Gimme Gimme (More)
People don’t just buy what you sell; they buy where they find you and what it says about them.
We’re in the golden age of PR, but no one can agree on how to measure it.
For the first time in a while, instead of everyone saying “media is dead,” there’s more coverage, more channels, more noise, and at the same time, more opportunity than most brands know what to do with.
The mistake is thinking all coverage is equal.
Anyone can get a hit, but the kind of coverage that actually moves a business, that shifts perception, that opens doors you couldn’t get into before, that’s a different thing entirely, and it’s where PR gets undervalued.
At IFP, we call ourselves rainmakers. IFP stands for il fait pluie, French for “it is raining,” and that’s the point, we make it rain, but not in the way people have come to use that phrase.
Somewhere along the way, “making it rain” got reduced to volume, more hits, more mentions, more slides, as if more automatically meant better, when in reality, most of it doesn’t do much at all.
At the same time, brands kept shifting budget into paid, and for a minute that worked, until it didn’t.
Because people got smarter, and once that happens, you can’t unsee it. You stop responding to being followed around the internet by the same ad, and you start paying attention to where things show up, how they’re framed, and whether it feels like it belongs.
People don’t want to be sold to over and over again, they want a point of view, they want context, they want to feel like what they’re discovering says something about them.
Where you show up matters just as much as what you’re selling.
Someone reading Town & Country isn’t looking for the same thing as someone reading Complex, and they shouldn’t be treated as if they are. For the record, I read both.
That’s where PR, when it’s done well, becomes one of the most valuable levers a brand has, because it’s not just about being seen, it’s about being seen in the right place, in the right way, at the right moment, by the right person. There is more opportunity to do that right now than most brands are set up to take advantage of.
And that’s the part most people still don’t know how to measure.
So What Actually Makes PR Work
The term “rainmaker” is used across many industries to describe whoever brings in the most business, and in PR, that’s close enough, but it misses what’s actually happening.
The people who are good at this aren’t chasing coverage, they’re paying attention to timing, context, and where a brand fits into a conversation that’s already moving.
They’re looking at an editorial calendar and a business goal at the same time, they know when to push something forward and when to kill it entirely, and they understand that one well-placed story that lands the right way can do more than twenty that don’t.
Because a big hit only matters if it connects to something real, opening a door, shifting perception, reaching someone new, giving a founder credibility in a place they didn’t have before.
If those things aren’t connected, it doesn’t matter how many pieces you stack up.
Why the ROI Conversation Feels So Off
The industry created its own problem here.
For years, everything defaulted to EMV, earned media value, a number meant to approximate what coverage would have cost if you paid for it, and it worked as shorthand until it became the only thing people looked at.
So brands ended up with reports full of big numbers tied to coverage that didn’t show up anywhere meaningful, and eventually someone asked the obvious question: if this is working, where is it actually showing up?
Instead of answering that directly, the response became more reporting, more slides, more ways to justify something that wasn’t being measured in the right way to begin with.
The reality is, the press doesn’t behave like paid media, it’s not supposed to.
It doesn’t give you a clean line from impression to purchase because its role comes earlier, shaping how someone sees a brand before they’re even thinking about buying.
It builds familiarity, credibility, and trust over time, and those are the things that make everything else you’re doing work better.
That’s where the value is.
What You Should Actually Be Looking At
Before anything launches, the question should be simple: What does success actually look like for your business in the next 90 days, and how does PR support that?
If you’re trying to get into retail, then the right coverage is the kind that gets in front of buyers or drives people to that partner.
If you’re fundraising, it’s what shows up when someone searches your name and what gives you credibility before you walk into that meeting.
If you’re trying to reach a new customer, it’s about being in the places they already trust, not just the ones that look impressive on a recap.
When you start there, what you pay attention to shifts.
You start looking at whether you’re gaining share of voice over time instead of celebrating one good month, whether the story being told actually matches what you want to be known for, whether a piece is getting picked up and extending its reach, and whether you’re seeing a lift in search or traffic after something meaningful lands.
And then there’s the part that doesn’t fit neatly into a report but matters just as much, the profile that gets passed around, the feature that reaches exactly the right person, the moment where someone starts taking you seriously when they didn’t before.
Those are the things that move a business forward, even if they don’t show up cleanly.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
The brands that win right now aren’t the ones spending the most, they’re the ones showing up in a way that actually resonates.
They understand that being everywhere doesn’t mean anything if you’re not in the right places, and that trust isn’t built through repetition, it’s built through context.
PR, when it’s done well, gives you that context.
It puts your brand inside conversations people already care about, in environments they already trust, in a way that feels additive instead of interruptive, and that’s something paid alone can’t do.
And right now, there is more opportunity to do that than most brands are capitalizing on.
The Fine Print
What you’re actually investing in when you invest in PR isn’t coverage.
Its credibility, its positioning, its momentum.
It’s the difference between being a brand people recognize and one they believe in.
Those things build on each other over time, and they make everything else you’re doing work harder, from paid to partnerships to sales. The brands that get it are already doubling down.
A few things getting me through Tax Week…
I am moderating this conversation ^^ for Dr. Rachel’s new book, When Life Happens. You can RSVP here
Derek told me to watch Imperfect Women on Apple TV. I think these crazy twisty turny shows are my new favorite genre
Speaking of perfect, I also just watched the last season of Shrinking, and it really is. It’s so fun seeing Jason Segel in this role, we used to run into him all the time at The Den on Sunset, anyone else?
I’m keep[ing up with my reading goals The Wedding People by Alison Espach is on my nightstand
I mention things, you ask about them, chances are you can find them HERE in my ShopMy store. This is also a great article about the platform and how they are using HUMANS instead of AI. Look at that!
If this sparked something for you or your brand, and you'd like to talk about working together, we'd love to hear from you! Find us at ifpcommunications.com or drop us a line at info@ifpcommunications.com.
That’s it from me, as always, thank you for being here, for reading, and for sending me words of encouragement. And don’t forget to tap the lil heart so I can make more friends.
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