This article was originally published on PR Daily in May 2015.
For seven seasons, the hit AMC show "Mad Men" gave the world a glimpse of Madison Avenue’s heyday.
Creative advertising has poured out of dapper Don Draper like whisky from his cache of Canadian Club. The series also included a few fundamental public relations tips that are still relevant today.
Here are five key takeaways for PR pros, relevant long after its last episode.
1. “I don’t sell advertising. I sell products.”
This is one of Don’s best lines in a series full of quotable comments. At the end of season two, Sterling Cooper has been sold and Don’s chief rival wants to steer the agency toward media buying and away from creative work. Don’s parting line: “I don’t sell advertising. I sell products.”
In the PR world, Don would sell reputations, not public relations. Don’t get lost in the mechanics and remember the objective: communicating your company’s relevance and value.
2. “If you don’t like the conversation, change it.”
In season three, the developers of Madison Square Garden fret about public outrage at their plan to raze landmark Penn Station.
Don says, “PR people understand this, but they can’t execute it: If you don’t like the conversation, change it.”
Today’s PR people can execute this concept through social media and other channels. PR people can also recognize a potential crisis and lead the conversation before emotions boil over.
This doesn’t mean PR can cure every crisis. Public relations reflects an organization’s culture. It doesn’t create it. There is no lipstick, nor pig. To change the conversation to something positive, there has to be something positive to talk about.
3. “That’s the reporter’s job!”
In the season four opener, aptly titled “Public Relations,” a reporter from Advertising Age magazine interviews Don. Agency partners hope the story about its creative superstar will put the newly formed Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce on the map.
Don meets the reporter for lunch, they talk, and the resulting profile falls flat. It describes Don as a “handsome cipher” and ignores agency business. Roger Sterling blames Don for not mentioning a key client, which has pulled its business, and Don yells, “That’s the reporter’s job!”
Yeah, no. Smart PR people know you never give an interview without delivering a take-home message, a "SOCO," or single overriding communications objective.
A reporter can’t write what she doesn’t know. It’s your job to inform her. Having a SOCO also prevents stray, casual and potentially damaging comments from becoming headlines.
4. Tell relevant stories.
Throughout the series, Don, and later Peggy Olson, land clients by spinning stories people relate to. In “The Wheel,” Don sells Kodak’s Carousel as a time machine. Later, he delivers a convincing narrative to Hershey about his childhood, then torpedoes his career with an even more mesmerizing true story. In “Burger Chef,” Peggy paints fast food as a nostalgic family dining experience.
Effective stories are the soul of public relations. They don’t tell your stakeholders you’re important. They explain why your organization matters and show how your importance adds value to their lives.
5. Personal brands can create company gains.
It’s no secret on Madison Avenue that Don Draper is the face of his agency and the partners ride his coattails. Today, Don Draper could be a brand of his own, with a Twitter feed, Facebook page and merchandising.
A major academic medical center where I worked had a brilliantly charming and articulate physician who could legitimately address a wide range of topics. We placed him in the news as often as possible. The doctor’s appearances built our organization’s reputation as a go-to source for news, which opened the door to pitching other sources we developed, which dramatically increased our reputation.
If a leader in your company has the chops for the public limelight, consider increasing his or her profile. First, however, provide media training. You don’t want an Ad Age moment.
The "Mad Men" era has come to an end, but fundamentals of public relations live on. Look for them in syndication or on Netflix and apply them to your business.
[RELATED: The ultimate conference for corporate communicators: join us for CCC in Chicago June 15-17.]
Clinton Colmenares is president of Apiary Communications Consulting. He has been helping multi-billion dollar organizations navigate crises and media strategy since 2000. Find out more at http://ift.tt/Y3iZfQ.
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