The Colab Brief: 017 - Embargo Emschmargo - WTF Does It Mean?

Today, we’re tackling the topic of the ever-elusive, mystical embargo. 🔮 What is it? When is it best used? What happens if (gasp! 😨) someone breaks one? Read on for our breakdown of the term, how it’s best utilized, and WTF to do when the news gets leaked.

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Read Time: 5 mins

The Embargo. Probably the most misunderstood handshake contract in the PR playbook. The whole thing is pretty wild, when you really think about it. At its core, the embargo is an informal agreement between the source (a company, spokesperson, or publicist, typically) and a reporter to NOT talk about a piece of news before a set date and time. Think of it like an invisible contract. “I’ll give you a sneak peek, but you don’t publish until I tell you to.”

Despite everything getting more technical and formalized over the last ten years, the embargo has truly stayed the same. It’s all about trust. We’re sharing information and TRUSTING that you’ll keep it safe until the appropriate time.

Most of the time, this works out okay. Sometimes, not so much. But we’ll get into that in a minute.

The Embargo as a Tool

At its most effective, the embargo is a great tool to leverage when you want several articles to hit on the same day. It gives our reporter friends advanced notice and allows them to get the details they need to write a compelling story ahead of time.

We commonly use embargos in a few different scenarios: when a company secures funding (see our last newsletter for more deets on that), signs a major partnership, hires a high-tier executive, or has a (very newsworthy) corporate announcement.

When some piece of (legitimate) news is tied to a specific date, an embargo is a great lever to pull.

How they Work

Teasing an embargo is easy. You give the fewest details in order to get a preview of the news across, and then ask them to agree to the embargo before you share the rest. It is essential they agree to this BEFORE you share the news. Otherwise, they can publish at will with no regard for your timing.

Example:

Hey XXX -

Reaching out with news that XXX, [company description], is planning to announce a new round of funding on XYZ date, led by XYZ.

Are you interested in seeing a copy of the press release under embargo? Let me know, and I’d be happy to share.

Simple as that. You want to give them enough information to make an informed decision (key players, general sense of news) without giving them the entire story (amount of funding, what they’ll do with the money, why now, etc).

Once they agree to the embargo, you send the press release, and it’s off to the races. You can then coordinate interviews, share more information, or simply wait for the announcement date to watch the coverage roll in.

When Things Go Wrong

We’ve seen our fair share of embargo mishaps. Someone internal at the company leaks the news to a “friend,” there is a mistake in the date/time in an email, multiple people are pitching multiple places, and wires get crossed. There are endless ways to screw the entire thing up. Here are a few of the most common:

• The Chatty Cathy. Depending on the level of sensitivity around the news, this can be a major problem. Chatting people up at conferences, exchanging LinkedIn messages where you tease information, sharing the news company-wide too early - it’s all risky when you’re holding media to an agreed-upon embargo time. When in doubt, keep it quiet.
  

• The Media Mistake. This doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. In fact, we had a vertical outlet break an embargo just this week. There isn’t much that can be done once the news is cached on the internet. The most immediate step is to ask the outlet to take the story down, but in today’s world of email newsletters and syndications, sometimes removing the original post does very little to keep the news quiet.
  
  In some cases (depending on the tier of the outlet and the breadth of distribution), the breaking of an embargo means that everyone now has free rein to publish the news. If you cannot control the message after a leak, the best thing you can do is to let your other writers know that the news has been broken and to allow them to get their stories out at the same time.
  

• When the News isn’t News-ing. An embargo sounds great to most people. A rush of stories about our company, all on the same day? Amazing! But sometimes, when the news just isn’t quite newsworthy enough, the embargo notes go unanswered. First, make sure you’re giving enough details to make the announcement enticing. Saying, “I have some news to share - do you agree to the embargo?” will get exactly zero responses unless you have a recognizable email address (like, @amazon or @apple). If you’re sure you got the gist of the news across and STILL have no interest, you’ll need to pivot. Try to think about relevant topics that would catch the reporter’s attention. What other timely trend or theme can you tie the news to? Why is this funding relevant to a certain industry, and why now? If you still aren’t getting bites, you’ll have to do a day-of pitch. This will hopefully still result in coverage (just maybe not on the same day).

Embargoes are a great way to drum up attention and get ahead of a news cycle, but there is a definite strategy to them. And, in the right scenarios, they’re also great coupled with our other favorite tool, The Exclusive. More details on that in another post.

Enjoy the weekend!

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