SHIFT Communications, BzzAgent’s PR firm, scheduled Dave Balter for an interview with The Advertising Show, an internet radio program affiliated with AdvertisingAge magazine. Scheduling was a bit frenetic. The associate producer wanted an immediate commitment, but given that all interviewers must be vetted prior to our participation (and coupled with the fact that I had no idea whatsoever what the program was all about), it took us several days to sign-up, and several more to supply the producers with information — BzzAgent and third-party authored — on the company, schedule a prep call, and find time that met with all parties’ schedules. (Dave has been known to schedule conference calls from cab rides to the airport. It’s tough to get on his calendar.) And this all needed to be organized while we were traveling in Spain.

Ultimately we agreed to put Dave on the program. The show has had some great guests, and their relationship with AdAge didn’t hurt either. But this was one of the few interviews that I personally had little involvement in coordinating and evaluating. SHIFT did this one solo. So I was very much looking forward to the prep call, just to get a feel for the program and its hosts. But I received a surprise call from Carol Krol, a fine reporter with whom I’ve worked in the past, asking for a comment for an article she was writing about word-of-mouth for BtoB Magazine. So Dave did the prep call independently.

Amusingly, he asked the interviewer to hold off until he could get his “PR guy” in the room. Gentle Dave: He always seems to forget that journalists tend to — err — “not dig” PR people (for further information on this topic, read my book). To me, the host’s lack of interest in having me participate in the interview was a good sign. This wasn’t going to be an advertorial, but rather a legit interview.

I did participate in the final interview. Like most press calls, Dave spoke from the handset while the reporter’s voice was projected over the speaker. I ran around finding stats, cross-referencing campaigns against the list of publicly citable clients, and scribbling illegible reminders for him to convey one message or another.

The hosts, Ray Schilens and Brad Forsythe, were a bit of a challenge. They were yucksters, wise-cracking between commercial breaks to the point that I wondered aloud (after gesturing for Dave to hit the “mute” button) when Allan Funt was going to appear. But their approach, while unorthodox, worked: They got Dave to relax, laugh and speak naturally. He, like most people, is at his best when he’s being himself. (Though he kept blowing opportunities to plug his book, Grapevine: The New Art of Word-of-Mouth Marketing.)

Anyway, check out the 15-minute interview here and decide for yourself if Dave advanced the public’s understanding of BzzAgent. You may want to fastforward to the 9:30 mark of the file. That’s when Dave’s discussion begins.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 15th, 2006 at 10:24 am and is filed under Making BzzAgent Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.