A simple AI prompt can transform your press release into a list of challenging interview questions from a journalist's perspective. This helps you anticipate and prepare for difficult lines of questioning that your internal team might miss.

To ensure you receive senior-level strategy and relationships, avoid large PR agencies where your company would be one of their smallest accounts. Instead, opt for boutique firms. During the pitch, ask specifically which senior people in the room will be on your day-to-day team to avoid being passed to a junior team post-sale.

Samsung's global team ran an ad shoot in Australia without notifying the local office. When buffaloes escaped from the set, the local PR team was caught completely off-guard by a major crisis in their own market. This underscores the necessity of keeping local teams informed of any in-market activity to prevent operational chaos.

A prospect's unwillingness to introduce you to other decision-makers or share proprietary information (even under an NDA) is a definitive red flag. These are not signs of a slow deal, but of a dead one. It indicates a lack of serious commitment, and you should disengage to reinvest your time elsewhere.

When a lower-level contact is unreasonably blocking access to the C-suite, have your manager or leader make the call instead. This strategy allows the conversation to happen at a higher level while giving you plausible deniability, protecting your day-to-day relationship with the original contact.

To gauge a celebrity partner's commitment, A-Frame's CEO uses a simple litmus test: he must be able to get their direct email or phone number within the first few conversations. If he's forced to communicate only through gatekeepers, he knows they are not truly engaged.

While mainstream media covers the high-level controversy of a failed campaign, specialized trade publications dissect the granular, tactical mistakes. For practitioners, this peer review is often more damaging and insightful, as it judges the professional execution and ethical choices made behind the scenes.

The media landscape has shifted; print journalists now frequently arrive with cameras to capture video for online articles and social media. Spokespeople must be camera-ready for every media interaction, as any interview can become a video segment.

A UK-based PR firm secured a BBC crew's visit to Asia by promising a demo of a secret, motion-sensitive TV. Upon arrival, the local team had no such device and tried to distract the crew with a bamboo PC. This illustrates how a 'yes culture' can lead to promising non-existent products, ultimately destroying credibility.