Writing On `State of the Chicago Hotel Market'

It's been awhile since I wrote about hotels.

I've written about events at hotels, provided feature reporting for Time magazine on boutique hotels--and even went into one hotel room, right after a police officer, to report on a young man who had fallen to his death from a ledge.

But it wasn't until 10 days ago that I wrote about the hotel industry as a whole. It came in the form of a summary report of "The State of the Chicago Hotel Market and Its Reflection of Economic Conditions," at an Urban Land Institute meeting.

The speakers I chronicled offered a good news/bad news report--with the good news coming only after some immediate-term bad news the industry is grappling with.

Fittingly enough, the session was at a swanky hotel known as theWit in downtown Chicago. Previous ULI summaries I've done are linked from a prior Inside Edge PR blog post.

Sharing Client's Tennis Success a Team Effort

Last week, on the heels of some significant success among girl's tennis players who have been coached for years at Five Seasons Family Sports Club, I wrote a round-up and shared it with the local media.

Along with the news release ("Five Seasons Sends Top Frosh Crop to IHSA Tennis Tournament"), which you can see at Triblocal.com, I created a photo gallery to provide online visitors another way into the story.

That's Alysa Straub in the photo accompanying this post--she's had a spectacular season at Nazareth Academy in LaGrange Park.

Often, the difference between little or no publicity and solid P.R. is cooperation from clients. This outreach, for example, came about thanks to excellent collaboration with Ernesto Faisal, a longtime coach who provided me with the background information for the story.

In all, he invested over an hour of his time to help make it happen. Over the coming weeks and months, I firmly believe the time that he devoted will reap a solid return in the form of increased awareness of, and enrollment in, the stellar tennis coaching that goes on daily at Five Seasons.

`People Are More Interesting Than Things'

"People are more important than things."

My wife and I issue that truth to our children all the time--especially when they argue over who should be able to play with this block or read that book.

In the PR world, there is this variation: "People are more interesting than things."

In short, individuals are far more newsworthy than incidents. And events are much more likely to attract media coverage when you highlight people involved in the event.

Anyone can convey the time, location and other basics of an event. But it takes diligent effort to craft a compelling story linked to that event. This comes to mind on the heels of my current work on behalf of Five Seasons Family Sports Club in Northbrook, where on Sunday, Nov. 15 there will be an indoor triathlon in support of a bone marrow registry drive.

A key figure in the effort is Jim Kepka, a Glenview man who received a bone marrow transplant three years ago (that's him pictured, during the transplant). He and his wife, Angela Russian, are triathletes as well as founders of an organization dedicated to helping others receive the same life-saving gift that Jim got around Christmas 2006.

You can see the story here at Triblocal.com.

Showing, Not Just Telling, At Business Expo

Last week, I was an exhibitor at "A Passport to Success," the business-to-business Expo sponsored by the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce & Industry and three other chamber organizations (Bensenville, Villa Park and Addison.)

At the same time, as the event's publicist, I took close to 100 photographs and about 20 videos.

You can see some of the fruits of my video labor at what I call my "miscellaneous" YouTube channel, not to be confused with my Inside Edge PR channel or any of the other dozen channels that I have created and maintained for clients and others.

I also posted a release, drawn almost entirely from an Elmhurst Chamber write-up, at Triblocal.com and, on the same Tribune-owned site, created a photo gallery of the Expo.

Additional links can be found on the home page of the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce & Industry website.

Serving as the event publicist was a fantastic way to meet people and to adhere to one of my mantras: "Show, don't tell."

In short, I was able to introduce myself as a publicist even as I was in the midst of acting as one. It sure beats relying solely on my business card, brochure and a firm handshake (though those are no doubt helpful, too).

I am hardly unique: it's precisely what was done by many others who demonstrated their service and products.

They included stellar restaurant exhibitors (like Bob Tercall of Two Chefs in Bensenville, pictured) that provided food samples as well as my new favorite massage therapist, Anne Lucas of Pure Harmony Massage (also pictured), who let her hands do the talking via chair massages.

Kudos to all the chambers and participants for fostering such a dynamic networking environment. The ones that did at least as much showing as telling will surely be reaping the most benefit.

E-Mail Interviews Can Aid Shoestring PR Budget

As a reporter, I rarely used e-mail to conduct interviews.

Among other drawbacks, it eliminated the opportunity to elicit insights that would take the interaction in an unanticipated and even more interesting direction. And in potentially adversarial conversations, it prevented me from catching a slippery source off-guard with a tough question or observing their body language and tone of voice.

But as a publicist, e-mail can be a tremendous ally, especially when working with clients on a limited budget. As a means to gather basic background information that helps put flesh on the bones of a news release, an e-mail exchange can be tremendously effective

Instead of taking upwards of a half-hour or more to extract that information, I can take five or 10 minutes to toss some queries at an individual and let them provide written responses.

The utility of this approach hinges largely on the client's ability to offer detailed answers in a timely manner. If they don't give enough detail--and don't do it quickly enough to meet some looming deadlines to ensure the timeliness of a release--then trying the e-mail shortcut can backfire and result in an even longer, costly process.


A recent scenario in which this avenue worked very well: a news release I crafted for Brian and Jun Benakos (pictured), owners of George's CARSTAR in Chicago.

You can see the release here at Triblocal.com.

When Pitching the Media, Keep it Brief

Unless you've been on the receiving end of a story pitch, you likely don't appreciate the urgency of being succinct in those interactions.

Having been on the receiving end of such pitches for about 20 years,
I can assure you that the goal ought NEVER be selling the reporter, editor or producer on a story--that's asking too much, too soon.

When I reach their voicemails (the usual scenario, as most don't pick up the phone), I leave a brief message with the gist of my call and a heads-up that I’m about to e-mail more detailed information.

Those e-mails all lead with the phrase “Following up from the voice mail I just left for you…”

When reaching an individual directly, my first goal is to pledge brevity. How I typically start: “Are you on deadline, or is this a good time to talk for 30 seconds?”

Such a courtesy signals that I know their world—and I am not about to waste their time. Saying “30 seconds” is intentional—when people trot out “Do you have a minute?” they usually don’t mean 60 seconds, but upwards of 10 minutes.

Now, if someone starts to engage you and you stay on the phone longer, that's great. But it has to be their call.

Your objective in calling is not to “close a sale” as they cheerily promise to crank out a story. Rather than closing anything, you want them to open up.

Warm ‘em up to the idea that the e-mail you're about to send is worth serious consideration, instead of the reflexive tap of the DELETE key.

Anything Can Go Viral: `Reporter Turns Ghetto'

PR 101 Tip: act as if everything you say, write, e-mail, broadcast, or otherwise communicate holds the potential to be transmitted worldwide.

Check out this YouTube clip, entitled "Reporter turns ghetto in 3 seconds," that illustrates the point, in hilarious fashion, 4.6 million times over: