Ancestry.com spends millions of dollars each year on marketing. A lot of their marketing efforts are spend on customer acquisition and retention, but not all of it. Off all the things their massive marketing budget is spent on, publishing press releases is probably the cheapest thing they do, but with considerable return on investment; press releases tend to get a lot of free media attention for every dollar spent. The trick is to create a press release that gets picked up by as many publications as possible.
The copy & paste bloggers will happily copy & paste every Ancestry press
release, marketing does not have to worry about those, and certainly not about the copy
& paste bloggers they bribe sponsor by
advertising on their blog. f the press release makes a significant announcement,
such as major new product, some original content bloggers are likely to write
about it, both to spread the news and to give their impression or opinion,
months before the trade rags chime in.
Press releases that announce free access to otherwise unavailable database tend
to get the widest coverage; even the most serious bloggers are likely to tweet
the news.
The amount of attention press releases create for relatively small effort is
great, but that attention still tends to be limited to a relatively small
circle; genealogy tweeters, genealogy bloggers, genealogy podcasts,
genealogy vloggers and genealogy trade rags. the It is a small group with
a captive, but small audience.
A few press releases get into financial and tech investments channels.
Reaching the much larger and more diverse audience of the mainstream media is hard. Companies traditionally do so through sponsoring of organisations and events, as well as advertisements in the media. Ancestry.com does all that - and more. Ancestry.com marketing has managed, more than once, to obtain wide media coverage through nothing more than a press release, and I obtained the scoop on just how they manage to do this.
The name by which this secret Ancestry.com marketing technique is known internally seems to depend on whom you ask. Apparently, those who created the technique call it the Strategic Celebrity Association Method (SCAM), and those who do not agree with it call it nonsense. Below is, in full, the document several sources within the company forwarded to me.
Strategic Celebrity Association Method
How to produce a Massively Successful Genealogy Press release
genealogy is boring
Dear Ancestry.com marketing professional.
Life as a public relations employee is tough, life as a public relations employee for a genealogy site is worse. We try hard to put on a cheery face, but the truth is that genealogy is boring, immensely boring. It is so unbelievably boring that it is practically impossible to get mainstream media interested in our press releases. Luckily, there is a new way to make it seem exciting, and that is strategic use of the celebrity connection.Another truth is that People love celebrity gossip. The Who do You think You Are series has been running since 2004 not because it is about genealogy, but because it is about celebrities. People love dirt about celebrity ancestors almost as much as they love dirt about the celebrities themselves.
When you understand these two basic truths, you already understand the awesome power of the Strategic Celebrity Association Method (SCAM).
celebrity connection
People love news about celebrities, so a great way to make some noise for the company is to issue a press release about a celebrity connection. A good example is finding a relation between film star Brad Pitt and U.S.A. president Barack Obama. Something like that is sure to generate a lot of press.
The revealed relationship does not have to be to a famous person, if it is otherwise interesting or ironic; for example, finding a distant relation between Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series, and a 16-century woman convicted of witchcraft will do fine as well. A claim like that makes it possible to end your press release with something quotably like
to find out what magic your family tree might hold, visit www.ancestry.com. By the way, notice how that sentence subtly slips our web address into print.art
There are many celebrities, and many are connected in ways unknown to them and the public. Still, creating a truly successful celebrity connection press release is an art. There is strategy involved. You need to come up with the right connection at the right time, and market your message the right way.
Most importantly, you definitely need to get off the beaten genealogical marketing path.genealogical publications
Understand your target market, and keep it in mind. You are not making this press release for the few serious genealogical publications out there. These silly genealogy magazines have a few thousand readers at most - and we do not need to market to them all. They proudly display silly acronyms for their made-up high-falutin' titles, but the true mark of a professional genealogist is their Ancestry.com subscription. Don't waste your efforts on genealogists.
Oh, another thing. The editors of these sleep-inducing genealogical publications demand carefully constructed fully sourced genealogies. They are boring sticklers for a so-called genealogical proof standard, and will criticise your slightest lapse in reasoning. Some have a nearly academic peer review process.
You would have to go through the tedious drudgery of stuffy genealogical research, and then you would have to wait a another few months for publication - if they accept your work at all. By that time, the marketing opportunity you wanted to seize will almost surely have passed. Don't waste your time dull doing research.gossip glossies
Do not bother with serious genealogical publications. Do not even bother with genealogical trade magazines. Wake up and smell the celebrities; when you want your press release to go mainstream, the gossip glossies are your prime audience.
There are thousands of them of and some of them have millions of readers. Best of all, they do not really care whether a story is true. If your story is juicy, they'll print it.
Give them a good line, and they will not annoy you by demanding proof, but take it and rush to get it out to their readers it in an attempt to publish a few seconds faster than other gossip glossies.
You'll get your story in all the gossip glossies, all the celebrity columns and many OMG-so-LOL blogs. It will be featured in entertainment shows on prime time television. This overwhelming success can be yours if you remember your audience: gossip glossies.celebrity of the moment
You cannot pick just any celebrity. Picking the right celebrity is key. You must pick the celebrity of the moment, the one who is so hot right now, that Oprah begs him to come on her stupid show, and his Wikipedia comment page is a biggest-fan battle-zone.
You start by picking the celebrity. Not every hot celebrity of the moment is suitable. You need one for which you can come up with a suitably surprising connection.
Actors often make good subjects. People love to gossip about actors, and the roles they play can inspire the connection.
For example, our most recent successful SCAM campaign is the Dracula Connection. Robert Pattison, who plays vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight movie series is a hot celebrity, and we piggybacked on his success by claiming that our research discovered that he is related to Dracula. It created an instant media frenzy.connection
Once you've come up with the celebrity and the connection, you know what the gist of your press release is going to be. There is no need for any research, because you already know what your surprising, media-worthy find is, you just need to sell it as research.
There are several well-known historical figures and so-called gateway ancestors through which practically everyone in America is connected, directly or indirectly. A few minutes of browsing through OneWorldTree should be all it takes to find a connection. If that fails, try Geni.com or the Family Forest CD, and be sure to follow their blogs for inspiration.genealogist
Do not bother showing your work to any of our serious genealogists to get a quote from them. They are sticklers for facts and will only try to explain to you that you cannot make things up. They may even try to prevent you from publishing your fabrication.
To give your press release an air of authority anyway, quote yourself, and call yourself a genealogist. Also, make sure to refer to your browsing of OneWorldTree as
difficult research, to suggest that only an uniquely talented genealogist like you could have discovered this unexpected connection.royal
The two people you connect in the press release are probably not related at all. The beauty of the SCAM approach I invented is that they don't need to be. Don't worry about it, Ancestry.com is a genealogy business. Understand that it is business first, and genealogy second. You've got to do what's right for business.
Let's continue with the Dracula example. Dracula is a fictional character, but the story is loosely based on the historical character known as Vlad the Impaler. He was a European prince. All European royalty and aristocracy is related one way or another. So, you claim that Robert Pattinson is related to the British Royals, that the British Royals are related to Vlad, and strongly suggest that Vlad is Dracula. You go on to suggest that this means that Robert Pattinson is related to Dracula. The SCAM approach is that easy.
For maximum media effect, you downplay whatever distant connection Vlad has to the British Royals and focus on the living members of the British Family instead, such as prince William and prince Harry. They are celebrities too, so that is a double whammy.
You also downplay the fact that you have no connection from Robert Pattinson to the Royal Family whatsoever, by merely claiming that there is a connection, and then going on to mention a little known family line as the probably connection.
facts
Never mind that anyone who reads carefully understands that if that connection is merely probably, you did not actually find any connection at all. No one is going to read that carefully. Everyone is going to rush the story into print.
Never mind that even if Robert Pattinson and the crown princes had a common ancestor, while also having an ancestor in common with Vlad the Impaler, you still don't have any relationship between Robert Pattinson and Vlad the Impaler. Boldly claim that Robert Pattinson is related to Dracula. No one is going to examine your claims. Everyone is going to rush your fabrication into print.
Once everyone has printed it, it must be true. That's the beauty of the SCAM approach.disadvantages
Turn disadvantages into advantages. The fact that Dracula is fictional isn't a disadvantage, but an advantage! All the information you add on the Dracula character being based on the historical Vlad the Impaler is more publish-ready information for hurried editors and helps to draw attention away from the fact that the press release does not document any connection at all.
Once you've provided some info, take poetic license to confuse Dracula and Vlad as if they are the same, real-life person, to suggest that the movie star is related to the real-life vampire. This practically ensures that gossip glossy editors will make even more outrageous claims than you do. Some carefully suggestive wording in the press release is enough to ensure that many will claim that Robert Pattinson is a descendant of Dracula.
sell it
Sell the connection. Draw attention away from the complete lack of any relationship between the celebrity and the supposed relation to a historical figure by pretending to be surprised that the relationship you fabricated goes through the Royal Family. Put on an imagine that air in your press release.
Be sure to call it an
exciting findand throw in some other details, like another cast member, the director or the author of the story being related to the royals as well. Providing more than one angle, and more than one surprising claim makes your story extra hard to ignore.Round the press release off with some juicy quotes. Take liberal poetic license to make your quotes as quotable as possible. Pretend your fabricated connection is true. Feel free to confuse the fictional Dracula with the historic Vlad. Deliberately confuse the present and the past. In this case, an outrageous remark about
royalty and vampires lurking in Pattinson's lifeis almost sure to get quoted.Remember to attribute the best quotes to yourself and call yourself a genealogist to lend your statements an air of authority. That, combined with the fact that you are issuing an official Ancestry.com press release is enough to dispel any doubt that editors may have about your story. No gossip glossy editor is going to doubt an official statement from a genealogy expert working for Ancestry.com, the leading genealogy company.
Don't worry about genealogists
No serious genealogy publication is going to publish your nonsense. A few serious bloggers may question your claims, especially because you do not provide evidence. Don't worry about them. They are just a few lonely voices preaching to a small choir of like-minded readers. Their voices of reason will drown in a cacophony of headlines even more sensational than your press release, and no one will take them seriously.
Unlock the power of an official Ancestry.com press release. Ensure massive marketing success with the Strategic Celebrity Association Method.- Absence Honest Sabot-Truley
Copyright © Tamura Jones. All Rights reserved.