COVID-19 Crisis Communications Webinar with Los Angeles PR Leaders

This Wednesday 4/15/20 at Noon Pacific Time, a panel of Los Angeles public relations agency leaders will convene to discuss developing effective, tasteful COVID-19 media pitches on PR Tech Wednesdays, a weekly video chat open to the first 100 attendees at no charge.

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Angling pitches and press materials so they're relevant to the news of the day is a popular media relations practice. New York Times bestselling author David Meerman Scott wrote a book about it called Newsjacking.

“I’m being pitched coronavirus-related stories dozens of times a day at this point, running the gamut from the tasteful and thoughtful to the cringe-inducing,” writes Tech Crunch editor Brian Heater.

Muck Rack Blog features editor Jessica Lawlor put together a piece full of tweets by journalists complaining about bad coronavirus pitches and she found some doozies.

There’s one about how wearing glasses protects you by reminding you not to touch your face, another about how installing artificial grass can keep you safer at home and a tip sheet pitching a guest who can discuss stopping coronavirus with time travel. 

To help us all rise to the challenge, I’ve invited principles from three respected, well-known Los Angeles PR firms specializing in different industries to talk about how they’re advising clients on media relations during this time of uncertainty.

Los Angeles Public Relations Expert Panel

Bob Gold of Bob Gold & Associates whose clients include Amazon Studios, Hong Kong Trade Development Council and ESPN. In addition to discussing COVID-19 communications, Bob will also share about the use of political opposition research tactics like paying “journalists” to write bad press, hiring social media trolls to post negative comments and flooding search engines with negative content to drive down positive results, which he recently wrote about for PR Daily.

Amy Levy of Amy Levy PR whose clients include BMW, Sodexo, restaurants and cannabis companies. Amy will share about how restaurants and other retail and service businesses are weathering the crisis. She’ll also discuss how the cannabis industry has been impacted. 

Kimberly Goodnight of Media Playground PR, which reps some of LA’s hottest fashion, accessories, beauty and lifestyle brands will talk about what the garment industry is doing to help first responders. Prada is the latest big-name fashion brand to start manufacturing face masks, according to the Guardian.

Will also discuss how to refrain from sending out SWAK (stuff we all know), how the stalled economy is impacting agency billing, pitching new business via Zoom, the eroding wall between earned and paid media, how the pandemic is impacting influencer marketing, the unique media environment that Los Angeles Public Relations firms play in and why it tends to attract clients from all over the world. 

PR Tech Wednesdays is a weekly video chat I host to help agencies, so practitioners and clients stay current on developments in public relations in general and earned media specifically. Every Wednesday I host a chat with a thought leader, industry vendor or client about how they’re managing their media relations efforts. 

Access is limited to 100 attendees and admittance this is first come first serve.  Past episodes are here. 

I hope you can join us!