When it comes publishing Ramsay Media are genius. The publishers of Car, Getaway and Popular Mechanics understand their audience and how to deliver a product that sells.
Sadly when it comes to spin doctoring and working with journalists they could be doing a whole lot better.
The latest Buzz to be hacked to pieces by The Buzz Saw is a little missive sent by Ramsay Media to promote the growth of one of their sites Compleat Golfer. I must say the lead paragraph of the release raised a wry smile, but for all the wrong reasons:
"There are many words to describe it: incredible, extraordinary and unparalleled are just a few that come to mind. Whatever the term, the increase in traffic to compleatgolfer.co.za over the past two months is, quite simply, phenomenal."
Now "incredible, extraordinary and unparalleled" may describe a meteor shower hitting earth, something akin to the second coming or news just in that lasting peace has been achieved in the Middle East. But, the only thing that's "incredible, extraordinary and unparalleled" about this media release is how badly it has been written.
THE BUZZ SAW: A tribute to a couple of journalists who banded together to get their own back on public relations people and their over-love of meaningless adjectives like "leading"; "cutting edge"; "bleeding edge"; "forward thinking" and other crappy words which basically mean their clients are such boring dead beats they have to use tired, meaningless descriptors to try and buoy their brands.
And where are the actual figures? Reminds me of when a magazine website recently claimed to be biggest Entertainment site in SA. I queried it, as my site, for eg, is about ten times bigger in uniques. Biggest 'among our competitors', they told me.
Posted by: Chris Roper | 07 May 2009 at 16:31
Hey Chris
That was just the lead paragraph. Here's the whole release:
Compleat Golfer goes global
There are many words to describe it: incredible, extraordinary and unparalleled are just a few that come to mind. Whatever the term, the increase in traffic to compleatgolfer.co.za over the past two months is, quite simply, phenomenal.
In what must be every media owner and marketer's dream, the site grew by more than 9 000 percent in two months, thanks to a video clip that has flown around the world.
The video shows Irish professional golfer Padraig Harrington teeing off from the top of the amazing 19th hole at the Legend Golf & Safari Resort's Hanglip Mountain (Limpopo), 1 410 feet above the green - accessible only by helicopter - and scoring the first par on this 830-metre (the total distance the ball travels across and down) par three hole.
The Compleat Golfer website had a respectable 9 500 unique users a month when the clip went out with the weekly newsletter on 23 February. By the end of March, almost 100 000 unique users had viewed it. On 1 April, 70 000 more golf enthusiasts logged on and the following day, a further 99 000. By the close of business at the end of April, Compleat Golfer's website was nudging towards the million visitors mark, recording 874 091 unique users, most of them from North America - and is still growing!
"It is probably the most unprecedented growth experienced by a South African website and it presents marketers wanting to attract the interested of the North American market with an exciting and immediate opportunity to engage with a rapidly growing audience," commented Compleat Golfer publisher, Simon Turck.
"Compleat Golfer has shown it can translate its success from print to online," added the website editor, Emma Odendaal. "The fact that we are now drawing thousands of unique users from all over the world, in addition to our loyal base of South African viewers, reflects the fact that Compleat Golfer's content is of an international standard and can compete with the best in the world."
To see video, go to http://www.compleatgolfer.co.za/new_site/content/courses/singlepage.asp?id=856.
Posted by: Mandy de Waal | 08 May 2009 at 01:36
Mands, the word 'fulsome' springs to mind! The more adjectives there are, the lower the cred in the minds of thinking people. An opportunity for you to run a little workshop for the PR people whoever they may be? ;-) Lots of love, Clive
Posted by: Clive Simpkins | 08 May 2009 at 06:20
Hey Clive my love. Indeed. Fulsome (flotsom and jetsom). And you're right about the adjectives. A real sign of appalling writing in any genre.
Posted by: Mandy de Waal | 11 May 2009 at 10:42
In that case, bring on the adjectives. This IS incredible traffic growth. Even 9/11 only added a few hundred thousand to News24. Great work from the Compleat Golfer web team. Especially since this sort of growth sticks with you.
Posted by: Chris Roper | 11 May 2009 at 13:55
Chris, I completely disagree. If the growth is that good, that great, then it deserves a media release that is professional. One worthy of being in a FM, FW or similar. The problem with those useless adjectives cluttering up the lead paragraph and saying nothing better than useless is that journalists (who get spammed with releases daily) just press delete. Then it doesn't matter how great the growth is because the opportunity for coverage is gone.
Posted by: Mandy de Waal | 13 May 2009 at 08:28
Nothing to do with your post, Mands. Just a note to say that I write here now:
http://cybercobwebs42.wordpress.com/
Some old, and (touch wood) more new stuff.
Posted by: Ramon | 25 June 2009 at 11:46