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Sequence of Events Positions a Company

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
Carolyn Hawley

Carolyn Hawley of CanaleComm helps her son sew a pillow for seniors at the Annual Carlsbad Day of Giving Back event.

Last week provided an excellent example of a mosaic approach to corporate positioning.  Our client Life Technologies’ story is multifaceted: the company is the leading provider of tools and services for life sciences research, and their products are used for a variety of applications, ranging from molecular medicine, forensics, and food and water testing to name just a few. Their products and healthy stock price drive the primary conversations that contribute to their positioning, but there are other sides to the company that are equally important in shaping its reputation.

Last week, Chairman and CEO Greg Lucier and several Life Technologies executives participated in a conference hosted by the J. Craig Venter Institute and Nature held on the anniversary of the publications of the human genome sequence in 2001.  Greg joined a panel discussion with Dr. Venter, Desmond Tutu and Nobel laureates to look forward to the promises of human genomics for the next ten years. Engaged in scientific discussions, the Life Technologies staff was in their element as visionaries for the path of where their company’s technologies can impact the human condition.

The next day, we saw a completely different side of the company. Their community affairs team spearheaded the first Annual Carlsbad Day of Giving Back. Employees, volunteers from local business and kids enjoying a school holiday converged in a giant vacant manufacturing space on the company’s campus. We planted mobile vegetable gardens, sewed pillows for home-bound seniors, created festive bags used to deliver food to the hungry, and talked with children about the values of volunteerism. Greg Lucier shared the stage with Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall and families had their pictures taken with Life’s colorful new mascot, the Giving Gene. It was a terrific event for Life to bring the community together, demonstrate its leadership as a good corporate citizen and show everyone how much fun it is to work there.

In a matter of days, we saw two very different sides of Life Technologies. When you combine them with all the other facets of its identity, we come away with a very rich picture of the company.

Pam Lord is a senior vice president at Canale Communications and can be reached at pam@canalecomm.com.


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It Takes More than an Embargo to Land a Story

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Photo by PRNewserThe first day I started in life sciences communications, I was introduced to the news embargo and asked to embargo a client’s early-stage data to a list of reporters.  Since then, I’ve relied on embargos of relevant pieces of news (such as clinical data) targeted and trusted reporters to increase odds of pick up. This effort has netted placements, both in trade and broader media, that have given reporters the time to dive into the story and have amplified the news of interest to target audiences.

Recently, my efforts to embargo some client data were met with the sound of crickets chirping.  Quick consultation with one of my colleagues who embargoed out different data found the same result.  Efforts that only last year would have led to some interest went nowhere.  What’s going on?

I decided to consult a key member of my audience, Ivan Oransky, an editor with Reuters Health and author of the blog Embargo Watch.  Ivan and his team focus a lot on news out of science and medical journals and medical conferences, so he deals with loosely written or outdated embargo policies on a daily basis.  As a health writer he also gets many emails from communications pros in attempts to secure his interest in their client’s press release embargos.

Following my conversation with him, I came away with some key points and to dos:

  • Reporters are developing embargo fatigue – so much nonsense from companies crosses Ivan’s desk on a daily basis, and communications pros should really evaluate how important a client’s news is before trying to embargo it
  • Embargo lead times are often too short – while different reporters and editors have different criteria for how long they need for an embargo, to write a high quality story, Ivan would like at least twenty four hours, preferably more; with less than that, his reporters don’t have enough time to properly digest what is often complicated science
  • The “relations” in “media relations” is eroding – when a source has developed a relationship with a reporter or editor, that writer is much more likely to give weight to outreach from that source; therefore, communications pros must step out of comfort zones and really develop relationships with important writers and editors

For hints on what not to do, I highly recommend visiting Embargo Watch and following @ivanoransky on Twitter.

Carolyn Hawley is an Account Manager at Canale Communications and can be reached at carolyn@canalecomm.com

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I am Excited to Embark on This Mission (Really, I am)

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

I am embarking on a mission, and I hope you will join me. It’s an ambitious mission that will improve the quality of communications for all mankind, and perhaps spare our colleagues in the media from insanity induced by redundancy in their work day. That mission is to rid press releases from “We are happy, excited, thrilled, overjoyed, elated, jubilant, kid-in-a-candy-store ecstatic…” quotes once and for all. Mark this day as the beginning of the end of the “happy quote.”

You know what I am talking about. These are the quotes that always seem to subconsciously end up in press releases that state the emotional obvious rather than make a meaningful point. It only took a few minutes to dig up some recent examples.

“CPI is an emerging leader in the lithium-ion battery field and we are pleased to have them as a strategic supplier as we prepare to bring the Ford Focus Electric to market”

“We are pleased to be a partner in the GE ecomagination Challenge”

“We are pleased to help Zogenix and many other life science companies in the San Diego market meet their goals”

“I am thrilled to welcome Duncan Macleod to Iogen Energy”

“We are pleased to have Deerfield make an additional investment, and have other new institutional investors in BioSante”

“We are pleased to receive this milestone payment from Ferring”

“I am excited about the novel chemical approach that Calithera is taking”

“We are thrilled to develop traditional and non-traditional public relations strategies to help the Foundation garner awareness for such an important mission”

“I am happy and proud to embark on this initiative together with Siemens and my colleagues from around the globe in order to ensure that these powerful tools are used to their fullest extent”

“I am happy to report that we are seeing, and I am confident will continue to see, the rewards of successfully executing our plan”

“We are thrilled to announce the first FDA approval of a prescription product that utilizes our proprietary PharmFilm(®) Technology”

These guys must have been really, really blissful, adding not one but two emotional charges in their quote:

“We are thrilled to help them get the word out….We are happy to be on the same team, with the joint goal of striking out prostate cancer for good”

Business must be good for Captain Obvious…as a spokesperson for so many companies.

These quotes are fine for testimonials. Well, maybe. Definitely not so good for delivering a message. Perhaps the intent in many of these cases was to insert the emotion and passion behind the spokesperson. Good intention but so often poorly executed. Instead it comes across as robotic and unoriginal. Readers should not need to be told that you are wound up, but instead told why you are jumping out of your shoes. If the reader needs to be told you’re jazzed about a cash infusion or data, then the message probably isn’t coming through in the rest of the release.

Let’s do a quick comparison. We often see the thrilled, excited, happy language in the first sentence of a quote about a new executive joining the company – “I am so thrilled John has decided to join Biotech Inc. His experience will be instrumental as we move to the next phase of our company…” Really, of course you are thrilled or you wouldn’t have hired him!

Now, how about this: “Pedro Lichtinger is an exceptional fit for the role of President and CEO of Optimer Pharmaceuticals.  Pedro’s successful track record in the global pharmaceutical industry will benefit us as we focus on the commercialization of our lead drug candidate, fidaxomicin, “ said Michael N. Chang, Ph.D.  “His experience leading research and development and commercial operations will be invaluable.”

What do a couple of reporters think about “happy quotes?”

“Totally agree the “we are pleased” quotes are worthless. No decent journalist is going to use them.”

“Not only does everyone reading them understand they were crafted and placed in the speaker’s mouth, but also they should never, ever make their way into a news story or article.”

We have all been guilty of this at some point (myself included). But enough is enough. Don’t serve a water sandwich. Let’s get rid of those throw away statements that don’t have a chance of media pick up. Your readership will thank you.

Jason Spark is a senior vice president at Canale Communications and can be reached at jason@canalecomm.com.

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