eye_on_pr 39 Coca Colla - Bill Marks PRSA-LA 01-16-03

Eye On PR

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MAYO enters a third year with a popular feature on its website: "Eye On PR" Everything from tricks of the trade to getting on the radar of industry analysts to making your company newsworthy.

Nationally recognized and award-winning writer George McQuade reports on the PR industry. We also feature guest writers. If you'd like to share your media experience please let us know, or feel free to comment.

Jan. 23, 2003 PR

By George S. Mc Quade III

WE NEED MORE ‘CHUTZPAH' PR

Bill Marks, Coca Cola

PR must earn a place at the decision table as a full partner on a company's marketing team, said Bill Marks, VP of PR for Coca-Cola North America at a PRSA/L.A. event this week. That was one of Marks' five tips for 125 PR pros at the event for "successful branding and PR."

Marks said that PR pros must be professional, disciplined and clearly focused when they reach that table. Secondly, he said that it is PR's job to "insist" and "ensure" that new products have, at minimum, relevance, interest and acceptance among consumers.

Bill Marks, VP of PR for Coca-Cola North America, told PR pros in Los Angeles that the field needs more 'chutzpah.' Marks also said timing is critical to campaigns, noting that Monday is usually a good news day. "Timing is the only thing we can control," he said. Marks called on PR pros to "find a way to put ‘chutzpah' back into PR."

"Be a little pushy and get outside the proverbial envelope," he said. "But don't just think outside the envelope, act outside it too." Marks' final tip: be credible. "We can't over claim. We must never try to ‘fool' the public," he said. "We must let the product, the service, the object of our efforts speak for itself. But always make sure first, of course, the whatever it is has been properly positioned before it speaks."

A 25-year veteran of the Atlanta PR industry, Marks said his most difficult assignment as a pro was handling 3,000 reporters during the 1996 Olympics. Although, he added, "when I was told there may be more bombs that could go off I found it much easier to convince everyone to move."

Vanilla Coke from ‘leaks' to ‘launch'

Discussing his company's successful and well-publicized launch of Vanilla Coke in 2002, Marks credited early rumors and leaks with starting a buzz for the brand. He said an early item in the Financial Times [of London] gave credibility to early rumors, most of which stemmed from an initial report in Beverage Digest, a trade publication. "What followed [the Financial Times story] was a U.S. media frenzy with all kinds of reporters trying to match that story," he said. "All this happened more than a month before we were ready to launch."

To ward off repeated speculation – "which was putting messaging out there that was not what we intended" – Marks said Coke had to come back in the media with a confirmation that the product did exist.

The company published a brief press release and simple B-roll tape which was picked up by about 700 outlets, he said.

Marks said the next challenge was to develop an event to continue to drive media coverage. He said his staff went on the Internet and found The Vanilla Bean Café in Pomfret, Conn. "It's a Norman Rockwell kind of quaint town and an honest-to-goodness mom-and-pop café," he said. " Logically, at the time we PR types at Coke though a setting like that just might drive some more TV coverage."

He said the event hit 1,500 local TV networks (95 percent of the TV markets) and 250 newspaper stories. Marks said PR efforts for the launch were accountable for awareness levels of 40 percent.

"First, there were the ‘leaks.' Then, our confirmation of the brand's existence. Third, the launch event," he recapped. "Our staff went and found The Vanilla Bean Cafe in Pomfret. That's outside the envelope. That's chutzpah."