View all case studies Real Chemistry
The team at Real Chemistry uses Muck Rack to understand what reporters have been writing or talking about lately to better inform their outreach.
Learn how Real Chemistry uses Muck Rack to:
- Pitch and engage top-tier media through Muck Rack’s database and pitching platform
- Keep up-to-date with instant media coverage, including broadcast coverage, through Muck Rack Alerts
- Save time manually tracking coverage using automatic Coverage Reports
Real Chemistry
Founded by Jim Weiss in 2001, Real Chemistry is the leading independent provider of analytics-driven, digital-first marketing and communications to the healthcare sector. Real Chemistry applies proprietary analytics models, methodologies and approaches in a digital world to design precise communications and marketing strategies to deliver sustained business results. Real Chemistry maintains 15 offices across the United States and in Europe.
Peter Duckler
Senior Group Director for Earned Media Team
Muck Rack has been invaluable for us. I’ve been around the block -- I’ve been in the industry for a long time. I’ve used all the software platforms. I can honestly say Muck Rack is the one I cannot live without. It’s unique from the Cisions of the world that are just simply directories. In this day and age, that’s not going to fly.
—Peter Duckler, Senior Group Director for Earned Media Team
In Their Own Words: Real Chemistry's Favorite Muck Rack Features
Search and Media List Building
If you’re looking at Muck Rack as solely a database tool, you’re missing the boat completely. It’s so much more than that.
Muck Rack is smart. With other legacy tools like Cision, all you have access to is a journalist’s name, phone number and email. There’s no context -- Muck Rack provides us with the context we need so that we don’t spam journalists.
It’s the million dollar question PR professionals try to answer -- how do you create connections? The answer to that is: relevance. And that’s the power of Muck Rack.
We as an agency and smart PR pros can tell you, you can't just spray and pray and expect results. It’s the worst way to build a relationship with a journalist. For us, everything we do is extremely targeted. Yes, we’re relationship-driven, but tools like Muck Rack are what we use to ensure we are being precise in how we reach out to reporters, with what stories and when.
Within Muck Rack’s journalist profiles, I have in one place the articles the client should review that the journalist has written previously, what the journalist is talking about on Twitter and links to their other social profiles. What could be hugely time consuming (researching journalists) isn’t with all of the intelligence Muck Rack provides. It saves us time and helps us to prepare our clients to have a great conversation with a journalist.
Muck Rack also helps us to find the unexpected journalist to tell a story on behalf of a client. Recently, I was doing research for a client and came across a freelance writer. I noticed that this freelancer wrote about topics that very much aligned with our story. I reached out to make an introduction, and the journalist responded, “You probably don’t know this, but I was assigned to cover a story that’s going to be on the cover of Newsweek on this topic.” This wasn’t a journalist associated with Newsweek -- just a writer who wrote on topics that seemed of interest. I found a diamond in the rough, and landed a story that included my client.
The media environment is changing -- you never know where the next story is going to come from. Major publications work with freelancers and contributors -- the best way to do media relations is to build connections with journalists who are relevant. That’s the secret sauce of Muck Rack.
Coverage Reports and Alerts
Because news can break momentarily, we need a way to make it easy to share with our clients and team. That’s where Muck Rack’s reporting capabilities have been so great. I can easily create a report that highlights in one place all of the relevant news stories and reporter conversations.
I’m particularly excited about one of Muck Rack’s newer features -- customized newsletters. I recently had an announcement and wanted to make sure people on our team knew about it, so I created the template and distribution list. It was so simple and looked beautiful too. Best of all, it was done in minutes.
With the 24/7 news cycle, we need to be prepared to respond immediately. Every time I have a conversation with my account team or client, I create a Muck Rack alert on a topic so I can see what’s happening. Here’s a great example from a crisis perspective: Recently, the FDA recalled a client product. I created a Muck Rack Alert right away to see in real-time stories breaking on the topic. My team thinks I’m brilliant because I see news so quickly.
I have Muck Rack open on my computer all the time. I will not pick up the phone, pitch, send an email or tweet a reporter without checking Muck Rack to get a peek into what the reporter has been writing about and talking about lately. It’s not just about being a database, it’s a smart database that helps us be strategic storytellers. That’s the name of the game.
—Peter Duckler, Senior Group Director for Earned Media Team
In-Platform Pitching
Working on the West Coast and collaborating with clients and journalists in different timezones, I really appreciate Muck Rack’s great pitch distribution tool.
I use Muck Rack’s in-platform pitching to create customized pitches and schedule them to send without having to get up at 2 a.m. or 5 a.m. to hit send myself. This saves me so much time, and it’s been a huge plus for the entire team too.
I love the intelligence pitching through Muck Rack provides. I’m able to look at the results of a pitch and see what the engagement is like. I can see who opened the pitch. If reporters open the pitch and don’t respond, I determine if we need to adjust our strategy or approach.
Broadcast Monitoring
Muck Rack changes and is getting better every day.
We have other platforms we use for broadcast monitoring, but recently Muck Rack introduced a broadcast feature, and it’s my new favorite part of the platform!
I love being able to find broadcast coverage we weren’t sure ran. For example, one of our clients is a cancer research medical center. They held a fundraiser, and my team wasn’t sure if a local broadcast affiliate came to cover the event. I was able to quickly check on Muck Rack to immediately find out they were there. I love being able to tell my team, “Found that story!”
Five Fast Questions
1. How would you describe Muck Rack in three words?
Smart relationship platform
2. If you had to explain how you use Muck Rack to someone in a tweet, what would you say?
Muck Rack helps us to be strategic storytellers, enabling us to follow the news and create differentiating messages and compelling narratives with the right reporters.
3. What has your experience been like working with Muck Rack’s customer success team?
It has really been incredible. Muck Rack’s customer success team is extremely responsive. When you send an email or live chat, I never expect to get immediate response, but I do.
The Muck Rack team has also been great at helping the Real Chemistry team learn how to use Muck Rack better. They’ll provide refreshers to the team where they’ll come in and give us specific tips around various features on the platform.
At the end of the day, it’s about collaboration. Muck Rack is trying to build a product that meets our needs -- and the product keeps changing for the better. That definitely has to do with the customer success team being so engaged with customers.
4. What would your job be like if you didn’t have Muck Rack?
Ugh! I don’t remember life without Muck Rack. Because Muck Rack is so ingrained in everything I do, without it, I would be like a lost child trying to find my way.
Because we as an agency are trying to be smart and analytics-driven, we need this type of intelligence that Muck Rack offers -- it allows us to be agile and quick. Not having access to Muck Rack would really hinder our ability to deliver outstanding results for our clients.
5. What would you tell other companies considering using Muck Rack?
Evaluate what’s out there and take the time to see why Muck Rack is different (because it’s really night and day when you compare tools!) There isn’t any platform that provides the type of integration and intelligence that Muck Rack does.
Muck Rack is for the small startup all the way up to the big agencies. We’re all trying to figure out how to do more with less and be smarter.
