Comments on: How To Write A Press Release: Cuil Gives Us A Nice Lesson http://www.omstrategy.com/151/how-to-write-a-press-release-cuil-gives-us-a-nice-lesson Improve Your Online Marketing Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:24:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Jon Jennings http://www.omstrategy.com/151/how-to-write-a-press-release-cuil-gives-us-a-nice-lesson#comment-343 Jon Jennings Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:56:31 +0000 http://www.omstrategy.com/151/how-to-write-a-press-release-cuil-gives-us-a-nice-lesson#comment-343 Totally agree with Daniel - for the flighty online tech market it seems that PR can make a product and PR can just as quickly break it. Sure, Cuil got enormous publicity at launch but what did every single tech journalist do first? They typed their own name into it. And 9 times out of 10 Cuil didn't flatter their egos the way they expected. Generally it seemed the articles were appropriate but the photos weren't - for instance, Tom Merritt (CNet's Buzz Out Loud) mentioned several times that he got a picture of Molly Wood and a tin of CoffeeMate on his Cuil results. So Cuil seems to be getting the same PR love that Vista gets. Sure, it probably works great for 90% of the people out there but nobody will touch it cos the talking heads told them that it sucks. Totally agree with Daniel - for the flighty online tech market it seems that PR can make a product and PR can just as quickly break it.

Sure, Cuil got enormous publicity at launch but what did every single tech journalist do first? They typed their own name into it. And 9 times out of 10 Cuil didn’t flatter their egos the way they expected.

Generally it seemed the articles were appropriate but the photos weren’t - for instance, Tom Merritt (CNet’s Buzz Out Loud) mentioned several times that he got a picture of Molly Wood and a tin of CoffeeMate on his Cuil results.

So Cuil seems to be getting the same PR love that Vista gets. Sure, it probably works great for 90% of the people out there but nobody will touch it cos the talking heads told them that it sucks.

]]> By: Daniel http://www.omstrategy.com/151/how-to-write-a-press-release-cuil-gives-us-a-nice-lesson#comment-342 Daniel Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:59:28 +0000 http://www.omstrategy.com/151/how-to-write-a-press-release-cuil-gives-us-a-nice-lesson#comment-342 Appreciate your points about straightforward and strong news hooks for getting Cuil superb coverage. Problem is that the product needed to deliver on those messages and Cuil has failed so far. The main problem? PR raised the bar to high on expectations mainly because the ex-Google employee is such a strong and juicy angle. When Cuil faltered because of a surge in usage and delivered poor to mad search results, the whole media pack turned on them. It's a real pity but you have to ask if their PR strateay was unwise. Yes, they've got publicity but it is a misnomer that any publicity is good publicy because I can see Cuil becoming a text book case of how to destry brand at launch http://gbckewroad.blogspot.com/2008/07/wishing-cuil-well-but.html Appreciate your points about straightforward and strong news hooks for getting Cuil superb coverage. Problem is that the product needed to deliver on those messages and Cuil has failed so far. The main problem? PR raised the bar to high on expectations mainly because the ex-Google employee is such a strong and juicy angle. When Cuil faltered because of a surge in usage and delivered poor to mad search results, the whole media pack turned on them. It’s a real pity but you have to ask if their PR strateay was unwise. Yes, they’ve got publicity but it is a misnomer that any publicity is good publicy because I can see Cuil becoming a text book case of how to destry brand at launch http://gbckewroad.blogspot.com/2008/07/wishing-cuil-well-but.html

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