Hey, Your PR is in My RSS Peanut Butter!

Pheedo launched a new RSS ad unit that displays PR Web press releases. In other words, press releases - dressed up as ads - are coming to an RSS feed near you. Couple this with the rise of direct-to-consumer press releases and what you have is that our trusty tool is becoming nothing more than an ad. Does anyone see a boy who cried wolf scenario coming where all press releases, even ones that convey news, become irrelevant? If press releases become ads, aren't ads just press releases? If that's so then I better hurry to make sure my press release airs during Sunday's Super Bowl.

Technorati Tags: Advertising, press releases

Comments

[Billy]

all ads are irrelevant, I mute commercials on the rare occasion I even watch TV, and I switch radio stations as soon as a commercial comes on, no loyalty what so ever, screw their yelling, obnoxious ads

[Chris Thilk]

Maybe I'm missing your point but if you see an RSS feed that has just been turned over to ads wouldn't you just unsubscribe? The thing about RSS that is empowering is that it's something the user controls, not the outlet. I decide to receive this feed or not.

Like I said I might be missing your point but I don't see the danger or problem you do.

[jeff]

Good post.

I thought news releases were written just to ensure that your client ends up in Yahoo! Finance. ;-) Seriously, though, if we want to keep the role of news releases pure -- e.g., as an official tool to communicate with journalists -- we first have to revisit the tired argument of whether journalists consider news releases the best channel for receiving news. Seems like the personalized e-mail pitch long ago supplanted the news release in terms of outcomes.

I'd have to write an essay on the matter to cover up the holes left in my argument by not responding with more than four sentences. But I hope you see what I mean, at least partially.

[Bill Flitter]

Today, you pay a service - PRWeb or PRNewswire a fee to distribute your press releases. However, how these companies use the fee is different.

PRWeb - They use the fee to drive traffic to your release.

Goal: Increase the number of viewers who actually see your release.

Vehicles Used: Search Engines, News Tickers, RSS Feeds and Distribution Partners.

A PRWeb guiding principle is to never distribute press releases that look and read like advertisements.

Each press release is reviewed by human editors. They use Pheedo just as another distribution vehicle.

PRNews Wire - They use your fee to send to their distribution partners - Yahoo!, Motley Fool for example. Sites like these post the releases because it adds value.

Goal: Increase the number of viewers who actually see your release.

Vehicles Used: News Tickers, RSS Feeds and Distribution Partners.

The distribution deal we did with PRWeb is simply a new channel of press release distribution. Press releases are contextually matched to the editorial content. They ad value to the feed.

In our case, publishers get paid to add relevant content to their feed - so that's what makes it an "ad".

However, RSS has one big feature - one-click unsubscribe. If the content is not relevant, the user is gone. Publishers need to generate revenue from their content. Users want great content that is free. PRWeb provides publishers with a revenue stream while providing users with great content.

You write press releases to get noticed by your target audience. Publishers "pick-up" press release information for relevant content. What PRWeb is doing is a new spin on the same goal and using your distribution fee slightly differently.

It beats the alternative - Viagra ads in your RSS feeds! :-)

[David McInnis]

Steve, I believe that we met briefly last year at Gnomdex. Since it appears that I am responsible for much of what you now despise about press releases (after all, PRWeb has essentially created the direct-to-consumer press release marketplace), I feel that I must respond to your post. Perhaps Chris Pirillo will allow us to debate this subject further at Gnomedex this summer.

Hey, while I have the floor, everyone should rush over to Gnomedex and register for this conference.

First, I understand your concern about RSS Ads. I believe that I first voiced my concerns about RSS advertising in May of 2005. See http://blog.rsspad.com/rsspad/2005/05/rss_advertising.html and
http://blog.rsspad.com/rsspad/2005/05/dear_google_lea.html

Next, let’s not kid ourselves. There is nothing sacred or holy about journalism anymore. For goodness sake, it has been the biggest product placement network going for close to three decades now. Turn on any network morning show, if you can stomach it, and you see one product placement after another. They are largely able to get away with it because it is so carefully orchestrated. Apart from being the ultimate in product placement, journalists today seem more like lemmings chasing the same dozen stories on a given day. What happened to variety?

Now, what does this have to do with the state of PR today? A lot, actually. Companies and individuals want to be heard, and for the reasons listed above, they are blocked by the built-in media bottle neck. Want to argue this point? Look at the rise of blogging and Web 2.0 in the last few years. This did not happen because journalism was doing its job. On the contrary, it is a result of the media not being able to do its job effectively.

I could really go on and on here, so I will intentionally cut this short.

Back to your original post—we have decided to use the Pheedo Ad placement technology to further enhance our direct-to-consumer press release distribution. We have an editorial staff that is diligent in reviewing each press release to minimize the chance that ad copy makes its way into our system. Are we perfect? Probably not, but I think that we are more aggressive than most.

PRWeb spearheaded what some are calling PR 2.0 years ago when we were the first major newswire to offer search engine optimized press release (SEO PR) services overlaid on a SEO friendly platform. We realized that most press releases never saw the light of day. There had to be a way to help the average business person obtain some visibility without having to flow through the media filter.

Now, you are going to find this very interesting. People actually like press release content. The proof is in the results. PRWeb delivers over 30 million page views each month from its networks, which include PRWeb and eMediawire. These page views are driven largely through online search, and people are hungry for this kind of content. Using a reputable network like Pheedo to contextually place press release headlines within RSS feeds and blogs actually serves the interest of the subscriber.

Thank you for the post; it gave me a nice opportunity to vent.

David McInnis, Founder & CEO PRWeb

[eAgent]

As serial entrepreneur who supplanted advertising with PR back in 1986, I have to say this is EXACTLY the sort of technology that keeps me using PR, and specifically PRWeb as my core media channel.

Here's where I'm coming from:

1) PR IS editorial, leading-edge content (not to be confused with breaking news: that's the stuff reporters and Big Media stumble-on or often create to drive viewership).

2) Unlike blatant advertising, PR is non-invasive marketing: you subscribe. Or you don't. (I currently subscribe to 12 of the possible 280 media distribution channels on PRWeb, and another half-dozen custom RSS feeds out of their 8.6 million. If they start to feed me doo-doo, I change in a heartbeat. It's easy, and nobody gets hurt).

3) Advertising is interrupt-driven marketing, and, aside from entertainment value, unless it informs, I kill it quick. I request Press releases. They inform, and often (not always) I actually learn something. You can skim a press release pretty quickly to find the gold, and most of the time, there is intrinsic value to knowing what products are hitting the market, and what trends are being pushed in PR. Market Research in real-time.

4) These RSS channels, and the resulting PRWeb ads, are keyword-specific... the content is relevant and specific. I get my RSS feed, and I get a small aura of relevant content (don't tell me you never clicked an AdSense ad because it looked like a good extension of the content you're reading...).

5) In speaking with PRWeb, I've been assured that these press release elements won't get in the way of my RSS content: again, non-invasive. No blinking, scrolling, bandwidth-stealing, mind-numbing content.

6) Related press releases actually ADD value to the RSS feed, something few PPC ads could ever do. And when you click a link to a press release, you actually get 350+ words, images and other key content. Very specific. Already human-filtered and edited (at least in the case of PRWeb).

In my mind, as both a CEO and a PR person, I look forward to having a technology that lets me lead an industry and get my name out there in a favorable format (think RSS advertising is going away anytime soon? Baby, it's not even out the gate!).

So, rather than complain, let's help establish what's good content and what's &$%@ when it comes to this new media channel. Anyone care to join me in setting standards for RSS Advertising?

Best regards,
Mark Alan Effinger
ExitPath.com
RichContent.com