Friday, October 3, 2008

Capturing the national spotlight

Gaining national media attention is a small business owner's dream - but are you ready for it?

Birmingham Business Journal - by Cindy F. Crawford Staff

Bob Farley | F8Photo.org Jim Howard has scored national media exposure with several creative inventions and has seen sales boom afterward.

As a "serial inventor" who traveled the world promoting his various ideas, Birmingham's Jim Howard got tired of missing his favorite TV shows.

So, being the inventor that he is, he saw a need and came up with RoverTV, a handheld portable TV that could record shows and play it back while on the road.

Thanks to the "unique" factor of the device - which came out in 2006 just before the iPhone made it obsolete - it didn't take long for Howard to score national media attention.

RoverTV made its debut in several magazines, most importantly Oprah's monthly "O" publication, which talk-show host and cookbook magnate Rachel Ray happened to see while on a plane and decide she wanted one.

Before he knew it, Howard was flying to New York to watch his gadget take center stage at Rachel Ray's studio, then on Good Morning America, The View and Fox and Friends ­- all within about a week.

For a small business owner, landing a product or service on a national media outlet can be exhilarating - just ask Howard. The exposure can also lead to a huge boost in sales and monstrous profits.

But the spotlight can have hidden repercussions if the light is too bright.

For example, some companies may get caught behind the eight ball, with not enough product to sell, an overloaded Web site and overworked staff trying to keep up with the sudden demand.

The best way to avoid getting burned: be prepared, said Melanie McCraney, president of McCraney Communications in Birmingham, who helped Howard send out releases to media outlets across the country.

Here's some suggestions from McCraney and others:

• Staff up. If you know you're about to get a big national pop, think about hiring temporary help, so callers get a live voice on the other end of the phone.

• Check your communications. Know what your Web host can handle, and research what to expect. Make adjustments as soon as possible, because the site can go live before the show does. That includes your phones.

• Overplan for demand. Make every extra effort to be ready and expect demand. Order plenty of products and alert buyers of a possible delay in delivery if you don't have enough.

• Include a "As seen on ‘Show Name Here'!" icon on your Web site, and/or set up a special phone number for people being redirected by the show.

Birmingham's Stacy Claire Boyd Inc., which has had its invitations featured on The Today Show's wedding contest, has a separate page on its Web site that displays editions of magazines and clips from shows that highlighted its products.

Owner Stacy Claire Boyd said the national exposure has come from luck and word-of-mouth. She doesn't have a public relations representative and sends out promotional packages on her own.

But the word-of-mouth has come from some very influential and famous voices. Child star Dakota Fanning is a fan and other clients include Maria Shriver, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr. and Reese Witherspoon. Her work has appeared in Brides Magazine, Child magazine and the Wall Street Journal.

One of her tricks: a strong Web presence. Her next plan is to use blogs.

When pitching your product to a national media representative, you need a "hook," something that makes the product stand out and newsworthy, said Brian Pia, senior vice president and director of Luckie Strategic Public Relations, which handles many national campaigns.

"It's all about positioning - creating a journalistic reason to talk about your product," Pia said. "Relationships (with the media) are great, but it doesn't replace a good story."

When Pia knows he has a good story, he and his staff call journalists across the country to pitch the idea as a viable story. In one case, the story, which was about how planting trees add value to homes, landed in 632 newspapers in 32 states.

But while national hits are important, Pia recommends not to forget the local media. Often a story starts at the local level and gets picked up to run across the country, he said.

That mantra has worked for RoverTV's Howard.

"Press feeds on press," he said, adding that he likes to make print media first because television producers often search for stories there.

He's trying that method with his latest invention, Bluwash, a cleaner made to help luxury jeans last longer. The product is featured in an edition of Self magazine and is "starting to snowball," he said.

And this time, he knows how to prepare for the onslaught of calls he hopes to get.

He'll start by using past experience. During RoverTV's appearance on Rachel Ray, Howard said he watched Internet sales roll in while it aired. Sales made during the three-day media blitz made up 25 percent of total sales for the gadget that he later sold to an Asian company. And it drove retailers to call and stock it on their shelves, he said.

The iPhone may have pushed RoverTV off the shelves before it became a household name, but it didn't go quietly.

During its heyday, it appeared in 26 magazines and 50 newspapers across the country.

Reporter Jennifer Nycz-Conner with the Washington Business Journal contributed to this report. ccrawford@bizjournals.com | (205) 443-5631