How best to get your work noticed by an overworked pool of journalists? Consider hiring a publicist to beat the drums. Your good work is not going to sell itself and you have much more competition than before.

Small or new companies in animation and visual effects often question the need for publicity. A couple decades ago, when the community was small and a few countries dominated the business, one could perhaps get by. But along came the deregulation of broadcasting, a tremendous increase in broadcasters and a gigantic need for product. Couple that with growth of the Internet, which has brought democracy to producers the world over striving for access and attention. Corporate mergers and advances in computerized publishing have drastically reduced the number of media outlets and downsized staffs, often to a ridiculous level.

Do you think an overworked pool of journalists will find your work amongst many more players all being able to directly access writers and editors faster and at less cost due to the Internet? Your work is not going to speak for itself amongst the huge volume of productions out there which warrant coverage either by the quality, talent involved, breakthroughs in styles and means of execution, or even the new medium itself, such as digital channels and wireless via mobile devices.

While I normally strive to do stories from an objective, balanced news perspective, consider this an interview with myself, full of advice I’m uniquely qualified to give. I’ve spent 17 years as a journalist and 17 years as a studio publicist representing animation and live-action companies, as well as their ancillary businesses such as distribution, licensing and merchandising and retail. Since I have not spent time at an agency (but have employed them), I asked some who practice animation pr on a regular basis to share their tips and advice, that I have included at the end of this piece.

I can’t think of any time where your need for some sort of pr is greater than it is now. That doesn’t mean you need to run out and hire some big public relations agency to represent you, although this may be warranted depending upon the scope of the project and your goals down the line. Most importantly, you need to beat the drums. Your good work is not going to sell itself and you have much more competition than before.

So you can try it yourself, put a publicist from a pr firm on retainer or by project or bring someone in-house.

If you are looking to add someone in-house, places to look include agencies or studio and broadcaster departments where publicists there are feeling beleaguered from the pressure and politics. Becoming part of a studio family and the ability to stand out with their own abilities may come at a quite welcome time in that person’s career. The same goes for members of the press, who may entertain such a position for the same reasons, as well as what are typically better working conditions, pay and often a chance to spend more time with loved ones. They will be at least flattered you asked, and hopefully the timing is right.

My experience has always been better with individuals or pr boutiques, as opposed to the big agencies. Boutiques/individuals have a better grasp of the client and the client gets the services of the person who pitched him. They tend to individualize the message better and don’t have a cookie-cutter approach to releases.

Big agencies can be a plus when you are trying to attract investors, they can be more economical for covering multiple territories and some can leverage their big profile/celebrity clients to get journalists to profile an unknown or more pedestrian subject.

It’s very important to designate someone within your organization to be the press contact and liaison to the outside pr people, should you decide to go that way. People on the outside will still need a fair amount of suggestions, contacts, help getting art created (both production art and photos of people and the process), as well as approvals for bios, releases, kits and art.

PR people are not people who are “great with people.” Don’t pick someone who says they are a real people-person. What they need to do is think like a reporter, editor and art director or news producer. They need to envision the story, the angle. Then prepare the information, fact check-it, make good art available and scope good locations for video shots, plus make video and audio clips available. It helps if they think more like a stringer for the media outlet. A story should have news value and an angle, which is not, “Do a story about company A.” However, “Shows employing this technology is a growing trend in the business and company B is a good example of how this is used.”