Kevin Helton- 14 December 2016
Assignment 3.7
Intro
Interviewer- Kevin Helton
PR Professional- Matt Papka
President/Owner/Founder/PR representative of Ele8 Bikes
Kevin-
Yes, sir, I appreciate your time, and before we get started I want to let you know I'm in a Sports Marketing and Media course for my school. This particular month we are doing a PR class, and for an assignment, I have to do an interview with a PR professional. Would you be willing to help me out?
Matt- Yeah if I can help you I sure will. I'll give you my best shot.
Kevin-
Alright excellent, first off, What exactly did you do in the PR world?
Matt- Well I just provided information, to different PR people, people that wrote newspaper articles, people that were bloggers, about my bike convention and about fishing conventions. So my type of PR would have been that area, I was trying to get PR through newspapers writers to write about the product I invented and patted it.
Kevin-
What advice would you give to someone who was wanting to get in a Public relations world, what advice would you give to get them where you been, to get into that kind of realm?
Matt- To be honest Kevin I'd have to say, that you have to think so many steps ahead, you have to really think and anticipate PR relations or PR events and how they will negatively affect, or impact you, and that would be how you base your questions on how you would handle a PR or interview for a particular subject or situation. So what you might be saying might open up a book with the person yours communicating with that you didn't want to open, or you have to think a few steps forward, so you don't open up a book in their mind to go a different angle of the story or PR, you don't want to give that angle an opening. So you have to sort of funnel it through, I guess a channel of communication to funnel it to see what kind of outcome you want. Is it a very abstract micro or macro type of thing, or you looking for a very specific information on what that interview is about. Because PR could be taken, as you see in the media today, and how someone can make a statement, and someone can chalk that up 10 or 20 times you know what I mean
Kevin-
Yes sir
Matt-It'll make it feel like they meant this, but it really meant this, but it appears like they meant this. There are so many ways to take this, so in a PR world, you have to think about everything you're about to say and what comes out your mouth. So as you're delivering your words, you really have to think about what bridges you're opening to provide what story for your content
Kevin-
Sounds like you almost have to play a chess game to think one step ahead.
Matt-Oh yeah I would say absolutely. For instance, with the PR about my bike, my bike helps everybody. The media folks took it upon themselves to say hey, it's more of a medical bike. So that that PR wasn't meant to be negative, but it impacted the project negatively because people that didn't have a special needs or disability thought they don't need that bike because I don't have a disability or challenge physically. The whole point of it was so that you could ride the bike better leg extension not about whether you was disabled or not. It was just an ancillary benefit that it helped people that had some issues.
Kevin-
Wow, excellent. So what are some of your responsibilities, and how did these responsibilities integrate with the marketing and business objectives with your particular organization with your bike?
Matt- Well you have to start with your grass roots in guerilla type of marketing, but you really have to have a team of advisors that you can trust, that are objective, and you have to get into the feelings of it, along with focus groups. You might think you have the best name for it, for branding. Then you might find that that's not a great idea. So I think that's why you have to be open to be really critically open in your brain to say, hey it's my project its my idea, but I have to be open because the old story a million brains is better than one brain.
Kevin-
So what kind of methods of communications did you use to reach out to the public, and how was that effective?
Matt- I think one of the best ways to look at it is the way commerce is done today. With so many different channels for distribution of products, or needs, or services. I also think that with the election we just had it proved that how a different degree of social media can not only get product out there and knowledge out there, but could also start a campaign. It could start a movement, it could start hope, it could start so many ancillary arteries from your message.
Kevin-
Do you have any samples of communication strategies that you've used to actually achieve success?
Matt- Well I would use a PEP type of management. Which is a performance evaluation planning. So I would take the segment of what I'm working on and see how it's performing. Then you would evaluate it, and then you'd plan around how it'd change, so every angle gets fixed. Then turn it into a written plan so you can add things while staying focused
Kevin-
Okay and now lastly, how is your public relations practice effected the reputation of your product?
Matt- You really have to have an open dialogue of on the record off the record before something PR can be taken out of the wrong context, because the interviewee doesn't know as much about your business as you do, or know the exact message so. It's good to do planning in these things because you get caught up in the whole hey oh my God the phone rang and I have to do this, so planning accordingly, so you don't get caught up in that moment. You just have to be grounded to stay on cue and message.
Kevin-
Okay that'll pretty much sum things up again thank you for your time. Unless you have anything you'd like to add
Matt- No I think it's interesting what you're doing and studying that particular field. Whatever you can learn will be great. You have a great day