Creativity Matters in Public Relations – Barco’s PR Team Needs a Raise
PR (public relations) in the AV industry, generally, sucks. Trust me. Not only do I teach to PR students at the University of North Carolina and see (and read) great PR pitches all the time from them, but the agony of reading boringly written or overly-flub-ridden press releases from MOST (not all, just most) PR professionals in the audiovisual market cannot be properly expressed in this blog. Agony is the right word, however.
Note: to the PR professionals reading this blog, I spared you the embarrassment of calling you out by posting your PR here. But, if you really want to know who you are, just ask me or Sara Abrons (our executive editor) and we will gladly let you know what we think, and why, with constructive criticism.
It isn’t often that the PR is creative in our market — literally, barely ever — so when someone is, it jumps out to us. Peerless-AV comes to mind with their recent PR efforts with the launch of their outdoor speaker launch kit and their red sunglasses campaigns over the past two years. Christie and their Book of Shapes — pure awesomeness.
So, when Barco sent out their UniSee launch kit — it stood out! And, it made me want to reach out to them and find out more.
Sure, it’s a geek-box kind-of-thing, but I love it! Give the Barco PR team a raise! Seriously. Don’t underestimate the value of this level of creativity.
OK, we realize not every PR team has the budget a $1.4 billion company like Barco has, but even a well-written press release devoid of ridiculous superlatives (e.g., world’s best, biggest, best-in-class, thinnest, first), missing the pathetic buzzwords (e.g., game-changing, disruptive) and filled with just the facts would be a celebrated victory around here in the office filled with our reporters trying to decipher the truth.