Breaking genuinely massive stories is every PR’s dream but how often do they actually come around? By ‘massive’ I don’t mean relatively interesting stories, which have had a sprinkling of PR star dust to make them stronger than they would otherwise have been, but genuine, huge stories of global significance.
Over the last couple of weeks, the team here at Speed have been heavily involved in breaking the Stuxnet computer worm story on behalf of Symantec. This is a suspected state-sponsored cyberwar attack on Iran. Even the notoriously secretive Middle Eastern state has confirmed the infection has been found on computers at its Bushehr nuclear facility.
The campaign has largely been driven from the UK and resulted in unprecedented coverage for Symantec. From the front page of the Financial Times, to The Economist, BBC online, TV and radio, Sky News and Channel 4 news as well as every broadsheet national it has been spectacularly successful and a joy to work on. It’s also been an interesting exercise to see how key titles like the FT and BBC can drive the news agenda. For instance, from speaking with journalists from rival media outlets, many told us they had seen the story reported there and there’s no doubt this helped underline its credibility and strength.
Even within Speed towers there has been those that say “it’s such a big story you had to get loads of coverage for it didn’t you?” Well yes and no. This is the kind of story that because it’s so controversial could easily have back fired on us had we not got the messaging right, which I think we collectively did. It’s also one which took a lot of explaining to all of our key media. It’s a highly complex threat and required enthusiastic pitching and a detailed walk through by the team as to its significance and how it has evolved. One very high profile news outlet for instance wasn’t going to cover the story until Speed explained it to them. They then sent a camera crew to Reading to film at Symantec’s security operations centre and put a reporter on a plane to Jerusalem to cover the story.
All in all it’s been one of the most enjoyable and rewarding periods of my career and we look forward to gaining even more lovely coverage for a very interesting client.
Stories only become bigger stories because there’s a domino effect of media visibility and talk. Most PRs (apart from the really rubbish ons obviously) can place a story, but it takes a good PR to place/embellish/nurture/twist a really big story. And they don’t come much bigger than nuclear fear and a mass threat to lives and fortunes. Unless they involve C. Cole or W. Rooney of course.