PR is about measurement – you need and are expected by clients to measure everything. Creating opportunities that provide a direct link to products sold, clicks on a site, lead generation – things that can actually be measured from Point A (PR) to B (customer action) – make clients happy. Lately, we are finding tremendous opportunities for these measurable results through national media integrations.

Occasionally these integrations are giveaways. Until the show went off the air, Oprah was the queen of giveaways but the power of her endorsement was unparalleled. Some promotional giveaways can still be still influential but giveaways without a segment placement or on-air mention from the host (like on The View or Ellen) are not integrations but targeted sampling.

Fuller integrations offer something more. Some are pay for play and are best suited to clients who can afford to be fully involved to a show. For example, last season, we connected a client with “Dr. Oz” and his “Truth Tube” which turned into an even bigger commitment to this season’s “Transformation Nation.” The client got six branded segments on the show and online as well as a thank you from Dr. Oz for being advertisers. Most viewers would not have known it was paid – that’s the beauty of a good integrated segment.

For most clients, the more affordable integration route is a great deal like 50 to 70% off on weekly segments like TODAY’s “Steals & Deals” with Jill Martin and GMA’s “Secret Deals & Steals” with Tory Johnson (ToryJohnson.com – she also does one for WABC in NYC). These are the most popular of a growing trend – Ellen and Rachel Ray and their online sites also do integrations – in all media nationwide.

For companies that do not have the stories, spokespeople, or news to get standalone segments for their products and services and want immediate impact, these integrations are powerful win-wins, especially for launches. The key is to find a unique offer that’s going to blow the socks off of the audience and connect them to the deal and the brand. You are trying to get customers not dump poor or slow moving merchandise.

Smaller-scale clients can reap big rewards just as much as big ones. We selected Tory Johnson’s segment on GMA to help launch My Publisher’s holiday cards. We followed on Valentine’s Day on TODAY with a new (for My Publisher) voucher offer for photo books. My Publisher called the response to both shows “amazing” and “meaningful.” They also discovered a new way of selling product via those vouchers (which they said was important as the actual sales). Recently, we even tested an integration for a children’s book: Cassandra’s Angel, which sold out and moved the book up the overall B&N and Amazon rankings. Incredible.

And again, the best part? While margins may be thinner than traditional sales and require additional work on the clients’ behalf, the clients do make money and get national TV exposure. These are win-wins brokered by K2. So that begs the question: Why K2? Why is a PR firm best suited to set these integrations up? That’s part two.

Missed Part I? Click here.

In the years following my first “Unleash the Power Within” (UPW) Program with Tony Robbins in 1996, I met and grew close with Tony and his wife, Sage. I wasn’t his publicist, but our friendship and his authenticity made me believe that EVERYONE who did not know him should know who he is. That included The Oprah Winfrey Show.

This was not part of any PR strategy to make him a client. Tony never told me to do it, nor did he know it was on my list of things to accomplish from the 1996 UPW seminar. But as I blogged about before, I soon had a relationship with Oprah’s show to help make it happen.

Once I had booked clients on the show, I forged relationships, even several friendships, with the producers. But while K2 clients came and went, I never stopped pitching Tony. I would bring him up on calls. I’d send the staff all the cool Tony stuff I had. I was a fly on the wall whispering Tony at all their pitch meetings. I did everything to try and make it an idea they wanted to do. This is what you do as a PR person. This perseverance is what often works when you have an idea this good.

A bunch of Oprah’s people did become Tony “ambassadors.” They thought he was terrific and advocated for him. But that was not enough to shake the perception at the top that Tony Robbins was a “sales guy” (a perception often reinforced by the memories of Tony’s legendary infomercials). Oprah admits as much today. As she said in her Lifeclass the reason she finally went to UPW was to find out once and for all, “What is this with the Tony Robbins?”

Of course, I kind of sensed that she thought that even though no one ever said that was the case. But I kept trying. I sent more materials, kept bringing up his name. For ten years, his ambassadors and I tried. And tried.

And then in 2007, we got close – so close we started to talk about dates that might work. So close I moved to close the deal with the best “weapon” I had: Tony himself. This is the PR person’s “all in” as they say in poker.

As it happened, Tony was scheduled to be in Chicago for an event as part of Donald Trump’s Learning Annex Mega Event program. It would be nothing like Tony’s UPW Program but if it gave the right people at the show just a taste – an appetizer portion of what the real man is and does – I knew they would feel like I did: that we had to make this happen. I invited a bunch of the top people from the show to the event and flew to Chicago to escort them. For the first time, they saw what a great speaker, brilliant storyteller, and extraordinary communicator Tony is. They felt his true genius on stage: that everyone in the room feels like he is talking to them alone. Like Springsteen in a stadium, he has that gift.

After the show, Tony met with the producers at his hotel for a personal session. They connected and saw the authenticity I did. After 11 years, I’m finally getting there, I thought. Perseverance pays off. Perseverance cannot, however, make time.

Oprah’s producers offered dates and segment ideas for her and Tony. It took until 2009 to get dates to work for both of them, and then they ended up not working for either person’s schedules before the show ended its run. I had to surrender my original vision of a Tony Robbins-Oprah Winfrey connection. But in PR, like in life, just because you face reality doesn’t mean you need to give up the dream.

Continued in Part III: The Power of Konnections
Tony Robbins Appears on special expanded two-part Oprah’s Next Chapter on OWN Sunday, February 19.

For more information about Tony Robbins visit his site – www.tonyrobbins.com

Oprah’s Tweetpic: “Me! Fire-walking! Last night!”

Yes, that is Oprah Winfrey walking on hot coals – the camera catching her surprise, delight, and wonder as she puts aside any fear and dashes across the red-hot embers. By her side is Tony Robbins who 12 hours earlier had welcomed Oprah as a surprise guest at his “Unleash the Power Within” (UPW) Program in Los Angeles last fall along with 4,200 people from 36 countries.

The fire walk is part of the UPW Program opening night. When she finishes, Oprah screams with joy, “This is the next chapter, people. I have walked on fire!” (She tweeted the picture the next day.)

Tony was delighted too. As he wrote on his blog, “I was especially privileged to have Oprah at this event. For years I have described her as the ultimate example of someone who’s overcome the most extreme odds to create an extraordinary life of service & contribution…. I was thrilled that she stayed for the entire 12 hours, played full out and—in spite of significant fear—was one of the first to storm across the fire!”

The event will air as an episode of “Oprah’s Next Chapter” in February on OWN and is featured in the sneak peek video on her site.

Tony Robbins and Oprah Winfrey together. And to think it only took me 15 years to help make it happen.

My dream to have Tony and Oprah connect began shortly after I started K2 and Tony’s book agent, who had hired me for one of her authors, invited me to attend Tony’s UPW Program. I admit it: I did not want to go. But today I can’t imagine what life would be like if I had not gone. So much came from that night. Yes, I fire walked but most importantly I wrote down my goals and the things I wanted to happen in my life and career – and what was stopping me. That list became the mission of K2 and my life.

I still have the list I wrote down that night, and by 2011, I’d accomplished everything on it save one: getting Tony Robbins on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Why did I write that down in 1996? I hadn’t gotten anyone on Oprah’s show at that point. I wasn’t Tony’s publicist. But I still felt the need to make this happen. His authenticity instilled in me a need to pay it forward and what popped in my head was Oprah. They had both overcome huge obstacles to get to where they were. I believed then as I do now that they were both put on this earth to help us all “konnect” with a higher purpose. Konnecting these two people could make a difference in the world.

And I became consumed with the idea of making it happen.

The Stones had it right: you can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes you get what you need. So much talk in the PR world is about the need for speed, immediacy, and the aggressive pursuit of results to get what the client wants. But sometimes to get what you really need especially when you dream big? You need to keep at it. Even if it takes 15 years…

Click here to Read: Part II: Perseverance

Now that I have given birth I STILL believe what I only thought before: Anyone who has not given birth and wants to know what a labor is like should try PR. Especially putting together one of those BIG hits or media events with a celebrity tie-in that means everything to your client.

One of K2’s longstanding clients, Weight Watchers, had been trying for six years to break through on Oprah. Of course, this is not an uncommon desire for a client but Weight Watchers had been close a few times, and with Oprah winding down, this was our last chance. And with Jennifer Hudson as the Weight Watchers spokesperson, K2 had one final opportunity, and we finally broke through.

Tying together Jennifer’s amazing triumph over tragedy, her stunning weight loss, her family and their communities who have been inspired by her story, and a generous giveaway from Weight Watchers to the studio audience, we had a show that looked and felt great… and effortless to the audience.

Effortless – hah! No matter how wonderful a client, the show and its producers, the celebrity, and the story, putting something like this together is NEVER effortless. Once the concept is approved that’s when the work and whole heckuvalot of scheduling and back-and-forth coordinating begins from delivery of prizes, and messages to on air preparation to dealing with layers of handlers and managers to communicating with the client and production team. The success of any placement is in managing every detail right up to the show. The GOAL is to make it look effortless to the audience, easy for the media, and organized and controlled for the client. All this is the PR equivalent of gracefully juggling a bowling ball, flaming torch, and a hatchet – in this case while delivering the “Super Bowl” of media hits. But unlike a Super Bowl ad which is finished well in advance of its airdate and will run as delivered, in PR, nothing is ever certain even when it is happening.

PR is about measurement – you need and are expected by clients to measure everything. Creating opportunities that provide a direct link to products sold, clicks on a site, lead generation – things that can actually be measured from Point A (PR) to B (customer action) – make clients happy. Lately, we are finding tremendous opportunities for these measurable results through national media integrations.

Occasionally these integrations are giveaways. Until the show went off the air, Oprah was the queen of giveaways but the power of her endorsement was unparalleled. Some promotional giveaways can still be still influential but giveaways without a segment placement or on-air mention from the host (like on The View or Ellen) are not integrations but targeted sampling.

Fuller integrations offer something more. Some are pay for play and are best suited to clients who can afford to be fully involved to a show. For example, last season, we connected a client with “Dr. Oz” and his “Truth Tube” which turned into an even bigger commitment to this season’s “Transformation Nation.” The client got six branded segments on the show and online as well as a thank you from Dr. Oz for being advertisers. Most viewers would not have known it was paid – that’s the beauty of a good integrated segment.

For most clients, the more affordable integration route is a great deal like 50 to 70% off on weekly segments like TODAY’s “Steals & Deals” with Jill Martin and GMA’s “Secret Deals & Steals” with Tory Johnson (ToryJohnson.com – she also does one for WABC in NYC). These are the most popular of a growing trend – Ellen and Rachel Ray and their online sites also do integrations – in all media nationwide.

For companies that do not have the stories, spokespeople, or news to get standalone segments for their products and services and want immediate impact, these integrations are powerful win-wins, especially for launches. The key is to find a unique offer that’s going to blow the socks off of the audience and connect them to the deal and the brand. You are trying to get customers not dump poor or slow moving merchandise.

Smaller-scale clients can reap big rewards just as much as big ones. We selected Tory Johnson’s segment on GMA to help launch My Publisher’s holiday cards. We followed on Valentine’s Day on TODAY with a new (for My Publisher) voucher offer for photo books. My Publisher called the response to both shows “amazing” and “meaningful.” They also discovered a new way of selling product via those vouchers (which they said was important as the actual sales). Recently, we even tested an integration for a children’s book: Cassandra’s Angel, which sold out and moved the book up the overall B&N and Amazon rankings. Incredible.

And again, the best part? While margins may be thinner than traditional sales and require additional work on the clients’ behalf, the clients do make money and get national TV exposure. These are win-wins brokered by K2. So that begs the question: Why K2? Why is a PR firm best suited to set these integrations up? That’s part two.

Missed Part I? Click here.

In the years following my first “Unleash the Power Within” (UPW) Program with Tony Robbins in 1996, I met and grew close with Tony and his wife, Sage. I wasn’t his publicist, but our friendship and his authenticity made me believe that EVERYONE who did not know him should know who he is. That included The Oprah Winfrey Show.

This was not part of any PR strategy to make him a client. Tony never told me to do it, nor did he know it was on my list of things to accomplish from the 1996 UPW seminar. But as I blogged about before, I soon had a relationship with Oprah’s show to help make it happen.

Once I had booked clients on the show, I forged relationships, even several friendships, with the producers. But while K2 clients came and went, I never stopped pitching Tony. I would bring him up on calls. I’d send the staff all the cool Tony stuff I had. I was a fly on the wall whispering Tony at all their pitch meetings. I did everything to try and make it an idea they wanted to do. This is what you do as a PR person. This perseverance is what often works when you have an idea this good.

A bunch of Oprah’s people did become Tony “ambassadors.” They thought he was terrific and advocated for him. But that was not enough to shake the perception at the top that Tony Robbins was a “sales guy” (a perception often reinforced by the memories of Tony’s legendary infomercials). Oprah admits as much today. As she said in her Lifeclass the reason she finally went to UPW was to find out once and for all, “What is this with the Tony Robbins?”

Of course, I kind of sensed that she thought that even though no one ever said that was the case. But I kept trying. I sent more materials, kept bringing up his name. For ten years, his ambassadors and I tried. And tried.

And then in 2007, we got close – so close we started to talk about dates that might work. So close I moved to close the deal with the best “weapon” I had: Tony himself. This is the PR person’s “all in” as they say in poker.

As it happened, Tony was scheduled to be in Chicago for an event as part of Donald Trump’s Learning Annex Mega Event program. It would be nothing like Tony’s UPW Program but if it gave the right people at the show just a taste – an appetizer portion of what the real man is and does – I knew they would feel like I did: that we had to make this happen. I invited a bunch of the top people from the show to the event and flew to Chicago to escort them. For the first time, they saw what a great speaker, brilliant storyteller, and extraordinary communicator Tony is. They felt his true genius on stage: that everyone in the room feels like he is talking to them alone. Like Springsteen in a stadium, he has that gift.

After the show, Tony met with the producers at his hotel for a personal session. They connected and saw the authenticity I did. After 11 years, I’m finally getting there, I thought. Perseverance pays off. Perseverance cannot, however, make time.

Oprah’s producers offered dates and segment ideas for her and Tony. It took until 2009 to get dates to work for both of them, and then they ended up not working for either person’s schedules before the show ended its run. I had to surrender my original vision of a Tony Robbins-Oprah Winfrey connection. But in PR, like in life, just because you face reality doesn’t mean you need to give up the dream.

Continued in Part III: The Power of Konnections
Tony Robbins Appears on special expanded two-part Oprah’s Next Chapter on OWN Sunday, February 19.

For more information about Tony Robbins visit his site – www.tonyrobbins.com

Oprah’s Tweetpic: “Me! Fire-walking! Last night!”

Yes, that is Oprah Winfrey walking on hot coals – the camera catching her surprise, delight, and wonder as she puts aside any fear and dashes across the red-hot embers. By her side is Tony Robbins who 12 hours earlier had welcomed Oprah as a surprise guest at his “Unleash the Power Within” (UPW) Program in Los Angeles last fall along with 4,200 people from 36 countries.

The fire walk is part of the UPW Program opening night. When she finishes, Oprah screams with joy, “This is the next chapter, people. I have walked on fire!” (She tweeted the picture the next day.)

Tony was delighted too. As he wrote on his blog, “I was especially privileged to have Oprah at this event. For years I have described her as the ultimate example of someone who’s overcome the most extreme odds to create an extraordinary life of service & contribution…. I was thrilled that she stayed for the entire 12 hours, played full out and—in spite of significant fear—was one of the first to storm across the fire!”

The event will air as an episode of “Oprah’s Next Chapter” in February on OWN and is featured in the sneak peek video on her site.

Tony Robbins and Oprah Winfrey together. And to think it only took me 15 years to help make it happen.

My dream to have Tony and Oprah connect began shortly after I started K2 and Tony’s book agent, who had hired me for one of her authors, invited me to attend Tony’s UPW Program. I admit it: I did not want to go. But today I can’t imagine what life would be like if I had not gone. So much came from that night. Yes, I fire walked but most importantly I wrote down my goals and the things I wanted to happen in my life and career – and what was stopping me. That list became the mission of K2 and my life.

I still have the list I wrote down that night, and by 2011, I’d accomplished everything on it save one: getting Tony Robbins on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Why did I write that down in 1996? I hadn’t gotten anyone on Oprah’s show at that point. I wasn’t Tony’s publicist. But I still felt the need to make this happen. His authenticity instilled in me a need to pay it forward and what popped in my head was Oprah. They had both overcome huge obstacles to get to where they were. I believed then as I do now that they were both put on this earth to help us all “konnect” with a higher purpose. Konnecting these two people could make a difference in the world.

And I became consumed with the idea of making it happen.

The Stones had it right: you can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes you get what you need. So much talk in the PR world is about the need for speed, immediacy, and the aggressive pursuit of results to get what the client wants. But sometimes to get what you really need especially when you dream big? You need to keep at it. Even if it takes 15 years…

Click here to Read: Part II: Perseverance

Now that I have given birth I STILL believe what I only thought before: Anyone who has not given birth and wants to know what a labor is like should try PR. Especially putting together one of those BIG hits or media events with a celebrity tie-in that means everything to your client.

One of K2’s longstanding clients, Weight Watchers, had been trying for six years to break through on Oprah. Of course, this is not an uncommon desire for a client but Weight Watchers had been close a few times, and with Oprah winding down, this was our last chance. And with Jennifer Hudson as the Weight Watchers spokesperson, K2 had one final opportunity, and we finally broke through.

Tying together Jennifer’s amazing triumph over tragedy, her stunning weight loss, her family and their communities who have been inspired by her story, and a generous giveaway from Weight Watchers to the studio audience, we had a show that looked and felt great… and effortless to the audience.

Effortless – hah! No matter how wonderful a client, the show and its producers, the celebrity, and the story, putting something like this together is NEVER effortless. Once the concept is approved that’s when the work and whole heckuvalot of scheduling and back-and-forth coordinating begins from delivery of prizes, and messages to on air preparation to dealing with layers of handlers and managers to communicating with the client and production team. The success of any placement is in managing every detail right up to the show. The GOAL is to make it look effortless to the audience, easy for the media, and organized and controlled for the client. All this is the PR equivalent of gracefully juggling a bowling ball, flaming torch, and a hatchet – in this case while delivering the “Super Bowl” of media hits. But unlike a Super Bowl ad which is finished well in advance of its airdate and will run as delivered, in PR, nothing is ever certain even when it is happening.