Great PR, but not quite Verbatim on ITV Thames Valley
Ah, the best laid plans...
ITV Thames Valley Tonight did a terrific job covering the kind hearted gesture by call handling supremos
Verbatim to handle the calls for one of its staff when she gives birth later this month... except they did not mention
Verbatim by name!
Morgan PR always explain to clients that while
public relations is the perfect way to promote the news stories within an organisation, the superior rewards of being in the news are tempered by the control you relinquish. If you want to guarantee what will appear in any medium and when, then advertising is the method - but of course does not attract the same objective consideration from the public.
All that said, it is not unreasonable to expect the hallowed
six points of good journalism to be addressed -
Who, What, Where, When, How & Why. These boxes were ticked, but only superficially - for example 'Who' is Donna Cox - which gets mentioned, but it is also founder and director of Verbatim Graham Hill and Verbatim itself, neither of which is mentioned. The big hearted gesture is very typical of the exceptional customer service offered by
Verbatim.
On the brighter side, other media watch the news and are a bit more resourceful and one eagle-eyed publisher spotted my name on the text message that appears during the report and was quick to get in touch!
Below is
what ITV showed last night - or rather it is what they showed
with some helpful titles and subtitles to help fill in the gaps.