From Kyle Bennett over at HardOCP, I've learned today that I'm not the only one who has problems with some tech PR firms. This time it's a PR guy who made ridiculous claims about a computer's performance, then refused to back them up with facts or figures. Before you continue reading, I should mention that most PR people are professional, pleasant to deal with, and admit their limitations when it comes to technical subjects. Updated
The PR guy Bennett dealt with was David Tractenberg, who is listed as the president of Traction PR. Among Traction's list of gaming industry clients, I see only two names I recognize -- New Line and Konami. New Line being the film production company (and as we all know, movie-based games are always horrible -- no exceptions), and Konami being most recognized for its Nintendo smash hit from an era before a significant portion of today's gamers were born, Contra ("Congratulations. You have defeated the vile Red Falcon and saved the universe. Consider yourself a hero."). Not really what I'd call "heavy hitters" in the computer and console game worlds.
More interestingly, Traction PR lists its "alumni clients" on the same page, and those are some pretty significant names -- Sony and HP, for instance. But I can't help but wonder why these are ex-clients. Perhaps it was David Tractenberg's special brand of charm in saying such things to journalists as (according to the HardOCP article authored by Kyle Bennett), "Really, were you being serious? Just need to know if want a real answer on this one..." in response to a question asking what makes the company he's representing a market leader. Or maybe it was the creepy phone message Tractenberg reportedly left Bennett. I've had one or two of those in my career. If I were on Tractenberg's client list after seeing how he behaves in email and phone conversations with the very people he is trying to reach, I would find the quickest way to become an "alumni client" myself.
I have to wonder if some of the smaller PR agencies are just press release factories that megaspam journalists in the hope that a few of them will just repost the release without question, cringing when any degree of scrutiny is applied to their marketingspeak. By contrast, some smaller operations like Pat Meier Associates and Modena Barasch Communications are consistently top-notch in their approach -- innovative, attentive, and creative in all of my dealings with them. I don't know why, but I had this unrealistic notion that public relations is a field that is able to weed out the losers early on. I guess maybe it's like any other industry or profession, where there are people who enjoy doing good work, and people who are just doing a job.
Addendum
I got a call from David Tractenberg this evening, asking if I could modify or remove the above post. I won't do that unless there is a factual error or inaccuracy, but I did offer to print a response or an interview with him if he'd like. Tractenberg turned those offers down, saying that he didn't want to make this any worse than it already was. I'm not convinced that a real news story or interview on the matter would do harm, but that's not my decision to make.
Anyway, David's not quite as bad as the situation suggests, for the simple reason that if he were, he wouldn't have called. I'm sure everyone has their bad days, etc., but when you talk to the public or to someone who will report to the public, you have to be so very careful with what you say. I'm sure that there is another side to the story, and that both people are "right" from their own frame of reference. So the heart of the matter -- that a situation happened and that things were said and emailed that should not have been said or emailed -- remains true. As to whether this speaks badly of Traction PR, I don't really know. Despite my reluctance to remove this post, Tractenberg still offered to send us a Commodore gaming system to review, which I will gladly do if/when a system becomes available. That puts him on a level above Apple, Mayo Communications, and the other miserable PR reps that I've dealt with in the past who were, to their detriment, totally unrepentant for their lapses and were not able to salvage a bad situation.
As to whether the Commodore system really does perform 30% better than some or all of its competitors, that remains to be seen, assuming I do eventually get one in to review.
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