"The Myth of Launch PR"

Funny thing for a PR person to post but I give kudos to Seth Godin for attempting to smash one pr myth (there are many.)

Read what he has to say below, there is value. I disagree only on a small point. Companies often do imagine Oprah, WSJ and NYT touting their newly launched product, but the truth is, there is great value in launch pr. It just may look little like you thought.

A great product launch likely invovles a slow, crawling process (yikes) of introducing a product to trade, influencers (and no, I don't mean celebrities) and regular people (who by the way are getting more and more credit for being the pr/marketing powerhouses they really are.)

Slow and steady wins the race. In my experience, it is the snowball effect. The more your product is enjoyed, the more people will want to enjoy it.


The myth of launch PR
New startups can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars racing after a dream: a giant splash on launch.

Just imagine... a big spread in Time Magazine, a feature on all the relevant blogs, a glowing review in the Book Review. Get this part right and everything else takes care of itself.

And yet.

Here are some brands that had no launch at all: Starbucks, Apple, Nike, Harry Potter, Google, William Morris, The DaVinci Code, Wikipedia, Snapple, Geico, Linux, Firefox and yes, Microsoft. (All got plenty of PR, but after the launch, sometimes a lot later).

I'm as guilty as the next entrepreneur. Great publicity is a treasured gift. But it's hardly necessary, and the search for it is often a significant distraction.

It works for movies, in fact, it's essentially required for movies. But for just about every product, service or company, the relentless quest for media validation doesn't really pay. If you get it, congratulations. If you don't, that's just fine. But don't break the bank or your timetable in the quest.