

Ask HN: 99 Designs for PR. Interested? - prmarketplace

We're building 99 Designs for PR (a PR marketplace).<p>We think PR firms charge way too much, with very little accountability and transparency. It's also difficult to figure out which PR firms are good, and which suck.<p>We are building a marketplace that will help you get PR help quickly, reliably and cheaply.<p>Interested? What do you think?<p>Want to join our beta?
prmarketplace@gmail.com
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abbasmehdi
This can be a slam dunk!

If I can say "I want to see positive coverage of my product in NYT, WSJ, SF
Chronicle etc and am willing to pay $500 for each positive piece", then that’s
it!

I'd pay $500 for each full review in a tier 1 publication (and half that for a
simple mention), $300 for tier 2, and $200 for tier 3, and $100 for blogs etc.

I'd define each tier by the number of impressions or circulation etc. I'd also
like to say which demographics I want to focus on etc.

You're an explosion waiting to happen, and will truly disrupt PR firms (I
think you’ll be a hit even if you’re mildly idiotic ;)! A caveat, a PR person
can ruin a product’s or a business’ reputation by being shortsighted and
annoying the press too much (shortsighted PR people don’t care about the long
term relationship between the client and the press, they just want one piece
in the press, grab the $500 and move on, so you will have to put safety
mechanisms in place, also mechanisms against 2 or more people pitching the
same product to the same guy at the same time (the press will hate this and
blacklist the product due to the companies over-aggressive PR tactics), then
fighting over who got the coverage). These are all easily addressable, if you
can’t figure them out then I can help you figure this out (free, I don't mind
helping its fun).

Anyway, big need, big market, do it already! :-)

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kposehn
99 Designs has succeeded so well because they were able to watch the entire
concept evolve before actually turning it into a business. Now, it is a good
ecosystem but there are a few aspects in my understanding that might make it
hard for PR.

Do you intend to go purely for the text of the release itself? As in, "here is
my service/product/awesome-thing please write a press release for me to have
distributed" or do you want to make that format for an entire end-to-end
service?

On the pure copy basis I could see it easily becoming a good venue as it quite
frankly is a complete and utter mess overall. For the entire release-to-
distribution, while I would certainly use it a lot, I'm not sure how you would
go about it. I'm certainly interested in seeing what you have in mind :)

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prmarketplace
We connect you with awesome PR professionals who will help get press coverage
for your startup.

While writing the text for your release is not our focus, we're open to adding
it as an option.

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frafdez
The idea sounds great. Will your site break down PR needs into bite size
pieces similar to 99? If so, how would I know which one to pick and will there
be some way of measuring track record?

~~~
prmarketplace
Yes, and we're doing our best to make it as intuitive as possible (re: bite
size pieces).

What do you mean by measuring track record? Track record of the PR
professional?

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frafdez
Right. How does one pick the right PR professional? Is their a way to measure
their success rate? Just because you say you are a professional doesn't
garauntee performance. And PR is not the same as design. You don't have an
image to choose from.

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Alex3917
I would use it to source PR ideas, but not to have people I don't know contact
journalists. That's just asking for trouble, and the game theory is all wrong.

~~~
prmarketplace
If you hire a PR firm, you're having people you don't know contact
journalists, no?

The way it works is that PR professionals submit proposals and then you select
only one of them to work on your behalf. No one will reach out to journalists
without your consent.

What makes you say the game theory is all wrong?

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Alex3917
"The way it works is that PR professionals submit proposals and then you
select only one of them to work on your behalf. No one will reach out to
journalists without your consent."

That seems better than what I was envisioning. It still seems like a
transitional technology, but I can see it possibly working.

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knes
Would this be only for available for the US?

The thing is, you need to shows proof of the performance and the established
relationships to the "press" of the PR people on your platform. I think it can
be quite tricky.

as for your "Pay Per Performance" it will be hard to verify I think...

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mindcrime
Sounds mondo radical to me. This strikes me as something with the potential to
be very useful. #makeitso

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prmarketplace
Thanks!

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petervandijck
What kind of "PR" will you deliver? Ie. what do you define PR as? What would
be the deliverable?

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prmarketplace
PR = Media Publicity.

Deliverables will be coverage or mentions of your startup in media such as
larger blogs, smaller blogs, national newspapers, local newspapers, magazines
and niche publications.

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petervandijck
I have used 99designs, but I would never use this. Don't understand the value
you would offer?

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prmarketplace
PR firms charge $5,000/month or more for "best efforts". They send out a
handful emails to bloggers and reporters, may not get any bites, and pocket
what amounts to $500-$1000 an hour for their time. That sucks.

Our value proposition:

(1) Spend 10-20% of what PR firms charge (2) Pay ONLY IF they deliver the type
of coverage you want and agreed to

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petervandijck
I can send those emails myself.

However, PayOnlyIf does make it much more interesting. It aligns incentives.

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suking
Good luck getting responses. Good PR places have relationships, which is the
only thing that matters.

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bglenn09
If executed well, absolutely.

