Happy Holiday Pitching
In an article posted on Bulldog Reporter the topic of seasonal pitching was reviewed, using remarks from “PR university” panelists. Tying your event, announcement, or launch pitch with seasonal holidays has always helped the potential success of a pitch. This article goes into greater detail on how to better utilize this time of the year when leveraging media coverage.
Being mindful of post-event opportunities is an important aspect as well. Post holidays issues open the media up to the “follow up story” ie – children’s health the day after Halloween or the shopping season to come the day after Thanksgiving. Even if your original pitch was timed to the holiday itself, with some creativity and awareness of the news cycle, those pitches can be re-purposed if not originally covered.
Another interesting point was to tell the story you can’t tell until it’s over. Offering a journalist or media outlet a “behind the scenes” view of an event or initiative can allow for unique coverage of how the event went as a whole, from setup to breakdown. While pitching the event itself is the most active approach and should always be the main initiative, remembering the post-event story offers another opportunity for coverage.
A final point made in the review was being mindful of follow up. While this is not directly tied to the holiday theming of an event, I think it is an important part of setting media-relations timeline for seasonal events. Following up with a TV station on the morning of September 11th for a memorial event may not be the most successful way to work towards media attention. Being mindful of the news room’s schedule, especially at times of high interest as with holidays, timelines need to be adjusted to ensure that follow up outreach that can often solidify coverage is executed in appropriate timing.