Proactive, pre-emptive PR

So, I’m a bit delayed in posting this blog, but as I’m sure you are all aware, the last couple of weeks of uni can get pretty hectic! But, here goes…

Last week SBS current affairs program Insight ran a piece on the overwhelmingly high rates of animal euthanasia in Australia. Anyone who has read one of my previous blog posts will know that one of the pro bono clients Shine has is the Shenton Park Dogs’ Refuge Home. Naturally, as a dog shelter/refuge this program could raise questions that the Refuge may need to answer.

This is how I got my first glimpse at somewhat ‘proactive’ PR, or perhaps ‘pre-emptive’ PR. For a small dog shelter in Perth, I was amazed by their approach and their eagerness to talk about the topical and hard issues.

The day the show was to run, an email went out to senior staff members letting them know the show would be airing and encouraging them to watch the program. They even discussed what the show could include and how the refuge could respond.

The day after the show aired my supervisor tasked me with researching animal euthanasia in Australia, particularly the segment on the show. Following that she asked me to put together an outline, or the ‘skeleton’ of a media release responding to the program, and talking about the Refuge’s pro-life policy. This involved talking to the Refuge President Karen Rhodes to get the key messages they wanted conveyed through the release. After drafting the release I worked with my supervisor to tie all the ends together and make it have a personal voice, more than be a piece of news. That was great experience, as I have only ever written newsy releases.

All of this was in case a journalist somewhere wanted to pursue the topic in Perth, and find out where Perth’s oldest Dog Refuge stands. This release went through approval processes and editing to be issued on the second day after the program was aired.

Unfortunately the media release received only one follow up. This is very disappointing as the euthanasia of animals in shelters in Australia is astronomically high, with this issue being ongoing for some time but never really brought into the spotlight. The interest came from Nova FM who did a radio interview with Refuge President Karen Rhodes. One interview though, is better than nothing.

I am still utterly impressed with the way the Refuge and the team at Shine went about this. The Refuge wanted to get the message out that it is pro-life and euthanises less than 1% of the dogs that come into its care each year. And it did just that, and for anyone who asks, we have a media release to let them know our stance.

 

Thanks,

Elizabeth Gall