own experience and can track the amount of visitors to the video via YouTube.
By the way, maybe I’m alone on this, but this is the first I’ve heard of this idea!
Thanks,
Tom (@TomOKeefe1)
We’re definitely still playing with the terminology:). I’m glad you see it has been effective for you and your clients! I agree that their time is so limited that giving them a video link allows them to (1) see your source, (2) experience the pitch points, and (3) relax not having to dig through copy to find the story.
I suppose now we have to work on a more appropriate name – thanks Amy!
Hey Tom – This has definitely worked for broadcast as we have landed clients on MSNBC, Today and local broadcasts to name a few…producers NEED to see your client or resource before booking. Many times we’ll include a previous broadcast interview with the client as well since sometimes they need validity themselves that someone else has taken a risk on having them on-air.
We haven’t heard a lot about video pitching ourselves which is why we wanted to share this with each of you! We’ve seen success over the past year with it and don’t want to keep it to ourselves:).
I’ll be anxious to hear if/how it works for you and your clients! Let me know if I can be of any assistance!
Whoa! I had no idea YouTube is the number three search engine. And thanks for introducing me to vitching. I wasn’t aware of this term.
Vitching sounds like a fresh approach to communicating with someone. However, whether it’s using a social network, video or email to pitch, I would put a lot of my energy into developing relationships with reporters and journalists. Once that happens, you will know exactly how they like to communicate with you.
Video is clearly going to be a popular communication channel. But like other marketing channels, we have to really think about what we are trying to accomplish and if using it is the best way to do it.
Matt, after seeing a sample of what you’ve done, I have to say you are seriously doing yourself a disservice by calling it a vitch OR a pitch.
It’s the anti-pitch and it works brilliantly!
From what I saw, you are helping the media/bloggers to write their story by giving them a STORY… To me, that is WAY different than a pitch (“My customer XYZ has a great product ABC & *we* think fits well with your audience, can I set up an interview?!” UGH!)
Also, to me vitching sounds like kvetching, which is not a good thing…
Happy holidays Matt!
Beth Harte
Community Manager, MarketingProfs
@bethharte
I think we’re going to have to re-work the term “Vitch” – that I’ve learned within a few posts…thanks for pointing this out!
Beth – I think you’ve nailed it on the head…the best video pitch is the one that makes the lives of the reporter, blogger or producer easy – it serves them up a story! I appreciate you pointing this out and really value your perspective and feedback on this subject.
Do you see technology being an obstacle with these?
Anna, I agree that a video pitch is just one piece of the puzzle. Often times we’ll serve up our stories by bulleting out the 3-5 sources (with contact info.) we’d recommend for a story. Many times we fall back on good old fashioned phone conversations:).
I think video is especially powerful because it presents a direct connection to the story resource…not the PR folks. That is what we’ve heard back from our contacts the most, “we love being able to hear from your client direct.”
Great conversation here…thanks everyone!
Another great post Matt and gives me some things to think about for our 2010 initiatives.
Thanks Allan! Let me know if we might be able to assist…I know you have an amazing video production studio and could do some great stuff there!
With all the content you have available, my guess is this would be a great way for you, Michael and others to reach out in more of an informational way.
Looking forward to sharing a drink soon and discussing!
Funny — “educate” and “entertain” are two of my 3 E’s of Twitter.
I find that if someone sends a video along with a pitch, I’m just much more likely to write about it; If I don’t have much time, I can write up a couple of sentences and post it with the video. If I have time, I can write up a lengthier post that gets broken up by the video.
Either way, it’s a win-win. Good post, Matt.
Thanks Dan! In fact, I think we cover the third E – Engage by doing video pitches:) – thanks for sharing your post I enjoyed it.
Your comment is the exact reason we started doing it – time and resources are limited so it is our hope that we can position the video pitch as something that is a stand-alone to the media we are pitching…glad to hear some validation from you on this!
Would love to share stories and chat about this more – perhaps over a nice cigar sometime soon!
Matt, I love the word. I typically hate such words. But for some reason, vitching is just annoying enough to be lovable.
More importantly, you give me an idea that is going to get my client’s story in the Washington Post. I’m certain of it. So thanks … thanks much. I’ll keep you posted.
There is a lot of resistance to video news releases in the media world, what would you say is the difference in between a VNR and a vitch and why would the media view it differently?
Hi Mary – Great question! I think there is are a couple of big differences between VNRs and “Vitches” –
(1) COST: the VNR can be very expensive and a vitch is or can be free if you have some basic video equipment such as a Flip Video Camera or decent webcam
(2) FORMAT: VNRs are “typically” longer and about your product or service…not usually about a newsworthy topic or trend – the media just don’t have time to spend trying to figure out what or where the story is when watching.
What I will say is I do think there is some variation of a VNR and Vitch where broadcast outlets can take the video directly since it presents a balanced story – submitted by others. Newsrooms and camera crews have been slashed throughout the country…I can definitely see this happening sometime soon! Thanks for your comments & I’d love to hear back from you!
Matt – Very interesting concept, and like many have already said, not one I think I have heard of before. Initially, when i first saw this post, I was a bit skeptical. Like some have pointed out already, I wonder if this is just another way to quickly grab a reporter’s attention, but is it actually going to lead to anything fruitful in the long run. I can see, however, that if the video pitch is used in the way Beth Harte pointed out, as more of giving a reporter/blogger the actual story, rather than just doing a video/audio “pitch” of how that story may fit into their audience, then I think there is some value to this idea.
However, if it’s just going to be a short video explaining how company X believes its products/services are of value and why someone should write about them, then I don’t really see how this is going to do a greater service to reporters, other than working with broadcast, which needs to see your source already on video.
Two questions I have for you about this:
1. Is the video of you, the PR rep, presenting the story, or is it of your source? If it’s the latter, do did you position them to tell the story in a compelling manner that would instantly grab the reporter’s attention?
2. How did you all come about this idea? Was there something a reporter said to you that prompted this idea, or was it an initiative that you all began on your own?
Thanks again for some great ideas to spur us on!
@KeithTrivitt
Hi Keith – thanks for your detailed post…I really appreciate you joining the conversation like this! Expanding on Beth Harte’s comment from earlier, the Vitch really does take pitching to the next level since you’re packaging the story for the media (traditional or blogger) in a way they can repurpose. To your two specific questions:
1) The Vitch is always of the client or company spokesperson that you are positioning as a resource. Yes, part of the magic of the Vitch is to coach your resource to do the video as if they’re actually on-air with a reporter – non-salesy, short sound bites, easy to follow (i.e., lists) and so that they can see how the resource can carry an interview. Plus it is cruicial that the reporter or blogger see your client (not you) sharing the information.
2) Honestly, this was something I came up with about a year ago when my firm was working with a retail-focused client seeking out national coverage. They had an amazing story and unique service but to cut through the clutter of pitches being sent to our resources at outlets like Today and USA Today, we decided to get a little creative. Our client was very well spoken so one day we started taping clips of him talking about all the angles we were taking to the media. To shorten our email pitches up we started including these video clips (links) in the email – especially with TV – and next thing we know we had a USA Today feature story, which turned into a Today show segment and then an Oprah & Friends radio show! We’ve been using Vitches ever since:).
Thanks again for joining the conversation & I look forward to hearing back from you…anytime!
The ease of flip cameras have made vitching a real possibility. Good call, Matt. In fact, to take the points you and Beth made a step further, shouldn’t PR pros always package our video pitches like we were planning to share them directly with customers in hopes the media/bloggers will integrate some/all of the original video into the story?
It’s a shame you can’t embed the video directly into the e-mail. Or can you? Anyone seen that work…besides on a Google Wave demo, that is?
Lastly, Matt, do you note in the e-mail that the link is to a video and how long the video is?
Hi Justin – thanks for joining the conversation! We (PR folks) should be packaging the vitches for the media’s audience – viewer, reader, etc. That is really the point of the vitch…to provide the blogger or reporter with the story on a silver platter and ready to go.
You could embed videos in your email, but you run the risk that the recipient doesn’t have the technology to open up the email or has their html off so they have to upload the video.
We typically do note how long the video is and even bullet it out in the email…in case they don’t want to watch. Typically I don’t exceed 2 minutes for any vitch.
Glad you’re into this…I think its a real exciting way to cut through the clutter we face in working with bloggers and the media. Best of all, they seem to like it too:)!
Happy Vitching!
I’m still not overly sold. Don’t get me wrong, video has a place but for many, the place they access the web mostly is at work and most workplaces frown upon video being blasted out, therefore text is easier to skive with.
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