War Time Advertising

So, do we just close up shop until the war ends?

The answer, as usual, is "it depends." We lean towards "probably not."

If you are trying to get coverage of hard news stories, it probably won't happen during the initial days of the war. So if that's your stock in trade, I recommend that you don't waste your time, at least not on a national level.

However, if you're presenting anything other than hard, national news, you've probably got an excellent opportunity to get on air once the war starts.

Why? Because all of your competitors (read: anyone else who also wants news coverage) is going to stop pitching stories because they think they'll never get on air.

Leaving you a slightly more open playing field.

Let's look first at the national media level...

We've already written off the network news. So consider newspapers.

Most national newspapers will be running extra content on the war. But, they will still need to produce food, entertainment, people, business, home, lifestyle, health, senior, auto, and other sections. So those editors/reporters will still have deadlines to meet and pages to fill. Don't pass the opportunities to submit stories to those sections. The competition will be far less than the normal level.

Non-news national magazines, because of their long lead times, will probably ignore the war almost entirely, so keep pitching them just as you normally would. This is especially true with trade magazines.

Now let's consider the local level...

The tips above are certainly relevant. Local feature editors will probably be even more starved to fill their non-news sections than the national editors. In fact, this would be a great opportunity for you to get coverage in papers that are not local to you, but where you can pitch a local slant, so look at opportunities to pitch many local and regional papers with your locally-slanted stories.

Another opportunity is to deal with the generic issues that the war produces. Concepts like stress relief, teleconferencing, Internet marketing, airline travel, personal safety devices, national security products, emotional health, family togetherness, dealing with fears, communicating with friends and family in foreign lands, hydrogen cars, etc. will all be of interest to feature reporters during the war.

Another key is to localize the war. Show how it fits with your company's products or services. If people are sending your gift baskets to troops, you've got an opportunity. If you're providing counseling services to kids at school or families of overseas troops, you should certainly be on the phone to the reporters even before the action starts.

Part of the challenge, especially with this divisive war, is to get publicity without hurting yourself. For example, if I was running a company in a highly anti-war community that had a contract to produce weapons or food for the military, I would have some discussions about whether you believe press coverage would be helpful or harmful given the current political situations.

One other way to generate publicity around this issue is to write letters to the editor to express your point of view. Again, the same caveats mentioned above apply. http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=67264

So what do you do if your phone does stop ringing and your opportunities to pitch die off?

Don't sit around wringing your hands and worrying. Business will be back soon.

Simply change your focus from short-term to long-term projects. Write those strategic documents, create the new product, do the marketplace analysis, and call the key non-media people who can make a long-term difference in your business.

In other words, do those things that never seem to get done because the phones keep ringing and the short-term demands keep demanding.

Use the time to kick your business to a higher level, so that you're already there once the war is over.

That's what we'll be doing...

Here are some resources to help you in this process:

How To Get On Your Local News Tomorrow

How To Write How-To Articles For Newspapers, Magazines, and Trade Publications

How To Use Newspaper and Magazine Editorial Pages

Tags: Advertising