Or so that’s the way it worked when Lev Grossman at TIME got a sneak peek of Apple’s iPhone.

From the article:

If you’ve ever wondered how it works, this is how it works: I don’t call Steve, Steve calls me. Or more accurately, someone in Steve Jobs’s office calls someone in my office—someone at a much higher pay grade — to say that he has something cool. I then fly to the metastasized strip mall called Cupertino, Calif., where Apple lives, sign some legal confidentiality stuff and am escorted to a conference room that contains Jobs, some associates, and some lumps concealed under some black towels. I stare at what was under the towels. Everybody else stares at me.

This is how Apple, and nobody else, introduces new products to the press. It can be awkward, because Jobs is high-strung and he expects you to be impressed. I was, fortunately, and with good reason.

Actually other companies do similar things like this and we’ve been fortunate at PRpulp to be in the position to invite folks like Mr. Grossman to get a sneak peak at really cool new stuff that the world has never seen before. And that person supposedly making higher pay – that’s a PR person. This activity is called setting up an embargo and typically entails an exclusive with a top publication. The embargo is a date to which both parties agree to not disclose information via a legally-binding agreement.

To the organization offering up the information, the hope is for a glowing and lengthy feature piece to hit the stands on the day of the announcement. For the publication, they’ll have the big news of the day already – and often include quotes from top spokespeople and enough information and visual assets to pull together a solid piece by press time.

You see, information is power and members of the media want it before the guy next door. This way he can sell more magazines, newspapers, and stand out within the industry as the one’s with the inside path.

TIME is considered a shorter-lead publication and typically operates a couple of months out for such a piece versus monthlies that can work 4-6 months in advance. So if you’re shooting to have your product appear in say, Maxim, around November, you’d better have all your ducks in a row by July or so in order to secure some column inches.

Looks like Apple’s highly-paid PR exec made a good call on the Grossman deal. The piece is lengthy, favorable, and includes use of Apple’s visual assets. Both parties win.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 15th, 2007 at 12:10 am and is filed under PR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.