In this discussion, Marc Haine and two other speakers explain how aligning expert commentary with breaking news can generate massive earned media without paid advertising. Haine recounts how a blog post he wrote about a passenger being stranded on a plane prompted a reporter to call him for expert insight, leading to a media interview he hadn’t pursued. Another speaker shares a client’s experience during a major Microsoft system outage: the client was placed on a local NBC affiliate, initially for a short segment, but his compelling contribution extended his airtime to 20 minutes across multiple news slots, plus two radio interviews, all in one day. The speakers highlight that such news tie‑ins can produce extensive, cost‑free exposure—what they describe as a “million‑dollar publicity day”—by leveraging the news cycle, multi‑platform coverage, and the credibility of being an expert commentator.
Chapters
Expert insights tied to news can skyrocket your media visibility and influence.
You know, challenging something that hits the news, that, that in itself would be of interest. So for instance, you know, I did a piece when there was a story about, you know, passengers being left for 5 hours on an airplane with no water, no food, no nothing. And I did a blog piece out. Well, then I had a reporter call me up and said, oh, because you're a customer experience strategist, what's your feel on what should happen? And I thought that was really interesting that that should happen based on a blog post I wrote. But I never even thought about reaching out to mass media and saying, here's my take on this situation.
Right. No, that's perfect. If you have a tie-in to a national story, that's perfect. And you remember, I think it was about a year ago, maybe a year and a half ago when that computer system failed and Microsoft and everybody was impacted. For a while. And things went down and you couldn't get a hold of your doctor, and flights were delayed, and all these things. Well, we have a client that's great on television. And so we connected him with our NBC affiliate here in St. Louis. And he got on, they wanted to talk to him about this issue and what people can do and so forth. So he came on and he was so good that they kept him on. So he, he started with like the new news, he was on for like 5 minutes. And they said, well, Can you stay for the 4 o'clock news? And he said, yeah, I guess. So, uh, they made it possible, and he was on for 7 minutes on a local newscast, which is virtually unheard of.
Wow. Yeah.
And then they had him on at 5 and 6, and they recorded something for 10. I mean, in all, I think we figured out he had 20 minutes of airtime in one day on the NBC affiliate here in town. And I mean, it was just terrific stuff. I mean, there's no way you could ever advertise anything like that or buy ads or, you know, whatever. I mean, it was just fantastic. And he was on the whole time, the president of the company, and he worked all day from there. And at the same time, he did 2 radio interviews while he was sitting at the lobby in between TV segments. So, I mean, it was like a million-dollar publicity day.
