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USA Today to PR departments: Be more like Apple
By Jeff Smykil
| Published: March 11, 2007 - 07:00PM CT





Apple, especially under the guidance of Steve Jobs, has always done the whole PR thing pretty well. The CEO certainly knows how to play the press and he exceeds at creating hype for any venture that Apple decides to take a dive into. But just how good is the company at selling? If you ask USA Today writer Jefferson Graham, they are the best.


In his article, Apple buffs marketing savvy to a high shine, Graham uses the recent announcement of the iPhone to make his case. According to a Harvard Business School professor quoted in the article, the iPhone has already been subject to $400 million in free advertising.


"No other company has ever received that kind of attention for a product launch," Yoffie says. "It's unprecedented."


Just to give you an idea of just how much advertising money that is, I can tell you that 30-second spots during this year's Super Bowl cost $2.6 million. That $400 million in free advertising could have bought almost 80 minutes of Super Bowl air time. Now of course there is no way that the number of people that this free advertising has reached can compare to that of a Super Bowl audience. But hey. You can't buy free advertising.


So the question is: how does Apple do it? Well Graham has you and every other corporation in the world covered by providing seven easy steps to becoming a PR darling:



Make innovative products.
Keep it simple.
Create truly memorable ads.
Find an enemy.
Work the taste-makers.
Offer surprises.
Put on a show.


Had we known it was that easy to create a billion dollar corporation, we would have done it years ago! My favorite bit of the article had to do with Apple keeping things so secretive:


"[...]a snowball effect. Steve invites the general public, and they flock to these shows. You have this mesmerizing speaker in front of 4,000 people, and