Tag: pr firm

How to prepare for media interest now

Posted on by Wellons team

A great TV story about your business’s latest charity effort runs on the 10 p.m. news. The local business journal publishes a feature on your growth strategy. The trade publication your partners read runs an item on your latest product.

Who doesn’t want that?

As an Orlando PR firm, we are no stranger to gaining media attention for our clients. In fact, earned media placements are one of the most common requests we get—and we’ve seen what they can do for a client’s reputation and reach.

Even so, there’s a big misconception with how these kinds of hits happen. Clients tend to expect that they will put out a press release and the media will come knocking. Sure, that happens sometimes (when it’s a good story, or we use our connections and skills to pitch media the right way). But often, media attention comes from being flexible. It comes from working a current event angle or building a relationships and reputations. And more often than not, it comes fast.

If clients aren’t prepared to make things happen, they might miss out on an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And nobody wants that.

Businesses who want to truly take advantage of media opportunities need to be ready. Below are a few steps you and your business can take to prepare now.

Nail your talking points

You know your elevator speech…right? CEOs and business leaders know what their company does, but you’d be surprised by how often they realize they can’t quite verbalize it. Before you take an interview with any media outlet, you need to be sure you can share your mission in a clear, concise way. Take some time to boil what you do down to just a few talking points, and be sure to share them with anyone who might handle media requests so your message is aligned.

Flag potential problems

Just like you want to know all the good things about your company, you’ll also want to do some introspection and identify any potential problems. Once in the public eye, anything and everything is fair game. If you can identify any tricky spots, you can be proactive in developing responses to any questions you might be asked about these things. This will help you avoid being caught off guard so you can mitigate any negative attention you might receive and position your company in the best light.

Identify a spokesperson

When time is of the essence, you need to know who’s stepping up. Identifying a spokesperson in advance allows that person to have time to complete the above steps.  Be sure to choose a company leader who is comfortable in the role and who can confidently speak to the company’s mission. Your reputation rests in their hands.

Know your visual opportunities

It is important to not only tell a great story, but to show it. Words are a powerful and often essential aspect to telling your story, but there are many times a story will die without visuals. This is particularly important for TV media. Be prepared to offer visual opportunities to journalists. You should also start to build your media kit with high-resolution, professional photos of your company, including headshots for all executives, shots of important services or activities, and videos. You don’t want to be scrambling at the last minute to get these, and often, if you can offer these assets, you can land a story that might otherwise be passed over.

Complete media training

Completing the above steps will take you far, but when you find yourself in front of a camera with a microphone in your face for the first time, it’s natural to freeze up. Completing media training can help you know the tips and tricks of the trade so you can feel comfortable and properly prepare for each individual interview.

How we can help

At Wellons Communications, our Florida PR agency is made up of former journalists and PR pros. We’ve been on both sides of the camera and notepad, so we know how to help you prepare and put your story in the best light.

We also understand how media works and can craft the right pitch to gain media interest in the first place.

Need some help? Call 407-339-0879 or email will@wellonscommunications.com and see what we can do to help you prepare for any media interest and news coverage that may come your way.

Involve your PR firm at the start of marketing planning

Posted on by Wellons team

When businesses put together important marketing initiatives, it’s surprising how many times publicity and public relations are treated as an afterthought.

In an overwhelming number of instances, organizations invest enormous energy and time into involving their advertising agencies at the beginning of a communications program aimed at increasing sales. When the idea has been formulated and approved, all too often someone says, “Why don’t we involve PR, too?”

This results in a structured program being handed off to the PR firm with the demand, “Get results.”

Whether or not the marketing message is actually attractive, from a publicity and PR perspective, is a different story—but it is a consideration that needs to be baked into marketing planning from day one.

The best marketing initiatives get PR involved in ground-floor planning

As the old saying goes “Advertising is what you pay for. Publicity is what you pray for.”

Advertising most often occupies the center ring when it comes to marketing planning.

Why?

First, advertising costs a lot of money. For that reason alone, marketing chiefs focus their attention on what is consuming the majority of their marketing budget.

Second, the company can totally control the advertising message. Where it goes, what is says, and when it is issued all are under their direct control.

For those two reasons, marketing chiefs usually start planning by huddling with their advertising agencies—winding up with expensive media plans, accompanied by equally expensive production costs necessary to make a message come to life.

In the rush to center their marketing efforts around advertising, however, businesses often totally fail to capitalize on the PR potential of what their message can—and should—deliver.

That’s an opportunity missed.

It’s also an expensive whiff that can be avoided by putting a member of the PR team in the room at the start of the planning cycle.

Two ways involving PR at the start of planning can benefit you

  1. PR can augment and reinforce advertising messages
  2. PR can connect with audiences in ways advertising cannot

PR’s ability to reinforce and amplify marketing messages is surprisingly effective. Publicity—be it word-of-mouth, customer testimonials or editorial media coverage—is regarded by consumers as more trustworthy.

According to a 2014 Nielsen study, PR is 90% more effective than advertising in influencing consumers. In short, getting a favorable mention of your product or service, which is earned and not paid, holds much more weight than an ad. 

By involving your PR team at the start of your planning process, they can better understand what your advertising message is intended to do and what it cannot do—and they can fill that gap.

Second, by involving your PR folks in planning, they can more clearly visualize how they can present your story to editorial media and expand your message into stories that have a connection and credibility advertising simply cannot deliver.

Remember, PR provides you a different marketing weapon

One of the 21st century buzzwords that has become popular is “influencer marketing,” which is simply a more contemporary way of saying “believability.”

It’s another way of saying that PR provides your product or service with believability. It’s not a new idea, but simply a new way of asking yourself:

  • Who are you more likely to believe, a salesman or a person just like you who bought or used a product or service?
  • Which is more believable, an advertisement on TV, in a newspaper or magazine or on the internet, or something that appears in a story that involves a product or service?

Editorial coverage has two great advantages over advertising. Editorial coverage provides third-party validation that advertising lacks. Simply by being recognized in editorial media, coverage implies “this is important.”

PR’s ability to augment one’s believability does not discount paid advertising—it is a totally necessary component of marketing.

The difference between the two serves as a reminder for the need to include PR as an integral part of one’s marketing plan—at the very beginning of the planning process.

When you begin to look ahead to the rest of 2020 or even 2021 and shape your future marketing planning, keep Wellons Communications in mind. We’d love the opportunity to sit down with you, learn more about your vision for your product or service and explore how we can help you improve your overall marketing effectiveness.

Call me at 407-339-0879 or email me (will@wellonscommunications.com) and find out for yourself how we can help you augment your marketing effectiveness.

Why you need to keep your PR plan fresh and flexible

Posted on by Wellons team

Let’s start with an assumption we can all agree upon.

You must have a plan to succeed in business. If you don’t know what you want to accomplish, you will never arrive at your destination.

It’s no different in public relations. A public relations program must have well-defined, realistic and measurable objectives before strategies and tactics can be developed.

At the same time, it’s important to remain cognizant that nothing remains written in stone. Marketing environments are constantly changing. New competitors come forth. Old competitors change their products or introduce new ones. Regulatory mandates change. Social conditions change and new attitudes emerge.

Simply stated, change is the only constant upon which you can depend.

A three-step approach to PR planning

At Wellons Communications, we keep our clients’ plans updated by conducting a three-step process:

  1. We review and assess what’s happened in the past year.
  2. We consider our client’s overall business objectives and use them as a basis for revising and developing the next steps in our client’s PR plan.
  3. We develop a plan of attack for the upcoming year.

The public relations plan that develops from our three-stage approach helps you know where your PR program is headed and, from our vantage point, helps us verify what we do is in concert with your overall business objectives.

“Everybody has a plan…until they get punched in the mouth.”

— Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson

Successful business leaders likely would not deign to take advice from an individual with a history like one-time boxing great Mike Tyson. But Tyson’s memorable quote is particularly well-suited when it applies to keeping your PR plans up to date.

Tyson’s quote serves as a reminder that PR plans, particularly plans that address crisis, must be capable of being activated quickly and must be flexible enough to adjust to uncertain situations. Your business must be mindful of all possible negative scenarios and have appropriate responses prepared.

Plans, indeed, are important, but they also must be flexible enough to deal with challenging situations you might not ordinarily address.

If you believe a crisis cannot happen to you, think again.

Start with Hurricane Dorian.

How did the hurricane affect your business? How did you interact with your customers before and after the hurricane’s visit to Central Florida? Were there opportunities (e.g. increased sales to meet unusually high demand for storm-related products)? Were there special concerns you needed to identify and resolve before the storm (e.g. what your clients needed to do in relation to your product or service)?

Were there messages you needed to convey to your target audiences? Was there information you needed to remind your clients about? Did you take any action to let your clients know how they could reach you or ask questions of you before and after the storm?

One of our roles is to ensure our clients are aware of the need for some sort of crisis plan and crisis procedures, even to the point of conducting a test run to help iron out any holes in the plan. Like Tyson said, plans are great until you have to actually use them.

2020 is fast approaching. So, start your PR planning for the new year now.

The new year will be here before you know it.  And that means your PR planning needs to be thought out now in order to get it underway in January.

If you don’t have a PR program, consider augmenting your overall marketing plan with a PR initiative. And if you already have a PR program, it’s time to dust it off and ensure your PR action plan is in sync with your other marketing activities.

Not sure how to develop a robust, affordable and doable plan?

Call us at Wellons Communications. We serve a great number of mid-size businesses that have regional and local needs…and will be happy to review your business’ current situation and see how we can affordably and realistically help you meet your needs.

Social media check-up: Is your business healthy?

Posted on by Wellons team

With more than 2 billion people on social media, we’d be surprised to find someone who doesn’t think it’s important for his or her business.

Whether you’re just getting started or you’re a seasoned pro, social media inevitably comes with a lot of questions. Am I doing this right? Am I getting the most out of it? Where do I even start? We’ve heard them all.

And we can relate! Social media has been on our minds at Wellons Communications lately. Our CEO recently led a workshop on social media, and as a staff, we did a deep dive on best practices across platforms.

A short check-up never hurts. Below are five essentials for your business’ social media—so you can be sure you’re in tip-top shape.

  • Know your platform
    There are a multitude of social media platforms out there, from Facebook and Instagram to LinkedIn and Google+. Each platform operates differently, attracts a different demographic, and has different requirements. For instance, Instagram is driven by visuals. LinkedIn attracts a more professional crowd. Twitter allows the use of hashtags. Understanding each platform and selecting the right ones for your business can set you up for success.
  • Set a strategy
    Just like with any other marketing and public relations tactic, you must establish a plan. Jumping head first into social media without setting a strategy is like driving down a dark road without headlights. Eventually, you’re going to crash. Ask yourself what you want from social media. Do you want direct ROI? Do you want to be seen as a thought leader? Your goals will drive the strategy you use.
  • Craft your content
    What you post on social media defines your company, just as much as a sales presentation or your website. Content shows viewers what your company is, what it does and what it stands for—so it has to support your goals. What does your brand want to convey? What is your aesthetic, visually and tonally? Do you post videos, photos, articles or something else? Take some time to set some brand standards. After all, posting to a personal account is not the same as posting to a business page.
  • Stay consistent
    To effectively use social media, you have to be engaged. That means posting regularly (this is where that plan comes in!), responding promptly to comments and concerns, and actively listening to what is being said about your company on social media. Are you doing all you can to protect your reputation and keep your voice out there?
  • Keep up-to-date
    The social media landscape is constantly changing and growing. It’s essential to stay in the conversation and up-to-date on the latest trends to remain relevant. Are you reading up on changes on platforms or best practices in your industry? At Wellons, we make sure to brush up periodically to make sure we stay sharp.

If you still have questions or want to ensure your company is getting the most out of this powerful tool, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d love to share our knowledge and expertise with you. Give us a call at 407-339-0879 or email Will at will@wellonscommunications.com.

How to make the most of your next media event

Posted on by Wellons team

When people think of public relations, the image that often comes to mind is working a media event, pulling things together while reporters prepare for an on-camera interview. And while those in the biz know that’s certainly not an everyday occurrence, media events can be one of the most fun parts of the job.

They can also be the most challenging, with long hours and lots of logistics.

At Wellons Communications, we’ve worked our share of media events, from restaurant openings with big celebrities to most recently, Altamonte Springs’ Red Hot & Boom. With that solid experience behind us, we have developed a process to help media events go as smoothly as possible.

Here are some of our tips to help your next event go off without a hitch—and with a ton of media coverage.

Target your messages.

What matters to TV reporters might not matter to a freelancer photographer, and what’s important to a blogger might not be what a newspaper reporter wants to know. That is to say, when you’re telling the media about your event, make sure you’re giving them the information they need to do their job. Showing that you understand what they need and will make sure things go smoothly once they’re there goes a long way for getting media to cover your event.

Avoid the one and done.

When it comes to media events, you can’t send it and forget it. Getting live, in-person coverage is harder than getting a publication to run a press release because it involves a lot more coordination on both sides. Make sure you send all of the information multiple times, and don’t be afraid to call to make sure there aren’t any questions.

Be prepared.

When you’re working off-site and out of your element, this step can’t be overlooked. You have to think of everything. Make sure you have a hard copy of any press materials you might need to distribute, but make sure you can access any docs you might need digitally, too. Chance of rain? Think about plastic folders or laminating key documents (yes, we’ve walked out of events with soaking, ruined notebooks before…lesson learned!). Batteries or back-up chargers are always a good idea. And don’t forget to take care of yourself, too! You can’t do your job if you aren’t feeling well. Bring water and snacks, if you need to, and wear weather and event appropriate clothing.

Brief the whole team.

Even if only a few team members will be working on-site, make sure your entire team is in on the plan. They should know what to do if media members call the office, how they can assist you if needed and how they can reach you in any circumstance.

Celebrate success.

At the end of a long event, we just want to kick off our shoes and relax. But too often, it ends there. People don’t look back on the event and learn. What went well? What can we do better next time? Where did we have success? Experience is the best teacher, and this is the team’s chance to reap the rewards from a hard day’s work.

With this checklist in mind, we’ve had some seriously successful media events, and with these tips in mind, we know you’ll be able to maximize your next live media opportunity.

What do your customers really think of you?

Posted on by Wellons team

Everyone wants to know what others think of them—and when they find out, they want the perception to be positive.

But how much time and effort do you put in to finding out how your customers know about and perceive you? How often do you ask yourself, “How much do I understand about the needs of my client and how do I address or solve that need?”

Do you make the time for your customers?

Marketing revolves around two parties: you and your customers.

Marketing your product or service will succeed only if your customer has a need for what you sell and understands how it meets their need.

That sounds simple enough, but as business quickens, it’s easy to find yourself spending all of your time addressing planning, production, organization, marketing, distributing, personnel management and other key business operating issues.

So, who gets left out? Often, it is your customer. Who is really talking to them or listening to what they have to say?

Your client is always number one

Meeting the needs of your customer is why you exist in business. If they succeed, you succeed…and grow.

Your customer is always the best source for feedback.

But how much do you know about your customer? Do you actively seek feedback? And what does that feedback say?

Central to everything is the satisfaction and well-being of your customer. They are, indeed, number one and should be treated accordingly.

Personal interaction is a must

If your customer is an individual, building that relationship can be as low-tech as a phone call once a month. It can be built by asking “How is your business doing?” or “What can we do differently that will help add to your business?”

Your client relationship can be enhanced by providing the customer with new and different information. If you recognize a trend that is an opportunity, let your client know. If you see a competitor doing something differently, be the first to tell your client.

The point? Interact with your client. Interact with them frequently. Encourage customers to make time to spend with you. Ask them questions. Listen for what’s important to them.

Seek feedback on a broader basis

Is your client plugged in to what their audience says about them? What are they saying? Are sales going up or down? What’s working? What’s not working?

Conducting research like this is essential in marketing, and it’s essential to share this information with your key marketing resources, like advertising and PR agencies. It is extremely valuable, and with it, you can drive sales to heights you never imagined.

We truly value our clients…and let them know it

At Wellons Communications, our clients are, indeed, why our business succeeds and grows. We value each and every one of them. We stay in close touch with them on the phone, in person, online, and in the actions we take on their behalf.

We want our clients to perceive us as a member of their staff—and not just any member, but a highly productive and valued staffer who is instrumental in their success and growth.

After all, our clients are the sole reason why we are in business.

Find out more about how we treat our clients and how we can help you further your overall marketing efforts with effective, results-oriented public relations and publicity programs. I’m available to help you improve the perception of your business at 407-339-0879 or at will@wellonscommunications.com.

Why you need to include PR in your marketing plan

Posted on by Wellons team

Let’s face it.

When you put pencil to paper in developing your marketing program, the first question usually is “How much do we have to budget for advertising?”

The answer, inevitably leads to spending an inordinate amount of time (and money) on advertising, which, in turn, often leads to results that are inconclusive or, at best, difficult to quantify.

Often overlooked in the marketing equation is public relations. But PR, if properly employed and conducted on a consistent basis can give you the most bang for your buck.

PR doesn’t cost much and can deliver huge payback

Public relations, usually in the form of publicity, has enormous potential. Positive publicity can amplify your brand name, distinguish your service or product from everyone else’s, and validate what you say about yourself.

The good news is that PR costs considerably less than advertising. The challenge is that PR is not totally predictable. Getting your name in the news depends on what is happening in the news and requires that your product or service has information of news value to share.

And in order to remain in the news, your company has to keep making news. That is where having a qualified PR firm can help. Any qualified firm has strong relationships with the media. They know how to reach the right people and find the angle that maximizes the chance of coverage.

That is another way PR professional can make a big difference– by identifying and clarifying what your product or service does for your target audience. It’s a message that needs to be told many different ways and tailored to fit the particular audience that is reached by a specific media (e.g. transportation company execs gravitate toward business and transportation news outlets).

Further, you have to tell your story again and again. PR professionals are experts at finding new ways to tell your story and keep your name in the news.

How much should I be spending on PR?

No two budgets are exactly alike, just as no two companies are exactly alike. A precise budget for PR is difficult to pin down. A review of basic costs, however, will give you some idea of what’s involved and what you pay for when you use a qualified public relations firm.

Generally speaking, there are two primary costs you will incur when hiring a PR firm:

Monthly fee: A modest number of account service hours times an hourly rate that falls within your budget capabilities.

Out-of-pocket expenses (billed at net): Basic costs like travel, mileage, copying, postage, graphic design costs, etc.

So what does that translate to in terms of a monthly budget? Start with something affordable, say, $750-1,000 per month for a combination of fees and out-of-pocket expenses and revise the budget accordingly as your relationship and results develop.

What should you expect in terms of results?

Unless you have a blockbuster story to tell, results usually do not manifest themselves for about 90 days.

It takes that long to get information prepared, distributed, absorbed by media, and followed up upon.

Why 90 days? For print media, it takes that long to get ahead of print deadlines. For online media, the deadline is much shorter, but it requires some time to break through the messy, competitive clutter of information that online news outlets receive and must consider. For broadcast media, results require video or audio that lends itself to TV, radio or online broadcast.

The point is that PR, if given an adequate budget and sufficient time, can serve as a marketing tool that can equal, exceed, or at a minimum, complement your entire marketing program. In terms of cost-effectiveness, PR is often the best bet for ROI.

Call me (407-339-0879) or email me and allow me to pass along some vivid examples of how (and why) PR must be a key element of your marketing mix.

How PR can help you capitalize on unexpected opportunities

Posted on by Wellons team

Unexpected marketing opportunities are akin to natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, and cold weather events. You know they are coming, but they are impossible to predict when and where they will happen.

So, how do you forecast unexpected opportunities? How do you take advantage of them when they occur? And how can public relations serve as a means of seizing the moment and putting your product or service into the mind of your target audience?

Do you have the ability to see change before it happens?

Probably not. In fact, very few are blessed with that kind of intuition and those who possess that trait often are as lucky as they are intuitive.

That leaves the overwhelming majority of us relying on our inherent skills and experience to see an opportunity and then figure out a way to take advantage of it. While it may be difficult to foresee opportunities that are not immediately apparent, there are ways and means to sharpen your forward-looking skills.

Anticipate change

We’ve all heard the old adage “the only constant is change.”  It’s just as true today as it was when someone first coined it.

We must remind ourselves that change is never-ending and ask ourselves “What kind of changes should we anticipate?” and “How can I take advantage of the changes?”

As we charged into the 21st century, for example, we all recognized that the onset of digital communications was changing how we do business. Those who embraced the changes that digital communications brought to how we obtain information, what we do with the information, and how we interact with one another have become business legends.

Those who didn’t anticipate change or quickly respond to change (e.g. Kodak, Sears, Nokia, Blackberry) suffered. For an insightful recap relating the stories of corporate giants rooted in the belief that “some things never change” take a glance at an interesting story that appeared in 2013 in Fortune magazine: http://fortune.com/2013/05/08/why-corporate-giants-fail-to-change

How does PR help you change?

Public relations practitioners, like those of us at Wellons Communication, are constantly on the lookout for how the marketplace is changing for their clients and asking “What trends and new directions are newsworthy? Or could be newsworthy?”

Real-time marketing incorporates brand messages into current events – events that your clients and potential customers care about. If these messages are strategically crafted and quickly distributed, public relations can serve as a powerful tool to help you enhance your product or service.

Public relations can react quickly, often involving quick turnaround and on-the-fly responses to immediate events, but they can put your organization’s name at the top of the list in those media that matter to you and your clients.

We all become somewhat numb to the day-to-day experience of business, but for PR practitioners, it is all new.

PR folks don’t see what you see every single business day. From a distance, they can see what is working for you—and see those things that could be working even harder on your behalf. They can visualize unexpected opportunities.

Look and listen. And profit.

Our team at Wellons communications works hard at remaining abreast of current events, both in the everyday consumer workplace, as well as the more limited surroundings of the market category served by of our clients.

We enjoy digging into the news to see what is of interest to media. We look for how the mundane can suddenly be interesting. And we search within the market categories served by our clients for what media could—and should—be covering and how our clients can fit in.

We look and listen for opportunities. And when we see them, we articulate them and seize them. And when we succeed, our clients succeed.

Find out how we can help you succeed. Call or e-mail me (407-339-0879 or will@wellonscommunications.com) and let me share some additional stories about how PR can help you find unexpected opportunities and help you capitalize upon them.

Competing for attention in the Age of Distraction

Posted on by Wellons team

Think for a moment about all the distractions that compete for attention in your work life.

Phone calls, texts, emails, meetings. Questions from employees. Questions from clients. Unanticipated interruptions. Add to this your personal life, which has the same ongoing level of activity.

WC#1-18, Jan 25, 2018The result? Very little time to stop and ask “Where are we, where are we going, how are we going to get there, and what are we going to say about ourselves that will help us achieve our goals?”

Now, put yourself in the mindset of your target audience and your clients. They suffer from the same busy professional and personal challenges you experience.

The point? Offices – and the people who manage and work in them – are enormously busy. In short, offices are centers of multi-tasking that offer little or no time to pause and contemplate the next steps.

Working in the Age of Distraction

Cal Newport, a computer scientist at Georgetown University, is the author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

Newport points out that constant distractions that challenge our work life tend to dominate our work life. They take away from what Newport calls Deep Work, which is the ability to focus without distraction on a demanding task.

According to Newport, Shallow Work (the opposite of Deep Work) fragments and pre-empts one’s ability to come up with one of those benchmark “A-ha” solutions that can make your unique selling proposition stand apart.

Apply Deep Work to communications and you get a sense of how important it is to think differently and clearly, without distraction, and how it can transform how you go about your business and what you say about it.

You can get learn more about Deep Work in a fascinating report that recently was broadcast on National Public Radio.

Getting your message past the distractions

So, how does Wellons Communications help you succeed in the Age of Distraction?

We adhere to the notion of keeping it simple. We develop strategies, approaches, and messages aimed at battling through the communications clutter.

When possible, we use simple, declarative sentences. And we project the same message over and over again, using consistency to ensure that once we have captured attention, our message is reinforced until our audience has absorbed and agreed with it.

What does simplicity do for your marketing?

Our “keep it simple” approach delivers three key benefits to your overall marketing approach:

1. Simple messages are easy to understand.

2. Simple messages answer “What’s in it for me?”

3. Simple messages attract attention.

The most visual example of great message-making in its simplest form is a billboard. They are quick to read, present a single thought, and tell you what they think you need to learn.

Let us simplify your public relations and communications.

If you have read this far, you’ve been distracted enough. If our message has worked, we hope you will want to learn more about how Wellons Communications can assist you in marketing your product or service. You can reach me at 407-339-0879 or by email at will@wellonscommunications.com.

Believe me, I will be happy for the distraction.

UCF Knights: Marketing and Football Champions

Posted on by Wellons team

While people across the country held their breath watching Alabama’s last-second defeat of Georgia in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday, some in Orlando slept soundly.

UCF Marketing ChampionsWe can only assume the athletic department staff at the University of Central Florida was among them. Why? They weren’t concerned with who would be named the national champion—because they had already declared themselves the true champions.

The Knights were the only undefeated team in college football this year. They took down the Auburn Tigers (who had previously beaten Alabama and Georgia) in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Without a chance to compete in the playoff, they did everything they could do.

While it’s true many have laughed UCF’s claims off, that’s not the point. Whether UCF deserves the title isn’t the point, either.

The point is that this is one of the best marketing moves of 2018 so far, and someone at UCF knows what they’re doing. With controversy comes discussion. So far, the announcement has given the school free publicity in top national publications, such as The Washington Post, Yahoo Sports, USA Today, and ESPN.

Now, the best season UCF has ever had—and might ever have—will result in obtaining top recruits, national recognition and better fan support.

What UCF does with that depends on what the Knights do next season—but they are certainly setting themselves up to have a better chance by making the most of their momentum now.

Building on momentum is something we do a lot here at Wellons, so if you have marketing questions of your own, let us help you take a page from UCF’s playbook. Don’t hesitate to reach out at 407-339-0879 or at will@wellonscommunications.com.

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