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Business Rule #39:
Use Success as a Model
November 17, 2005
(PAGE 2 of 2)
When I was publishing Henny Backus’ book, Care for the Caretaker: How Jim Backus' Wife Did It, I was involved with publicizing its release. Henny was married to actor Jim Backus (Rebel Without a Cause, Gilligan’s Island, and the voice of Mr. Magoo) and wrote a how-to book based on her experience caring for him through his ten-year bout with Parkinson’s Disease.
The Los Angeles launch party was attended by many old-time Hollywood celebrities, including Steve Allen, Phyllis Diller, Arthur Hiller, and Rhonda Flemming Mann. They all made for wonderful photographs. All we needed was some press coverage.
I’d written press releases before but never had the occasion to include photos. What gets included in the caption? What’s the format? In what order should the names be listed? Simple enough, once you know the conventions. But if you don’t, you risk being rejected as an amateur.
I sought out examples of captioned photos in print and checked with people in public relations. As a result, the press kit for Care for the Caretaker led to in several national and local publications running the photos and reviewing the book.
Radio music is about genres. If you tune into a station for country music and hear jazz, you’ll be disappointed. You’ll probably wonder not only if you’ve got the right show but if the station has changed its format. While most people may use radio for background music while doing something else, this casual listening is still listening—and the genre of the music cuts through. Everyone knows immediately if a song is hip-hop or rock. As George Ross pointed out: if you don’t honor the format of the music, you’ll lose your audience.
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Since Levi Kreis and the other musicians performing on the Capital Edge track were professionals, they knew they didn’t have to write a different melody to change the genre. All that they needed to do was adjust the musical arrangement. Not a big deal. But that adjustment was critical. Capital Edge won because they were smart enough to fit into the existing radio format.
Sadly for team Excel, Rebecca missed this basic element of the challenge by presenting a song outside of the alternative rock genre. The winner of the task was largely determined by the radio listeners’ reaction to the music—which is why Capital Edge won and Excel was sent to the boardroom.
Donald Trump found fault with all of the members of Excel: Randal got the XM Café channel numbers wrong on his promo material; Clay messed up by bringing Jide into the room before he was supposed to; and Rebecca was responsible for leading this whole sorry parade. The deciding factor though was the fact that everyone who worked with Clay complained about him. Trump identified Clay as an obstructionist and, since it was looking like no team could win with Clay’s “help,” his time had come. Bye, bye Clay.
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If you don’t honor the format of the music, you’ll lose your audience.
