Even the most innovative technology or product needs support to keep it in the spotlight, and creating a good story is one way in which PR is effective in developing brand recognition with potential customers.

Generating interesting content is more important than ever in the age of social media, which aims to engage and entertain as well as inform – all in a matter of seconds. For anyone who reads all of the online reviews before making a new purchase, the power of endorsement doesn’t need spelling out!

In PR we have always appreciated the value of personal recommendation, encouraging journalists to talk to customers or to trial products themselves in order to create genuine objective reviews and build confidence in a company. But digital and social media now provide the channels for talking directly to your customers and influencers.

So, how do you create a good story that achieves cut-through when the company and/or product is new?

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking

1. Creating a history

People feel more comfortable about buying from a company if they know where it has come from and who is behind it. For start-ups we create a story about how the founder had the original idea for the company. For SureFlap, the microchip-operated cat flap company, we explained how it was frustration with a neighbour’s cat frightening his pet that drove the Cambridge scientist to come up with a radical solution. People can identify with the problem and appreciate the innovation. Also, it starts to create a character for the brand, which, in this case, is a company that cares about pets.

2. Pump-priming with case studies

Ideally you will have a customer story to support a new product launch, but that can be a ‘chicken and egg’ situation. How can you get a customer if the product isn’t commercially available? We’d recommend that a new product is beta-tested with the type of organisation that could be a customer. If you make it mutually beneficial, this early adopter is likely to be prepared to participate in PR. One of our clients had developed a new type of interactive projection screen that did not require a room to be blacked out. We persuaded other clients to use the screen and we created a series of stories that benefited all parties. The innovators soon had a series of different scenarios to demonstrate how the screen could be used and this created material for media stories and marketing.

3. Talking to customers

An advantage of being an external agency is that often our client’s customers will talk more openly about their experiences to us. This often reveals new needs or different viewpoints and allows product stories to be customised for different audiences or market sectors. One client thought his customers valued his IT support service because it offered a fast response time. We spoke to his service users and they said the biggest benefit was actually that the engineers stayed until the issue was fixed. And, in addition, that they were prepared to troubleshoot to identify the source of the problem and make recommendations that provided a longer-term improvement in the system. This created a series of story angles for media coverage and valuable input for the marketing strategy, to capture and promote this differentiator. It was also a pat on the back for the staff and boosted morale!

4. Focus groups provide new perspectives

It is difficult to predict the market response to disruptive technologies and focus groups are a low risk way of gaining insights. In the early days of mobile phones, we persuaded one client –convinced his new app would be a hit with 20-year olds – to test his assumptions with a number of focus groups. We ran sessions with groups of students in their twenties for the equivalent of the price of a few beers and had a couple of other sessions with time-poor professionals and stressed mums. We discovered that the students had alternatives to the app that they preferred to use. It was instead the mothers who immediately appreciated the benefits of the app. They suggested a whole range of scenarios when it could be used and that offered good case studies and illustrations for media stories.

5. Don’t be boring!

Journalists are human too and not many of us are thrilled by a story that starts “Greys Ltd are pleased to announce version 5 of LS45 is now available with 69% more gizmo …” A good story is one that you would tell a friend over a drink and may follow the following format: an unsuspecting person gets into a scrape, potential disaster threatens, fortunately they are rescued by an unexpected source. This formula can be adapted to most technology stories and if you can add drama or human interest, then all the better, as this creates a memorable story that will hopefully be recalled when they come to purchase the product.

We used this formula for the Cambridge University Eco Racing team to help them gain media profile and broadcast coverage with a vehicle that was four years old and a few renders of their next car.

What is your story? Let us know!