New Media
Media Outreach Goes Social With “Ptch”
by Michelle Fowler on 10/23/2012
So, remember how in my last post I said that mobile apps are where it’s at? I thought they were surely my family’s escape to living in paradise for the rest of our lives, and we just had to come up with the next big thing. Well, someone else already did – DreamWorks Animation, in fact.
I’m referring to a new mobile app that could possibly make a difference in the lives of PR professionals. It’s called Ptch.
Ptch was introduced to the market back in July, with wide reception from lovers of Instagram and other media content editors. This mobile app allows for a whole new level of content creation and editing. With Ptch, mobile users can create their own story out of photos, videos and music on their mobile storage and integrate virtually all media and comments from their social networks, all from their iPhone (iPad and Android to follow soon, no worries).
Think of its potential. PR professionals and their clients could quickly create a Ptch – er, pitch – to send right to the appropriate media contacts. It’s easy for reporters to visualize the televised impact when a pitch is already in visual form. Did I mention the videos have a maximum length of 60 seconds? Time for clients to break out those perfected elevator pitches.
There’s more. Once these crafty, quick little representations of clients or clients’ products and services have been created, they are easily shared to social networks, putting the information in front of consumers immediately. Plus, it’s interactive – the creators are calling it “living media” – and editable, which means more engagement with social media for clients.
Imagine the event promotion this allows you. You can create a short video with a slideshow before the event, and then participants can add in their own photos and “rePtch,” giving clients even more opportunity to be heard in a completely new and different way.
Alternatively, Ptch could contribute to PR disaster if an unhappy customer creates a negative video or edits an existing video and rePtches it with a negative spin. Ptch will require the same professionalism, creativity and monitoring as the other social networks that clients participate in, and every client should be prepared for a crisis.
Has anyone else had experience with Ptch? Feel free to share in the comments below.
Ed Leonard said...
Michelle,
Thanks for the great mention. I’m part of the Ptch team and I’m are excited to see your writeup. We built Ptch to be a powerful visual self expression tool that is accessible to everyone. We look forward to seeing how the PR community can embrace Ptch and look forward to your feedback (feedback@ptch.com) about how we can better service your industry.
Best,
Ed
Oct 24, 2012
Michelle said...
Ed,
I think this will be a great tool for PR folks and can’t wait to see all the possibilities.
Michelle
Oct 24, 2012
Karyn said...
Hi Michelle,
I’m working with Transcendental Music (TMusic) on their newest release from artist Emmanuel Jal, “See Me Mama.”
We’re experimenting with a number of ideas to promote Jal’s record but also his life’s work of creating global peace, particularly in his native South Sudan. We collect images from Jal’s Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook posts and help shape them into compelling stories that “PTCH PEACE.”
We’re very conscious of telling his story, sharing his recent experiences meeting meeting the Dalai Lama and performing working with celebrity activists and artists, not to mention global leaders like former President Jimmy Carter.
Two of Jal’s recent tracks are available to choose for anyone’s soundbed, and we hope that when viewers see his message in action they might be compelled to click through to iTunes and purchase.
We’ve shared on the usual social platforms and are increasingly reaching out to to his true blue advocates and communities to subscribe and remix. We’re interested in having them ptch their own peace stories and connecting them back to our larger community.
We’ve also embedded PTCHes in a recent Social Media Release for additional discovery and hope to see some engagement from that. We’re just getting started!
Cheers,
Karyn Cooks
Oct 27, 2012
Michelle said...
Karyn,
What a great use for Ptch. I love the idea of embedding Ptch’s into a social media news release. We will have to check out some of Emmanuel Jal’s music.
Oct 29, 2012