Media-first PR in the AI era with Storyblok’s Brandon Watts

In this episode, Brandon Watts joins host Jason Mudd to discuss how to prioritize audience and authenticity in media-first PR during the AI era.

Tune in to learn more!

Watch the episode here:

Meet our guest:

Our episode guest is Brandon Watts, director of PR and communications at Storyblok. With 20-plus years in shaping narratives for startups and enterprise tech, Brandon brings insights from both the media and PR sides. He’s also contributed to Fast Company, Entrepreneur, and Adweek. 

5 things you’ll learn during the full episode:

1. How to adopt a media-first approach in PR during the AI era
2. Why quality matters more than quantity when pitching stories
3. How to put the audience before your PR agenda
4. The power of exclusives and timings
5. Tips for pitching original, AI-proof stories

Listen to the episode here:

Quotables

• “The biggest challenge here is when we think of what we're trying to tell, the story we're trying to tell, it's usually always framed through our lens. What do we have to say? What benefit do we get from it? That's a lot of we, me — a lot of self-service focus. So we have to reframe this. If it's media first, it means that it's really media first.” — Brandon Watts
• “Communication with your pitch is so critical because that's really what helps you to sell it, to make it more broad in terms of who's going to want to listen to that and why.” — Brandon Watts
• “You have to create the stories that AI can't. And all of that is due to your personal experience, what your company's experiencing, what your team is experiencing, and your customers' lived experiences that cannot be hallucinated, that cannot be made up. That's authenticity.” — Brandon Watts
• “We use AI just in the right way to help you get more power out of your content creation. So you just have to take that extra bit of time to understand that you can't just prompt and run. You've got to give it context and tweak.” — Brandon Watts
• “Garbage in, garbage out. If you put bad input into a generative AI app, you're going to get bad output from it.” — Jason Mudd

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to share it with a colleague or friend. You may also support us through Buy Me a Coffee or by leaving us a quick podcast review.

Resources

Guest’s contact info and resources:

• Brandon Watts on LinkedIn
• Storyblok website
• How to stay ahead of AI in communication and marketing
• Listen to more episodes of the On Top of PR with Jason Mudd podcast.
• Find out more about Axia Public Relations.

Additional Resources:

• Axia’s AI Service
• AI in PR: Transforming communication strategies
• AI is transforming PR: What are the risks and benefits?
• What strong media relations actually look like
• How to pitch and earn media without breaking news
• Pitching exclusives by the numbers

If you like this episode, you're going to love this:

• Exclusives, advances, and embargoes: How to use each ethically in media relations
• What journalists want from your media pitch
• How to improve your media pitches

Recorded: November 24, 2025

About your host Jason Mudd

Jason Mudd is a nationally recognized public relations expert featured by CNN, Entrepreneur, Forbes, NPR, The New York Times, PRWeek, and The Wall Street Journal.

Named North America’s top PR leader by the World Communication Forum, he serves as CEO of Axia Public Relations — recognized by Forbes as one of America’s Best PR Agencies.

Jason has advised some of the country’s most admired and fastest-growing companies, leading campaigns for iconic brands including American Airlines, Budweiser, Dave & Buster’s, GE, H&R Block, Hilton, HP, Miller Lite, New York Life, Pizza Hut, Southern Comfort, and Verizon.

He’s also a professional public speaker, accredited PR practitioner, published author, entrepreneur, and host of On Top of PR with Jason Mudd — a podcast ranked among the top 3% globally by Listen Notes and a top 100 marketing podcast on Apple Podcasts. His guests have included leaders from Disney, Mall of America, Priceline, Southwest Airlines, Tyson Foods, and Wells Fargo.

Find more On Top of PR episodes on: 

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:13:12

Brandon Watts

the biggest challenge here is when we think of what we're trying to tell, the story we're trying to tell, it's usually always framed through our lens. And that's natural, right? It's. What do we have to say? What benefit do we get from it? But that's a lot of we. Me it's a lot of self service focus.

00:00:13:12 - 00:00:20:09

Brandon Watts

Right. So we really have to reframe this. If it's media first it means that it's really media first.

00:00:20:11 - 00:00:29:25

Announcer

Welcome to On Top of PR with Jason Mudd.

00:00:29:28 - 00:00:34:19

Jason

Jason Mudd with Axia Public Relations. Today I'm joined by Brandon Watts.

00:00:34:19 - 00:01:02:25

Jason

Hello and welcome to On Top of PR, I'm your host, Jason Mudd with Axia Public Relations. Today I'm joined by Brandon Watts. And we're talking about what it means to do media first PR in the age of artificial Intelligence Brandon is the director of PR and communications at Storyblocks. He has 20 plus years of experience in shaping the narratives of tech companies, from startups to enterprises with millions of users. As a former journalist and contributor to Fast Company, entrepreneur, Adweek, and more, Brandon understands both sides of the media landscape.

00:01:03:01 - 00:01:06:06

Jason

With that, Brandon, welcome to On Top of PR.

00:01:06:08 - 00:01:08:13

Brandon

Great to be here. Thank you so much, Jason.

00:01:08:15 - 00:01:34:20

Jason

Yeah, I'm glad to be here. Two glad you're here. Glad our audience is tuning in. And today we're talking about, five different items getting comfortable with quality over quantity, prioritizing the audience over your agenda. Third, using more exclusives, fourth, being flexible on timing. And fifth, pitching stories that are original and can only come from you versus something generated by artificial intelligence.

00:01:34:27 - 00:01:37:07

Jason

Brain. Does that sound like a good topic for us today?

00:01:37:09 - 00:01:39:14

Brandon

Yeah, there's a lot in there. So happy to do that.

00:01:39:14 - 00:01:50:04

Jason

And yeah, let's do it. So let's talk about getting comfortable with quality over quantity. I think I know where you're going to go with this, but, I'll let you guide us.

00:01:50:06 - 00:02:09:24

Brandon

Yeah, yeah. So I mean, it's it's the end of the year as we record this, it's gets, you know, everyone's starting to revise their plans for next year. What that's going to look like. And you know, as a PR leader myself, thinking about what the media landscape is right now and, and how do we really serve a media first strategy and what does that look like?

00:02:09:26 - 00:02:28:25

Brandon

And, you know, I think a lot of leaders will say, oh, we want good quality coverage. The quantity doesn't matter. But when you push it down to it yourself and your leadership is tending to look at number of hits, but what I've seen and I what many of us have seen is that quantity of hits is less valuable today than it used to be.

00:02:28:25 - 00:02:47:12

Brandon

Some can argue in ways it does support AI search. That's one bucket. We won't talk about that for right now. But the idea of what I'm seeing at press coverage at scale has just basically been rewrites, copy and paste the press releases, no additional reporting, just getting it out the door. And that metric of overall share a voice.

00:02:47:12 - 00:03:05:05

Brandon

While it's good to track, I think we're at a time now where we really have to look at depth of coverage. So that's where it comes into what is the quality of this? Is it literally a copy and paste of a press release that's on my website, or is there anything original here? Am I giving the media an opportunity to actually own this story?

00:03:05:07 - 00:03:20:17

Brandon

Shape it, spend time with it and some of the other points we'll talk about. I'll connect to this, but you first have to get comfortable by saying I'm not just looking at that. Share a voice percentage overall where I'm the loudest voice. I want to be the smartest voice. And what does that mean? It means better quality coverage.

00:03:20:19 - 00:03:31:19

Brandon

And really, if you focus that on your agenda, I mean, that's that's something the media can get behind a lot more than you just shouting at them constantly to try to publish something everyone else is publishing.

00:03:31:21 - 00:03:54:24

Jason

Yes, Brandon, those are good points. Just for clarity, we are recording this on November 24th of 2025, and this will probably air in early, 2026. So I do sense that this topic will still be extremely timely, especially as companies I sense are really, you know, putting dollars behind their interest in doing what we coined, AI relations, right?

00:03:54:24 - 00:04:21:08

Jason

Or optimizing their content for AI. And, you know, we, kind of talked around a little bit of the, muck rack research that supports that, 95% of all AI citations come from, PR type content, which is exciting for our profession and gives us a great opportunity. But, you know, I think to your first point, right, getting comfortable with quality over quantity, you know, that could mean many different things and in many different ways.

00:04:21:08 - 00:04:41:28

Jason

Right? So you're talking about quality of the coverage and quality of the the visibility versus the volume of visibility that exist out there. And, you know, I think that, you know, we as a profession have made a lot of strides in improving the way we measure PR and the way we look at measuring PR. There's still a lot more work to be done in this space, but I'm happy seeing those progress.

00:04:41:28 - 00:05:16:17

Jason

And like you said, you know, we've gotten away from, you know, what do you call it? Avs we've gotten away from impressions, and I think we're slowly getting away from share of voice, although it doesn't surprise me occasionally to go to a conference or something and see somebody from, you know, well-known brand name get up and start talking about Avs and impressions, in their presentation and, you know, in some environments, I understand you might still have some legacy, you know, individuals on your team who they feel like that's the way you've got to report, but for the most part, I think we're doing a good job of getting

00:05:16:17 - 00:05:18:27

Jason

away from that. What are you seeing, Brandon?

00:05:18:29 - 00:05:41:09

Brandon Watts

Yeah. No. Similar. I mean, I think this is kind of the renaissance for PR reporting and figuring out the impact. There's so many different ways to do that. Even with AI now that can help us to narrow in on certain figures that we can, fully understand and explain. But the thing that really brought me to this, this conclusion is, again, it's nothing new, but it's it's that's this pivot point of anytime you're planning for the year.

00:05:41:09 - 00:06:06:05

Brandon Watts

And yeah, this Aaron in January, you have the whole year ahead of you. So those those plans are still firming up. The thing that I realized and I know colleagues that I talk with in the industry, you get coverage, but is it coverage that you feel like you can really fully sales enable? Like is it something that just pops up on social, or is it something that's a little deeper that doesn't just look like your press release, you know, repurposed to hit an editorial standard?

00:06:06:07 - 00:06:21:20

Brandon Watts

I kind of hit that wall where I was thinking, you know, this is there's too much of the same thing. It's too much of the repeat messaging. There needs to be a little more depth, something that gives us mileage out of this coverage. So trying to come up with metrics that are more on, you know, key message, pull through originality.

00:06:21:22 - 00:06:42:17

Brandon Watts

Those are some new things that I think that PR teams would be very smart to start implementing. Is that originality? Because if you're not careful, your coverage can all look the same and it starts to just be noise, frankly. And so I'm trying to make 2026 the year where it's really less but deeper and original reporting that we can be proud of.

00:06:42:19 - 00:07:11:23

Jason

Yeah. Brandon. Thank you. That's, very helpful information. Appreciate you sharing that. Let's talk now about prioritizing the audience over your agenda. How would you advise companies to consider how they go about best doing that? How do you prioritize the audience over your agenda? Perhaps the agenda is being issued to you either by yourself and your own leadership and vision, or perhaps it's coming from a third party, like your boss, or the CEO, or the leadership team within the organization.

00:07:11:26 - 00:07:13:13

Brandon Watts

Yeah, yeah. So the

00:07:13:15 - 00:07:26:27

Brandon Watts

the biggest challenge here is when we think of what we're trying to tell, the story we're trying to tell, it's usually always framed through our lens. And that's natural, right? It's. What do we have to say? What benefit do we get from it? But that's a lot of we. Me it's a lot of self service focus.

00:07:26:27 - 00:07:33:15

Brandon Watts

Right. So we really have to reframe this. If it's media first it means that it's really media first.

00:07:33:15 - 00:07:54:24

Brandon Watts

What's what are our key outlets saying. What are they talking about. But more importantly what does their audience care about the most? Sometimes the publications lag a little bit behind the audience. So if you can really figure out what is top of mind to the audience, whether it's social media listening, things like Reddit, you can kind of get a a quicker view on where the conversation is going and can pitch stories related to that.

00:07:54:26 - 00:08:14:04

Brandon Watts

And there's there's always a way if a story is promotional, let's say you have a funding round or, you know, some sort of C-level appointment or something along those lines, or just the typical corporate stuff, you know, you can easily make that about yourself. For instance, in the case of a C-level appointment, you know, what experience have they had in the role that other companies can benefit from?

00:08:14:04 - 00:08:34:10

Brandon Watts

How do you lean into that? Versus, hey, we just got this new person, so there's there's ways to make it more personal and targeted. And I think I still see so many agencies, internal teams, you read this messaging and there's nothing new there. There's nothing that really helps anyone beyond the company itself, and certainly nothing that's not too self-promotional.

00:08:34:12 - 00:08:51:16

Brandon Watts

And it's hard. And I know we can't always win those battles. Sometimes we don't get approval for them. I know, you know, throughout my entire career I've tried to fight that fight. And sometimes you don't always win. But in the pitching and in some of the behind the scenes direct communication, there's always ways to add a little extra spice to that to make it more palatable.

00:08:51:16 - 00:09:06:27

Brandon Watts

Even if you can't go hard on audience first with your announcement, for whatever reason, that communication with your pitch is so critical because that's really what helps you to sell it, to make it more, broad in terms of who's going to want to listen to that and why.

00:09:07:00 - 00:09:26:01

Jason

Brandon, that's a great point. And the way I advise companies and clients is really to focus on how does this help the audience at the end of the day? Because if you help the audience, then they're going to respect you and, you know, get to know you like you trust, you want to do business with you. But if you're just shouting selfish and self-serving messages, then they're going to ignore you.

00:09:26:01 - 00:09:43:26

Jason

And I think the best filter for this, is always the media themselves. So if they're not interested in your story because it's so self-serving, they're definitely not going to go and tell it to the audience. So I always think that, you know, if you're not getting past the the gatekeeper of the reporter or the editor, there's probably a good reason for that.

00:09:43:26 - 00:09:58:22

Jason

And that's why you need to go back and adjust your message. You know, I used to have this at my desk. I don't have it in front of me right now. But this list of, you know, does it make the job easier for the person we're talking to, you know, to make their life better? Does it improve their financial situation?

00:09:58:22 - 00:10:14:28

Jason

Does it give more time back to their day? And those are just quick ways to kind of think through. Is this truly and genuinely helpful for the audience, or is it just helpful to us that the audience knows about a new product, a new service, a new feature that we might have, or that we've expanded into a new, marketplace?

00:10:14:28 - 00:10:37:04

Jason

So, yeah, I think that, you know, being audience focused in your writing and in your communication, even putting your audience is the subject of your sentences, I think will go a lot long, a lot further, than people realize. But yet I see so many marketing and communications departments, doing the exact opposite of that.

00:10:37:06 - 00:10:39:03

Brandon

Yeah. Great points.

00:10:39:05 - 00:11:12:27

Jason

Yeah, yeah. So the next point is, talking about using more exclusives and, you know, it's interesting because I see some LinkedIn rants about exclusives online. I think everybody likes them when they work out great and they work out benefit mutually beneficial. I do think a lot of people misunderstand exclusives, including, one time I saw a reporter, ranting about an exclusive, that she got, and I asked her, I said, you know, just kind of very politely in the comments.

00:11:12:27 - 00:11:35:24

Jason

I said, I'm wondering if you're thinking of an advance. You're describing an advance that they gave you as an exclusive. And I and I just kind of politely said, is there a chance that they were thinking in advance and you were thinking an exclusive? And that's what caused the confusion. So I feel like, you know, it's just like when, business people ask or think that a conversation is off the record.

00:11:35:27 - 00:11:51:20

Jason

One we both know it's not always, you know. So off the record, if you don't say so. And two, you're just better off not being off the record at all. Right. And I feel like kind of the same thing with exclusives and advances. I think there's a lot of confusion, but I do think that there is a unique way to go about doing that.

00:11:51:20 - 00:12:04:26

Jason

In fact, we're in the thick of a couple of exclusives right now that we're pitching on behalf of clients. So, Brennan, I'm excited to talk about this a little bit more with you. Tell me more about kind of your thought of of the benefits of using more exclusives.

00:12:04:29 - 00:12:25:04

Brandon Watts

Yeah. And I'd love to hear, after I answer this, how you're approaching this, because I'd love to learn the approach that's working for you all. But I think here's where it is. You've listened to every survey. You can cite muckraker and or the others that interviewed journalists. And you know what? I think the number something like 80 some percent of journalists would prefer pay more attention to a story if it's an exclusive.

00:12:25:07 - 00:12:40:08

Brandon Watts

And I think a lot of times I just kind of glazes over our eyes. I was like, no, we can't, we can't believe that. Or, you know, that's not going to work for us. And I think we have to start listening to what they say. And media first means media first, picking an outlet and giving them a crack at it.

00:12:40:11 - 00:13:02:23

Brandon Watts

What I'm noticing with, with our team and with the agencies that we work with, through story block is embargoes used to be kind of a fair way to do this and give multiple audiences of, you know, sneak peek and coordinate publishing and all of that. We've all done those for years. But what we're starting to notice is reporters don't really care about the embargo as much anymore.

00:13:02:24 - 00:13:29:27

Brandon Watts

They'll they'll agree to it, but they won't publish when the embargo lifts. We'll have coverage coming days, weeks after. That has been a unique change in the media environment that I'm seeing. And I'm curious if you're seeing that with embargoes, but unless it's a huge, huge news event where everyone has to publish at the same time, I know some of our embargo news may not be to that level, but it's still something you want to give more of a heads up on, so there's less of an urgency with certain stories these days than there used to be.

00:13:30:00 - 00:13:50:29

Brandon Watts

And my whole recalibration on this is giving one outlet what they ask for, what they want, that opportunity to really go deep on it, to know they're the only ones that are pursuing it first. Yes, we may spread the news wider after their coverage, but they are the first to get full time to explore it, be the first ones to publish and really deeply understand it.

00:13:51:01 - 00:14:08:23

Brandon Watts

So I'm curious for you, Jason. I mean, how the embargo versus exclusive approach, have you seen that change in recent years? Do you favor one over the other? I mean, there is a lot of there's a lot of trust you're putting in that exclusive if you're up against a time line and hoping that they actually follow through. So there's there's pluses and minuses.

00:14:08:23 - 00:14:20:18

Brandon Watts

But I think we have to get more comfortable saying, let's pick an outlet. Let's make it happen. Let's make a short list of maybe 3 to 5 outlets, lock in the exclusive and make that be the thing. What do you think on that?

00:14:20:20 - 00:14:47:23

Jason

Yeah, I you know, it's funny, as you were talking, I'm thinking of all the, exclusive advances and embargoes that we've given over the years that have gone wrong because somebody, somewhere, you know, leaked the story to the wrong, you know, was was just doing without, you know, the PR firm and the client or lock step and then a couple of the third parties that happen to know something are like, oh, yeah, I should probably tell this reporter, that's a friend of mine that this is happening and completely circumvents the process.

00:14:47:23 - 00:15:05:20

Jason

And the strategy that, you know, the agency and the, the, the brand have put together out there. So I was having a little PTSD, to be honest with you, while we were talking about it. But in the episode notes, we will insert links to, resources of content that I've written or our firm has written on these topics in the past.

00:15:05:22 - 00:15:35:03

Jason

But I, you know, it's interesting because you said something there, that I thought about for a second, which is, you know, the sense of urgency. And I agree with you. I think it just depends on how newsworthy the topic is. Right? If it's more evergreen or it's not breaking news or it's not involving a brand, you know, like, a Coca-Cola, Nike, a Tesla or a Disney that, you know, has dedicated beat writers, then, of course, you know, it might take a little bit of time for that story to be told.

00:15:35:05 - 00:15:53:11

Jason

I think part of the other challenge, again, is, you know, you know, if you're offering an exclusive, the rookie mistake I see people make is they're not communicating their expectations of when they want the media outlet to agree that, yes, we will cover this, or not. And by what date do they need to hear that from?

00:15:53:11 - 00:16:12:14

Jason

And then by what they do, they want it published by because you could throw it out there and say, you know, let's say you offer I'm just making this up, you know, Forbes and exclusive and, you know, then you don't hear back from them. And, you know, they're thinking maybe they still have the exclusive and you're thinking, oh, I guess they're not going to do anything because there was no timeline communicated properly.

00:16:12:14 - 00:16:36:15

Jason

So I see that as like kind of a rookie mistake. Yeah. And then, you know, to your point with embargoes, you know, we've done that before and, you know, clarified the date that, you know, whatever, you know, the date that they can start covering it, which I think everybody appreciates, especially like you said, you know, if it's a short notice, like you, you can give them notice, but it's going to take them more time to report on the topic.

00:16:36:17 - 00:16:57:22

Jason

And then, you know, kind of an advance, an embargo are kind of very similar. I think it's best to use either the term embargo or exclusive to make sure it's understood. But to your point and my point, I think if you're telling somebody you're giving them an exclusive, then it really does need to be exactly that. Now, you could tell them you're the only news outlet that we're giving this to.

00:16:57:24 - 00:17:19:26

Jason

I'm just making this up. You know that within the industry or you know, the you know, you're the exclusive podcast or the exclusive, TV show or something like that so that you can kind of play with multiple, you know, media outlets, but, you know, don't call it an exclusive and say, I'm giving this to the local TV.

00:17:19:29 - 00:17:41:25

Jason

Network affiliate and the one across town. Right. That's there's nothing exclusive about that. So I think it's really important that you make it clear the timeline, the expectations, and everything's done with transparency and done in an ethical way. Otherwise you will really burn that bridge. And and I've heard of, you know, PR people who tell somebody that's exclusive, but they're not really genuine about that.

00:17:41:25 - 00:17:52:04

Jason

And I promise you, your reputation will spread in the wrong way like wildfire. Over that. Yeah. Yeah. So, did I answer your question on that?

00:17:52:06 - 00:18:14:23

Brandon

Yeah. You did, you did. I think that's and your point about timing is so important. Sometimes PR people were so hesitant to offend the journalists. Yeah. And obviously it's very it's a very delicate relationship. We understand that. But there's nothing wrong with saying I need a response by this date or this time with the time zone. If you, you know, especially if you're given an exclusive, this is literally a gift to them in a way.

00:18:14:23 - 00:18:30:06

Brandon

I mean, we view it as a gift. They view it as another story, but we're giving them first right of refusal. So if you're doing that, you don't want to sit by your email thinking, you have to wait two weeks for them to respond. I mean, it's it's totally realistic to say by Wednesday at, you know, 5 p.m. eastern.

00:18:30:08 - 00:18:45:21

Brandon

Otherwise we'll have to move this around. They understand that no one's going to be offended by that. And the other thing I will say on this is it's not a one size fits all. Obviously. I'm not saying you pitch exclusives to everyone. This is what makes PR fun is if you view each story as an individual campaign.

00:18:45:24 - 00:19:05:23

Brandon

Is this something we do as an embargo, an exclusive, or even just after it comes out? The cases are always different and you never want to put one size fits all on it. So but I think if we're thinking about media first PR and what this involves, these things need to be increased more than they typically are. So more exclusives versus less yes.

00:19:05:23 - 00:19:25:20

Jason

Branding. So first of all, you're you're hitting the nail on the head by mentioning that you should also include the time zone, because we don't know where these reporters are based anymore. You know, gone are the days of the traditional environment. You know, where they're working, you know, in the same city, whether it's, remote or in the office for the for the outlet where it's based.

00:19:25:23 - 00:19:48:12

Jason

You know, that's becoming more and more the exception, than the norm. So that's a that's an excellent point. And I think we're both, connected on LinkedIn to a journalist who I saw recently post about this, just saying, like, hey, you know, I really love it when I get an exclusive. But make sure you don't bury in the omit or bury in the exclusive when you need to hear from me.

00:19:48:12 - 00:20:08:03

Jason

Bye. Because it's not just me. I've got an editor. I've got to take that same story, too. And I may not have access to that editor as quickly as you think. So the guideline they were saying was, give us 2 or 3 business days to let you know if we are accepting the exclusive or the exclusive or not, and there's no point in holding on to it if we're not accepting it.

00:20:08:06 - 00:20:25:03

Jason

Just make sure you follow up with me. I mean, they just said it this way all will be enough so that I remember to get back to you with a yes or no. And I thought that was appropriate, too. So I think in summary, as I recall, they were saying not only give me a deadline, but then also follow up with me about a day before that deadline, so I don't forget and leave you hanging.

00:20:25:10 - 00:20:51:15

Jason

And please know that I'm not the only one who can accept it. The other thing I wrote down, while you were talking is, I think we miss it. As you know, media relations practitioners, we miss the thought of you know, I may not be able to offer outlet be the same exclusive. I gave the outlet a, but I could give them exclusive access to a particular expert or spokesperson within our organization.

00:20:51:20 - 00:21:11:17

Jason

That's not speaking to anyone else in advance of their story. I could also open up additional, angles, to them that I'm not doing. I'm not specializing or not, or maybe even key messages or, or topics that I'm not exploring with the other outlets. So there's creative ways to go about that. And, you know, that's something we mentioned earlier.

00:21:11:17 - 00:21:30:18

Jason

You know, we're doing a couple of things like that right now where we're specifically looking at and saying, okay, with this outlet, we want to talk about, you know, details of how the funding came to be and how the partners came together, or the players came together in this partnership as opposed to, you know, maybe we don't address that and we focus on the tech, you know, with this other company.

00:21:30:18 - 00:21:46:26

Jason

So there's always different angles that you can play up. And I think the the secret is, like you said to have good planning, to communicate those expectations well and establish a timeline and just make sure kind of everybody's on the same page. So no one's making assumptions or gets disappointed.

00:21:46:28 - 00:21:47:25

Brandon

That's it.

00:21:47:27 - 00:21:53:29

Jason

Yeah. Speaking of, let's talk about being flexible on timing. Brandon, what what were your thoughts on that?

00:21:54:01 - 00:22:12:00

Brandon

Yeah, well, this ties in with the previous point. So if you're using exclusives and you're going media first again you know what happens. We all know this. When you're drafting an announcement you say okay, let's do it. You know, January 23rd at 9 a.m. eastern. And let's that's going to be the date. And then let's find the media to cover it or to respect that.

00:22:12:02 - 00:22:28:00

Brandon

And I just think we've got to get a little bit out of that mindset. There's always going to be announcements that have to come out of certain time and day. But I think if you can generate more story ideas and view them as these individual nuggets that you can place in different places, that gives you more opportunity to be flexible.

00:22:28:00 - 00:22:49:11

Brandon

So as much as is possible with stories that don't have a time crunch, instead of just saying, hey, this story's coming out, you know, in two weeks, work on that, work with the journalists, on the timing, what what's their availability? They're probably at a conference. They they're barraged with who knows what. I think that extra level of respect to you don't want this to get delayed for months and weeks, of course.

00:22:49:11 - 00:23:10:17

Brandon

But, you know, realistically, can you be flexible on when this comes out and when they're available to meet with you on it? I've had good results doing that. I think it's just way more collaborative. And so when you come to someone and say, here's the idea, it's just for you when what timing works, where you're going to be able to actually dig into this versus, hey, it's coming out in a week and you have to talk to them before then.

00:23:10:17 - 00:23:39:02

Brandon

And, you know, that's that's kind of do or die. And again, it gets back to this idea of I'd rather have one deeply researched and informative piece of coverage than 6 or 7 that all look alike. That's just me, because I've been facing that a lot with a lot of the press releases we have. And the way media has, frankly, because of a lack of resources, they've kind of had to just churn out things and do less reporting and do more copying and pasting and I want coverage that's deeper that I can present through the entire team, through our sales team.

00:23:39:02 - 00:23:56:18

Brandon

And so working on this, this exclusive approach, being flexible with timing, that is a great entry way to get that coverage that's going to benefit you. And who cares, frankly, if it comes out, you know, a few days later or a week later, if it doesn't really matter, get the best story you can get and let that be your jumping off point for the rest of it.

00:23:56:20 - 00:23:59:10

Brandon

You're going to be much happier. In my opinion.

00:23:59:13 - 00:24:25:03

Jason

Yeah, I agree, just like in, in real estate, right? The cliche of location, location, location and in advertising, PR, etc., you know, it's it's, you know, being there over and over again, again and again. So, you know, it's, it's it's all about, you know, placement. If you will. So, and ongoing visibility. So, you know, I don't know if you want to be in all the places on one day or have it trickle down.

00:24:25:03 - 00:24:45:08

Jason

I think it depends on kind of the campaign that you're working on. But what you were saying earlier, Brandon really comes back to me is, you know, I say this all the time. It's it's important we put relationships back in public relations. Right. And what you're describing is a having a good relationship with the, reporter or editor or published or producer.

00:24:45:08 - 00:25:08:18

Jason

I'm sorry. Before you start, you know, just kind of, I don't say mandating, but directing their coverage. Right? Instead you say, hey, I'd like to collaborate with you on a story. Now. It's helpful. One, if you already have that relationship in place. And I tell people all the time, the best PR relations and best newsroom relationships come from pitching a really good story so I could pitch a reporter I've never met before.

00:25:08:18 - 00:25:30:07

Jason

But if I've got a great story that fits their coverage area and it's newsworthy, then I'm going to become they're going to like me really quickly versus I could, you kno w, be the best man in somebody's wedding. And if my story doesn't align with what they're, you know, what they cover, they're not likely to help me out or go out of their way to risk their reputation, their employment and the reputation of the outlet they work for.

00:25:30:14 - 00:26:04:27

Jason

But I think it comes down to good relationships and good communication, right? Communicating about expectations, being open to collaborating on what's in it for them and what's in it for you, and how you know you can align those interests and for our audience that aren't involved in the practice of media relations, I think they're often surprised that, you know, reporters have to cover stories a they're not interested in at times, and B, they have a, you know, a covenant or an agreement with the audience of that outlet that they're going to cover it in a way that's helpful and interesting to them, not just what, you know, people think the reporter wants to write about.

00:26:04:27 - 00:26:06:22

Jason

So I think that's really important.

00:26:06:28 - 00:26:16:09

Jason

This episode is brought to you by Audible. Enjoy 30 days free of Audible Premium Plus by going to ontopofpr.com/audible.

00:26:16:11 - 00:26:40:16

Announcer

You're listening to On Top of PR with your host, Jason Mudd. Jason is a trusted advisor to some of America's most admired and fastest growing brands. He is the managing partner at Axia Public Relations, a PR agency that guides news, social and web strategies for national companies. And now, back to the show.

00:26:40:19 - 00:27:03:16

Jason

The fifth thing we want to cover today is pitching stories that are original and can only come from you versus something generated by artificial intelligence. And I'm excited about your hot take on this, because I think a lot of people are really focused on, you know, just generating content from AI because they can and, and that goes back to our earlier point as well, you know, about, quality over quantity

00:27:03:19 - 00:27:25:17

Brandon

yeah. I mean, how many times do we need to hear or see journalists that are complaining about the AI pitches they're getting? And they can tell. We can all tell, I'm sure, in your inbox, too, Jason. I know in my inbox it's not PR pitches, but it's sales pitches and it's it's things that have gotten so much more transparent as AI where they're like, you know, hey, I'd like to go to this restaurant when I'm in your area, it's like, you've never been here.

00:27:25:17 - 00:27:48:11

Brandon

It's fake. It's fake personalization. It's not true. And it's just becoming so obvious. And so these tricks are the sales tricks are being applied to journalists now by PR pros. You know, frankly, a lot of the PR platforms and the tooling lets you write with AI or edit with AI at scale. And yeah, if you're not human in the loop in that you are really in trouble.

00:27:48:11 - 00:28:07:25

Brandon

And it's been entertaining to see some of the journalists that I know, you and I both follow on LinkedIn, talk about this and talk about some of the habits and wording, you know, in the age of. And that's a dead giveaway right there. But there's a lot of them. But the biggest thing is I'm seeing the media complain about this thought leadership that's not thought leadership.

00:28:07:25 - 00:28:31:22

Brandon

So frankly, all of us can go to ChatGPT and say, you know, write me, thought leadership article about enterprise SAS and, the price reductions that are inevitable or, you know, whatever the topic is and everyone's going to get the same or similar points that have no personal context, no, no actual experience, but is basically this hallucination of a bunch of different general ideas that are being pitched.

00:28:31:22 - 00:28:49:28

Brandon

And you see this in contributed articles where someone says, write me a thousand words about, you know, whatever are it's pitches, write me 200 words about this topic, this trending topic. And the thing is, you know, you have to you have to create the stories that I can't. And that's all of that is due to your personal experience.

00:28:49:28 - 00:29:19:24

Brandon

What your company's experiencing, what your team is experience and your customer's lived experiences that cannot be hallucinated, that cannot be made up. I think that's that's the authenticity. We've always said. It's important storytelling and media relations. But for 2026, I mean, come on, that is where it lives and dies. Is is this a real story that someone experienced that is human, that is relatable, that is honest, that's not perfect, that has ups and downs.

00:29:19:27 - 00:29:39:01

Brandon

You know, there's so many pieces of that of what makes a good story that I think the bar is so high that we have to, as PR pros, go through our spokespeople and our teams and really pull the human experiences out of them because, you know, industry platitudes just are not going to work anymore. They did work for a while, but we've run out of that time.

00:29:39:01 - 00:29:50:20

Brandon

It's the bar is so much higher now thanks to AI, and I think that's a good thing, frankly. It pushes you and it makes you come to a better story in the end. So there's my there's my hot take on that one.

00:29:50:20 - 00:30:16:11

Jason

Jason Brennan, I appreciate that. I think you're you're you're exactly right. What I'm seeing, I've been speaking about AI to PR communities and conferences and things like that, you know, in a meaningful way. Since 2023. I certainly wasn't the first. You know, I've got somebody on an episode recently where I was like, you were the first guy I ever knew that was talking about AI, and you've been doing it for ten years, and now it's here, and it's everything you said it was going to be.

00:30:16:11 - 00:30:37:17

Jason

And I got to be honest, you know, occasionally we thought you're a little obsessed with it, but, you know, you were you were right, you know, and, so I asked him on the interview, you know, we'll put a link to in the episodes. How's it feel to be right? You know, but, at the end of the day, you know, since 2023 and I've been talking about this, you know, I used to say the cliche, you know, and I think everybody's heard by now, but.

00:30:37:17 - 00:31:03:18

Jason

Garbage in, garbage out, right? So you put bad input into a generative AI app, you're going to get bad output from it. As well. And so I see where, yes, people are using, AI poorly and you can pick it out right away. But I think as time goes on, you people are going to become more sophisticated users of it and give better prompts and better training, creating custom GPT ts.

00:31:03:20 - 00:31:24:17

Jason

>And so I feel really good about where we are with this right now for our clients. But it comes from, you know, getting real input from them and, and then document it and using AI is a collaborator, not the person, you know, not the only, you know, engine producing that content. So, it's a great beginning, but a terrible ending.

00:31:24:17 - 00:31:44:20

Jason

It's a great first draft, a terrible, you know, final draft. But as things get better, you know, I think we'll see an ongoing evolution. I also think a lot of the cues and or seemingly a lot of clues we can use, towards AI and whether or not it's AI generated, you know, like the MDS are often kind of false alarms.

00:31:44:20 - 00:32:03:04

Jason

And, you know, a lot of times in my personal writing, I'm talking about, you know, in the AI era, because I'm trying to establish, you know, a baseline between what you could do, like you're doing right now, what you could do before I, what you could do after. But I loved your point about how, you know, AI has made this better for everybody.

00:32:03:04 - 00:32:16:20

Jason

I think it's raised is is, I think you were saying also kind of the bar and expectations of quality of content and what you used to be able to get away with, you really can't because you're now competing. You should be competing at a higher level.

00:32:16:23 - 00:32:37:29

Brandon

That's it. Yeah. Yeah. And it's I mean, it's it's all exciting. I think the, the custom GPT thing again, it's not the, the part. The problem is when you just use the model in general and get generic thought leadership, if you're plugging in custom content trained on GPT for your spokespeople, which I'm a fan of, is creating GPT for your CEO and others and training it on that.

00:32:38:02 - 00:33:00:09

Brandon

There's at least some human context in there. But what these, these newbie kind of not, not fully thinking this thing through agencies and leaders are doing are literally just going to ChatGPT cold and saying, what's what can I talk about for this topic and trying to pitch that off as original. If you have any use of AI with personal context, brilliant, fantastic.

00:33:00:09 - 00:33:13:12

Brandon

Do it all the time. But 100% I of course. Oh no, we could slide through on that one for a while, but thankfully I think that lasted for about six months to a year. And now everyone agrees. We can tell and we need some human story or element to this.

00:33:13:18 - 00:33:37:06

Jason

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, and I'm trying to think of AI as obviously like, an intelligent collaborator in the work that we're doing. I've called it and others have called it, you know, like an intern or an entry level employee. But once you train it, I think it becomes more of like a set of collaborative partner. And so even today, I need I wanted something written that I just didn't have a vision for yet.

00:33:37:06 - 00:33:52:15

Jason

And so I gave limited input and I said, you know, would you write this for me? It was more of like an executive communication. It wasn't really a public communication, more internal communication. And I said, I want to communicate this. I'm not sure how. And it took its first stab, which is exactly what I needed to be like.

00:33:52:15 - 00:34:14:16

Jason

Nope, that's not the direction I wanted. Right? So then I was able to pivot and give it additional input, and then still wanted to go down a path that wasn't the path I want. Even the final draft. I was like, all right, I'll just take it from here and go, but it captured a couple of the messaging that I wanted to get through, and it really helped me get through kind of a block, writer's block that I had because I wasn't really comfortable saying what I was going to say.

00:34:14:16 - 00:34:34:19

Jason

Not that it was bad news. It was just something that was a little bit unclear. It's characteristic of my style of getting involved in something, if you will. And I just was trying to propose. Maybe we should change directions on this, but I wasn't yet convinced that we should. So I was trying to make it kind of, help me communicate in the way.

00:34:34:19 - 00:34:52:04

Jason

And this is where I find it very helpful, is help me make this sound more collaborative, or help me make this sound more confident, even when in that moment I may not be confident about it. And the draft that we go with probably not what I thought it would be and not what I was finally recommending, but some hybrid version.

00:34:52:07 - 00:35:10:23

Jason

And I don't know about you, but where I get stuck on that is the perfectionist in me. Or, you know, or I'm like, man, I've been I've been going back and forth for 20 minutes. I probably could have done this in ten had I not tried to involve. I, but I feel like 90% of the time it's a better product when all is said and done.

00:35:10:25 - 00:35:24:28

Brandon

Yes. I mean, we could do a whole episode on perfectionism in comms because let me raise my hand as someone who suffers from that same that's a that's a big one. That's a big one. I always joke about, you know, for being someone who's a perfectionist and likes to have control, this is the worst career of all time.

00:35:24:28 - 00:35:42:18

Brandon

You have zero control. And I mean, you can influence things, but a lot of it at the end of the day is outside your control. But I, I, I actually did a talk for, the PSA in SF, went out there and did about race, basically the realities of AI and how it is. This is the most exciting time for PR pros.

00:35:42:18 - 00:36:08:01

Brandon

I've been doing this for 20 years. This is the most exciting time, not from using off the shelf AI, but using that trained AI to improve your work. So it's it's helping you do more at scale, helping you come up with better ideas. Vibe coding if you have any technical knowledge, the proof of concepts that you can develop to to generate an idea to re visualize data, to understand trends, and then of course I search and editorial impact on that.

00:36:08:01 - 00:36:29:28

Brandon

It's another renaissance for for PR pros. I know you've talked about that before too. So I has really actually re enthused me about this industry because it was kind of going through some tough times. Five or so years ago. But I feel like the value is is more agreed upon now. And the tooling is so strong if you use it with even a shred of uniqueness.

00:36:30:01 - 00:36:47:00

Brandon

And yeah, you're off to the races. So I'm pro I and company. I work with two content management system story block. We use AI just in the right way to help you get more power out of your content creation. So you just have to take that extra bit of time to understand that you can't just prompt and run.

00:36:47:00 - 00:36:51:27

Brandon

You've got to give it context and tweak.

00:36:52:00 - 00:37:21:12

Jason

Yeah, I'm in full agreement with you. And, you know, maybe we should start a perfectionists perfectionism anonymous group among, PR and communication practitioners. I know my mantra for much of this year. It started out with, you know, massive action was kind of my, my, my theme for the year. And about midway through, I started adopting perfectionism slows you down, because I wanted to have this massive action about my goals and priorities.

00:37:21:15 - 00:37:41:09

Jason

But what I was finding myself was, you know, was that I was getting distracted with the professionalism, which are perfectionism, which was slowing me down. So. Yeah, and, you know, we become what we think about the most. I'm a big believer in that. So always trying to kind of think of, okay, how can I move fast and break stuff along the way?

00:37:41:09 - 00:37:57:06

Jason

And, you know, the good news is I've got a team behind me both administratively and for our clients who can kind of fix some of the mess that I'm starting to create, or at least finish it off for me so I can move on to the next thing. So yeah. Brandon, any closing thoughts to share today?

00:37:57:08 - 00:38:17:29

Brandon

Yeah. I think just to summarize this, this point, right, why is it so important? We have to go media first in the age of AI, right. It's there's no there's no doubt about it. So if you thought you were media first, I'd say take a step back, look at what you're doing. And am I really media first, or do I just like to think I'm giving the media the priority they deserve?

00:38:18:02 - 00:38:33:25

Brandon

So that's that's my main takeaway is consider all these different points and try to verify your status. Are you are you primarily there for your brand in terms of your communication style? Are you really trying to serve your audiences, which is going to ultimately be better for your brand anyways?

00:38:33:27 - 00:38:43:23

Jason

Brandon, is we're wrapping up, any particular resources that you're following that are helping you stay on top of what's happening with artificial intelligence?

00:38:43:26 - 00:39:06:12

Brandon

Great question. I basically live on LinkedIn these days, and it's not hard to find the most authentic voices out there in those those places. And I would say that's your that's your source of what's, what's actually happening. I find myself turning there beyond anything else because I like the immediacy of it. I usually find out things before they're covered in other publications or educational materials.

00:39:06:12 - 00:39:25:26

Brandon

So, yeah, if you're not making use of LinkedIn, I know that sounds crazy to say in 2025, 20, 20, 56, it's time to follow the right people and curate your feed. It's going to be the most educational thing you can hope for for free. So, I encourage everyone to to get in there and find these thought leaders that they can learn from.

00:39:25:28 - 00:39:39:08

Jason

Yeah, that's a great point, Brandon. I think you're exactly right. And that's where I'm learning a lot. And then learning from others and and opting in to certain pieces of content based on what others are sharing and recommending. So, that's a really good point.

00:39:39:11 - 00:39:49:21

Jason

And so speaking of LinkedIn, how do people get Ahold of you and follow you on LinkedIn if they want to continue the conversation or stay in touch with the things you're sharing?

00:39:49:23 - 00:40:05:22

Brandon

Yeah, easy to find on LinkedIn. Just Brandon Watts from Story Block. And try to post there every day and love to just bounce ideas around and learn from everyone. So it's been a really fun experience prioritizing that platform. So would love to connect there.

00:40:05:24 - 00:40:22:18

Jason

Well, and speaking of for full transparency, that's how you and I met was just engaging in each other's content. And I like some of the things you've said and we've gotten into some you know, kind of micro commenting, commenting on the platform as well. And and I was like, let's just get them on the podcast. Let's talk more about this.

00:40:22:18 - 00:40:27:11

Jason

So this has been exciting, and I appreciate the opportunity to, to do this today.

00:40:27:13 - 00:40:29:07

Brandon

Yeah. Love it. Thank you so much, Jason.

00:40:29:09 - 00:40:55:20

Jason

Yeah. My pleasure, my pleasure. Well, with that, this has been another episode of On Top of PR. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. And speaking of, if you did enjoy this, would you take a moment to share this episode with a friend or colleague who you think would benefit from it? It's my pleasure and my privilege to help you stay on top of PR, and I think we've done exactly that today by throwing out kind of five ideas that you could really think of and share with your team to help elevate what you're doing in 2026.

00:40:55:20 - 00:41:02:23

Jason

And so with that this is Jason Mudd from Axia Public Relations. Signing off, I hope some great happens to you today. Be well.

00:41:02:26 - 00:41:15:05

Announcer

This has been On Top of PR with Jason Mudd presented by ReviewMaxer. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode, and check out past episodes at ontopofpr.com.