Koolhoven & Partners is a communication agency established by seasoned journalists. Newsmaking is our profession, and the media is our second home. Our clients are looking to get into the news or stay out of it. How can I get onto the front page? Or, if I want to stay off it, how can I minimize media damage?
Newsmaking is an art and a creative discipline. It requires finely honed realistic instincts, an extensive network of contacts, and in-depth knowledge of the rapidly changing Dutch media landscape. Koolhoven & Partners thinks along with the client, gives advice, and executes – starting from the creative idea to a journalistic concept and then to concrete actions, encompassing the world of print, RTV, and digital media. This can mean ‘getting the brand into the news’ or keeping the brand out of the news as much as possible. But it’s always about positioning the entrepreneur or the enterprise in the media as optimally as possible.
‘Your bad news is our headline’ is a well-known journalistic saying. Koolhoven & Partners aims to turn this saying around for its clients into ‘your good news is their headline’.
Coca Cola
Newsmaking is a bit like making Coca-Cola. Adding some unique and newsworthy elements to a cocktail of news ingredients makes all the difference between a rather tasteless and colourless lemonade and a sensational magical dark drink that everybody knows about and talks about. Newsmaking is in essence a creative process.
But in the spirit of John Pemberton, the creator of the original Coca-Cola recipe, you never reveal the exact recipe. The recipe for Coca-Cola is one of the world’s best kept secrets. Newsmaking works more or less the same way. It’s the result that counts, and the recipe for getting there is itself the result of a creative process. Our goal is simply to make sure that your story is on everyone’s lips in the Netherlands.
Rumour around the brand
Our experience shows that many entrepreneurs, businesses, institutions, and other organizations are sitting on a gold mine of information without knowing it, information that can serve as the basis for fascinating news stories. One of our core strengths is our ability to sift through and identify such information and then leverage it to generate positive media attention and ‘rumour around the brand’. The impact of such media attention on the brand image and name recognition of the entrepreneur, the business, and the products and services offered can be huge.
Timing is also important. Launching a news story too early can be counterproductive, and too late is also not good. The day of the week and the time of day can also be important. Monday can be better than Friday for example, and the morning may be better than the evening. So timing needs to be carefully considered.
In view of the rapidly changing media landscape, the choice of media outlet is also very important. Depending upon the type of news, product, or service in question, this choice is made in close consultation with the client. Should the focus be on printed media, radio, or TV? Or perhaps it makes more sense to communicate the news via a blog or tweet or via Facebook?
For us, a press release is not what kicks things off; it simply follows logically after the right actions have been taken.