PR and media costs

[Brown and Boris]

I am thinking about asking a PR/media company to do some work for me. It is the launch of a technical product within Human Resources which I think is probably best promoted through the trade press, either as a press release at launch or by getting short articles into the hands of the trade editors.

I don't see the need for glossy brochures or launch events because the product is technical and the customers are probably not suited to that but I think that if I could generate some interest/controversy around the product via editors customers are more likley to read and act on that than receiving a mail shot or seeing pics of a product launch without detail of the product.

So, local or national PR company? What should I look for in the PR company? Are there companies who specialise in particular sectors?

How much should I expect to pay for them to help me with copy and get it into Editors' hands of say the top 5 trade publications?

I have found a few local companies ranging from single ex BBC new journalists who still do bits for the BBC ( R4 whose audience is probably the kind of people we should be accessing) to larger companies with loads of celeb pics on their site (which turns me right off).

[StevieBee]

Best approach is to find a PR company that specialises in your area as with a more general practice, you could end up editing what they do so much you may as well do it yourself. Specialists also are likely to have good existing contacts with editors of trade journals.

If you don’t know any and Google doesn’t throw any up, put a call into the magazines and get recommendations from them.

As for costs – a lot depends on what you want to get from them and the type of practice. You generally get what you pay for but as a guide, be thinking in terms of £500 - £1k for a one off project.