The Kratt Brothers are high-energy performers who have delighted audiences throughout North America with their live shows, tours, speeches and in-store appearances. Beloved by fans of every age, they are hard at work on a new tv show, and known throughout the world as the creators and stars of four hit television shows:

• Wild Kratts, which premiered January 2010 and is already a favorite with Kratt brothers creature loving kids everywhere

• Zoboomafoo with the Kratt Brothers (Emmy Award-winning preschool show, PBS)

• Kratts’ Creatures (Parents’ Choice Gold Award-winning school-age show, PBS)

• Kratt Brothers’ Be The Creature (150 broadcasters, including National Geographic Channel)

Kratt Brothers live events work well for a range of occasions, from very exclusive events to big public events for tens of thousands of people.  They have delivered keynote speeches to conferences and been paid spokespersons for some of the world’s most recognizable s brands.

The Kratts have headlined two sponsored national tours and headlined in-store events for major retail outlets. They have appeared repeatedly on the Today Show, The View, Ellen and have been featured in People Magazine, Time Magazine and the New York Times along with countless media outlets throughout North America.

A Kratt Brothers event is always a special event, bringing families and communities together.   They offer two types of community events geared to families with children:

• Stories from the Creature Trail (without animals)

• Kratt Brothers Live with Animals

For events geared more towards adults, the Kratts offer speeches on the following topics:

• How doing what you love can lead to the best job in the world

• Animals can take you anywhere in Science

Speeches  may also be tailor written for specific events and organizations for an additional fee.

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Understanding social media starts with this one simple truth: we are all connected, wired to each other in ways filled with breathless possibilities and perilous pitfalls. It isn’t enough for brands to push messages out anymore. People want to be in conversation with the brand and people they do business with, whether they’re big or small.

Understanding social media requires us to think like our consumers. We don’t want to watch ads and we don’t want to be sold anything. We want to be engaged by a brand and connect with it on a human level.

Automation and systematization have stripped the humanity from our daily business transactions. But it is antithetical to our very natures to have machines talk to us, routing our calls through a bureaucratic labyrinth where we may or may not get help. Yet, increasingly, that’s what happens: efficiencies to help a company – but at a personal toll to the client or customer.

The end result? Customers and clients resent giving brands – even those they’ve dealt with for years – their hard earned money. The less invested consumers feel a brand is in them, the less invested they in turn will be in it.

Social media is a game changer. Albeit through technology, if it’s done correctly, it puts back into a brand what decades of systematization has taken out:  human interaction.  It gives the consumer back the very things that we need to relate to another, be it a person or a brand, and gives us what we crave:

• connection

• real-time conversation

• the exact information we want when we want it.

Social media is as revolutionary to modern communications as the telephone was in the day of the telegraph. You may not like it. You may be wary of it. But you cannot simply ignore it.

Profitable brands in the coming years will embrace this understanding of  social media: customers and clients are demanding a return to actual and human interaction with the brands we give our money to.  And thanks to social media, they can.

Is social media right for every brand? No, it isn’t. But it is right for any brands that are seriously committed to:

market research
People new to social media think it’s all about talking. But in fact, it’s just as much about listening, maybe even more. Through blogs and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, brands can listen in on the very demographic they are trying to connect with. Responsive brands can then devise or evolve products and services to better serve their clients or customers knowing in advance there is a market for what they are developing.

public relations
Responsiveness is a must in effective public relations. It’s always been true that a good experience is shared with few but a bad one is shared with many – but it’s more true today in a world where within the click or two of a mouse, anyone disgruntled can let a whole bunch of people in on what they like or don’t like. Social media is one of the most effective ways for a company to keep its finger on the public relations pulse. It also allows companies to head off emerging problems that could be diffused quickly by timely response, or ignored and left to fester into great big gaping PR wounds.

Can social media efforts go wrong? Absolutely. Message boards and blogs are filled with social media blunders. But here’s the thing. They’re likely the same kind of blunders that your brand and/or its representatives are making outside of social media. What social media does is put the good — and the bad — out on public display.

Yes, that can be scary. But brands today should be more afraid of the blunders they can’t see than the ones they can. They’re the ones that fester under the surface, erupting without warning and with no easy way to cap them before they explode. Those are the ones that will truly hurt a brand  – and the very ones that social media just may save you from.

Understanding Social Media is no longer a niceity. It’s a necessity. To learn more about the in’s and out’s of social media, please download our White Paper called “What is Social Media” located on the right side bar of the Babble On home page.

Picture courtesy of Tyson Jerry of Driven to Sustain.

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Every member of the media and every media outlet needs great, compelling content that keeps their readers, viewers and listeners coming back. And these days, the more able a story is to be told throughout a variety of media and media platforms, the better chance it has of getting covered. Think of your story as a stream, and each of its parts as currents in that stream.

A few years ago, newspapers may have sent a reporter out to cover an event and, if you were lucky, a photographer. Now, the  photographer may well also have a video camera – or they may send a dedicated videographer along as well. And if they don’t send along a dedicated photographer, you may see reporters with cameras at the ready pulling double duty.

What does this have to do with media and media relations? A couple of things, actually.

First off, lots of people will tell you that great media and media relations all come down to who you know.  Does it help knowing lots of people in the industry? Absolutely. We know our stories get to the top of the pile all the time because of the people we know.  We’d like to think it’s because we’re just such swell people, and our mothers would tell you that’s true. But really, it’s because we consistently give the media and other relevant parties the angles and tools they  need to tell important, smart, poignant, thoughtful, insightful, funny,  or in some way meaningful stories that have value to their audiences.

That last sentence is important - stories that have value to their audiences. It doesn’t matter if it’s your conjoined twin is the executive producer of The Today Show and owes you a favour. Media and all who work in it value their professionalism. Any story they air, print or post must serve their audiences. The better you help them do that, the more your chances of securing great media and cementing your media relations improve.

For most organizations, the act of simply pushing out a dry press release with a bit of information will get very little traction.  Here are some of the things any organization needs to do to have the best shot at positive media and better media relations:

1. Do the research. It’s not enough to know your product or service alone. You need to know what the public perception is of your industry, your competitors, your company, your product and anything else . You can’t change or influence something unless you know what the current perception is.

2. Understand your story. Remember the stream analogy? Your story is moving in one concerted direction but within that very fast moving stream, there’s a lot happening. Understand the different currents within your stream and determine the audience for each. Then look at which media and news outlets might be a fit for what story.

3. Be truthful and honest. We are living in an increasingly transparent age and lies, serious oversights and omissions will likely come back to haunt any organization who plays fast and loose with the truth. Those who operate this way will get media and news attention – but for all the wrong reasons.

4. Know who is covering what. Don’t just send out an indiscriminate blast or pitch journalists stories that aren’t on their beat or that don’t hold any interest for them. Look at recent stories they’ve covered and determine what they believe to be topical. Can your story add to their discussion in some meaningful way? Traction in the media and strong media relations are dependent on targeted, knowledgeable newsworthy releases and not generic blasts out to anyone with an inbox.

5. Ensure you have great story-telling assets to give the media and ensure you have pieces that will work for each platform.  Assume your story will be told throughout a variety of channels and have the tools and pieces necessary to do that. You should havean online Media Room with your EPK (electronic press kit) with search engine optimized press kit components, which at the very least should contain:

-lead press release

-bios

-faq

-one page

-Art (high res jpegs) of key people, products, etc.

-B-roll (active video – not dependent on voice or sound)

-video interviews with key personnel.

-existing press clippings if relevant

Your EPK should also be available to hand to media and other vested parties, preferably on USB drive.

Make it easy for them. Make it easy for the media and every journalist you work with to tell your story. Create something compelling. Be dynamic, be interesting, be engaging, be newsworthy. There is a burning need for content out there. Media and news outlets are looking for stories to tell. Give them what they need every time, and your stories will get told.

Need help? Give us a shout or drop us a line. Together, let’s see how we can engage the world in your story.

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