{"id":7994,"date":"2011-03-09T23:45:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T23:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/blog\/?p=7994"},"modified":"2011-03-09T23:45:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-09T23:45:00","slug":"why-statistics-can-be-your-greatest-pr-ally-or-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/marketing\/public-relations\/why-statistics-can-be-your-greatest-pr-ally-or-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why statistics can be your greatest PR ally–or enemy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Media<\/a>This month’s guest blogger is Brad Phillips,\u00a0the author of the Mr. Media Training Blog<\/a>, which offers daily media and presentation training tips. His firm, Phillips Media Relations<\/a>, specializes in media and presentation training.
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By Brad Phillips
\nGuest Blogger<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re of a certain age, you probably remember those old television commercials for the Christian Children\u2019s Fund. In them, actress Sally Struthers sold viewers the promise of saving a child for \u201cthe price of a cup of coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n

A quarter-century later, those ads are still memorable. And the way Ms. Struthers used numbers in those commercials is a big part of the reason why.<\/p>\n

Imagine if she\u00a0had instead said, \u201cYou can save a child for just $255 a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few people would have anted up, and it certainly wouldn\u2019t have stuck in your memory. Instead, she said, \u201cFor about 70 cents, you can buy a can of soda, regular or diet. In Ethiopia, for just 70 cents a day, you can feed a child like Jamal nourishing meals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Statistics can be beautiful things, but too many press releases and media interviews are buried in data that offer no context. As a result, they\u2019re rarely effective.
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\n5 Ways to Help Your Numbers Jump Off the Page<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  1. Create a Mental Picture:\u00a0<\/strong> There are 1.37 million homeless children in the United States. No one will remember that specific number. Instead, try saying this:
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    \nYankee Stadium seats 52,000 people. Imagine that stadium completely sold out, not a single \u00a0empty seat in the house. Now imagine 26 of those stadiums, side-by-side, each completely full. \u00a0That\u2019s the number of children who will be homeless in America sometime this year.
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  2. Make Numbers Personal:<\/strong> Numbers are often best when they\u2019re reduced to a personal or familial level. So instead of saying a tax cut would save the American people $100 billion this year, say the average family of four would receive $1,250 in tax relief.
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  3. Don\u2019t Rely on Percentages: <\/strong>Instead of proclaiming that your plant\u2019s new energy efficient manufacturing equipment will cut your company\u2019s carbon footprint by 35 percent, tell your audience what that means. Does your new efficiency mean that you will save 20,000 barrels of oil this year? Say so!
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  4. Use Ratios: <\/strong>170,000 people in Washington, D.C. are functionally illiterate. But that number doesn\u2019t tell you much, especially if you have no sense of the overall population. Instead, why not say:One in three adults living in Washington, DC is functionally illiterate. Next time you\u2019re on the \u00a0Metro, look around you. Odds are that the person to your left or right can\u2019t read a newspaper.
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  5. Provide Relative Distance: <\/strong>If you\u2019re a car company announcing increased fuel efficiency, you\u2019d be proud to announce that this year\u2019s model gets four miles more per gallon. But you\u2019d probably get even more traction if you said, \u201cThat\u2019s enough to get from Maine to Miami \u2013 without spending an extra penny on gas.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These five ideas may get you started, but keep looking. You’ll\u00a0find other great examples on television commercials, in marketing solicitations, even pasted onto billboards.<\/p>\n

    So take out those statistics you keep using year-after-year, and use these ideas to help freshen them up. Challenge yourself by inserting one of these context-rich statistics into your next press release or media interview. You may be surprised to find it\u2019s the thing your audience remembers the most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This month’s guest blogger is Brad Phillips,\u00a0the author of the Mr. Media Training Blog, which offers daily media and presentation training tips. His firm, Phillips Media Relations, specializes in media and presentation training. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By Brad Phillips Guest Blogger If you\u2019re of a certain age, you probably remember those old television commercials for\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":6,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[604],"class_list":{"0":"post-7994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-public-relations","7":"tag-writing-articles","8":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}