All Your Eggs in One Basket

6th Apr

All Your Eggs in One Basket

So, that was Easter. How was it for you? I mean, apart from the lamb and the chocolate and the family stuff? Did you put any Easter-related press releases out? Any DIY-related material by any chance? Maybe something about ‘Great Days Out'? Well, if you got your coverage, congrats. If not, read on!

A newspaper like The Sun, for instance, receives around 800 press releases a day, and that figure doubles around calendar events. With competition like that you've got to be shouting pretty loud to be heard.

I meet with many account executives every year and one of the most common questions I'm asked is around the subject of a ‘calendar event'. And whether it's Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, National Take Your Goldfish To Work Day or Christmas, the same advice counts. Here is mine.

Think of the journalist who is tasked with wading through the press releases (if, indeed, that task is still allocated - it isn't always). Think about how many releases he/she is going to see which have calendar-related themes. Consider how strong your angle is. Try to imagine that many other people will be pushing (possibly much stronger) PR stories. You should make sure that you have written yours as effectively as possible, weeding out branding from the intro (unless your client is, say, Tiger Woods).

Don't (to reiterate, briefly, an earlier post) whack it out a week prior to the event with a huge, self-important EMBARGO stamp all over it. Put it out the day before and let it speak for itself: if the story is strong enough, it will attract interest. Make a call to the newsdesk prior to distribution, précis the piece in 50 words or less and then press the button a few minutes later. Embellishing your release with acclamations about its importance will cut no ice.

Consider whether you may be throwing away a really good piece of research by shoehorning it into an Easter/Father's Day release. Sure, your client may be demanding coverage to tie in with a specific date, but you may be running the very real risk of losing coverage altogether by tweaking it out of shape to suit a calendar event. Sometimes a survey can achieve much wider pick-up if it is released on a random date, where it stands on its own merits and creates its own momentum rather than being tossed into the bingo caller's bag.

Think stats. For instance, if you have a DIY store on your books, rather than spending money on a big ‘think-piece' on, say, consumer behaviour at Christmas (incorporating expensive comments from a rentaquote psychologist), hone in on specific products. What is selling particularly well this year? What's its year-on-year percentage increase? Why is it so popular? If you can pull together some hard facts you have the basis for a bona fide news piece which (important, this) will reflect the spending habits of newspaper readers - something newspapers are always keen to talk about. Some of our greatest hits for retail clients have come from brainstorm with buyers/department heads who have reported significant increases in specific items. And from a client's point of view it's remarkably cost-effective. Remember - they may already have those stories, they just don't know they've got them.

Written by Jay Williams