PR Shorts: The press release
I’m going to try to put together a series of brief posts about PR practices, and thanks to my current diet of cold medication and coffee the best name I could come up with is PR Shorts. I know that sounds like a pair of cut-off jeans that will never give you a straight answer, but maybe you guys can suggest something better… or I’ll wait until the medicine wears off.
Today’s PR Short is about press releases. There’s definitely an accepted standard for the format of a release, so let’s talk about that quickly. In most cases your press release should look something like this:
Title
Subtitle
Intro paragraph
Detail paragraph(s)
Quote(s)
Boilerplate
The Title should grab the journalist’s attention. Usually you’ll want this to quickly explain the main point of the release, but in some cases you may want to just put a potential story headline in there. Let’s say you’re pushing a new emergency-diaper technology that cleans the baby’s butt if it drops a deuce (again with the underpants theme… curse you, medicine). Your title could be, “Hankypants Introduces New Diaper Technology to Avoid Poopy Accidents” (the straight-forward one) or, “Never Clean Baby Poo Again” (the less direct option). I probably could have avoided a poop joke there.
The Subtitle is optional, but I’d recommend making use of it. It allows you to briefly offer more info about the announcement. If you were to use the Never Clean Baby Poo Again header, for example, your subtitle could be something like, “Hankypants Introduces New Diaper Technology that Cleans Infants’ Bottoms.” A lot of journalists will really only read your title and subtitle; if they’re not interested at that point, they’ll likely just move on, so you may as well give them as much info as possible in those lines.
The Intro Paragraph gets to the point. It will usually begin with “Edmonton, AB, Canada – September 9, 2009.” — the location and the date of your announcement. Then you’ll want to explain what the announcement is about — “Hankypants, the leading creator of leading-edge diaper technology, is excited to announce its latest model, the PooFree 3000.” You can provide a bit more info, including availability, pricing, etc.
The Detail Paragraph(s) will just include some more info. In some cases you may not even want to provide more info — your intro may have already provided enough detail, but I’d recommend using this space if you can. It allows you to talk more about the product itself, your company, unique features of the product, etc. Don’t get overly verbose with this or any other paragraph, though — the more you write, the more time the journalist has to just stop reading.
The Quote is also optional, but it allows you to show off your executive team to the world and to push your corporate messaging a bit. Particularly if you’re announcing a partnership of some sort, quotes might allow you to include an external perspective on your company. Having someone else (preferrably someone reputable) in your release saying, “We’ve evaluated the PooFree 3000, and the product is, without a doubt, the pinnacle of diaper technology” will add some legitimacy to your announcement, and makes it a bit less about patting yourself on the back.
Your Boilerplate is just a description of your company. Talk about past products, your strengths, corporate ideals, etc. And be sure to include a URL for more info.
Pretty simple, right? If you have any questions about writing effective press releases, feel free to comment or email me!
Nice, Tom. The press release, and writing in general, is, in my opinion, the dying art of PR. Too often releases are flat, poorly written (i’ve seen some doozies this year) and just like the one that came before it. If anyone out there wants to get into video game PR, please be a strong writer first, and a strong drinker second.
THE LEAD:
I hate seeing “today announced” in a press release – its not proper form and its simply redundant. might as well say “fatally killed.” Essentially that phrase goes back to olden times of PR, when you might have a press conference and then hand stuff and snail mail your release out. It should be eliminated entirely. How about “hankypants will introduce its latest model of poopants…” rather than “hankypants today announced it will introduce its latest model…” Should be noted, not all PR people agree with me here. But they’re wrong and I’m right.
BODY vs QUOTES:
The BODY text of the release is for facts, features, and highlights. You can get creative here, of course, we do work in video games… I mean, i once said “devastating arsenal of flesh-chewing weaponry” … but the body of a release is not for declarative opinions like “best” or “most fun” – its for facts like, “most maps ever included in a multiplayer shooter.”.
The QUOTE is where you stick your hypey and overstated opinions – those thoughts should come from the executives mouth, not from your statement. It’s his or her opinion that the game is the best, the most awesomest and pushing the genre further. That’s not a fact, so it can’t go in the body of the release.
if you put declarative opinions into the body text, you are writing a marketing/sales one-sheet, NOT a press release. Don’t do that – you are ruining your rep as a PR professional.
Also, don’t address the reader as “you” and ask them “Are you ready to meet the challenge?” That’s a SALES&MARKETING call to action, NOT PR. Keep it pure and proper people!
All good points, Matt. I’ve fallen prey to the “today announced” thing… just a bad habit, I think. To me, the most important thing you mentioned, though, is the creativity aspect. We do work in an entertainment industry, so I think it’s the PR rep’s job to make sure that the press release reflects the “fun” part of the industry. I’m happy to have a fair bit of freedom with the GOG.com press releases — I can put all sorts of puns and silly shit in there… whereas I’ve also been in situations where I had to write something bland and straight-forward. It’s not as much fun to write, and it’s not as much fun for the reader.
I prefer using the NeverPoo 250, but that’s a consumer’s preference.
What bothers me is when a press release announcing a game or it’s availability or whatever buries the platform somewhere deep in the body, or doesn’t include it at all. Most of the time this is for PC titles, but still…
I don’t read most of the press releases I get. *SHOCK* It’s not surprising though, really. %99 of them are dull and boring. I like the ones that are self referential and have some fun. I mean, these are videogames, this isn’t supposed to be like healthcare reform.
I get stuck using the “today announced” out of habit, I hate when I do it, too.
Dan – the reason some announcements never include the platform is because with consoles, you have to get the platform holder’s approval before sending the release. Sometimes, there’s just no time for that, as it can take 24-72 hours, and you have a client who refuses to wait that long to announce their new title after officially signing it. So, you cheat, and just don’t include the exact platform, saving that for a follow up as soon as humanly possible.
As far as being creative, I’ve spoken to as many editors saying “Be creative” as there are saying “Just give us the raw facts, we don’t need a fun release, we just want to hear about your game.” So it’s a toss up on that one.
As Matt points out, you should not use “you” in an announcement. Actually, most wire services will reject any press release containing “you”.
I would love to banish all press releases, and just do informal media alerts with “Hey, here’s what’s up” in a paragraph or two, but alas, some clients want a big announcement for everything, or their partners want an announcement, and no amount of “Seriously, this could be over and done in two seconds, rather than 13 revisions” will stop them. So, you shut up, do your job, and fight the battles worth fighting.
Good points everyone, and yep, Tom, I prefer the GOG press releases to any other myself. Well, GOG and Atlus. Seriously, if the industry as a whole was more like Atlus, we’d all be better off.
I know I’m gonna use this. Thanks for posting this Tom.