{"id":96884,"date":"2015-11-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.72point.com\/how-to-give-your-story-real-christmas-presence\/"},"modified":"2015-11-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T00:00:00","slug":"how-to-give-your-story-real-christmas-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.72point.com\/us\/how-to-give-your-story-real-christmas-presence\/","title":{"rendered":"How to give your story a real Christmas presence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"turket_time\"Mention the word \u201cChristmas\u201d in a 72Point brainstorm session and listen for the audible whoosh of air as every single creative in the room visibly slumps into their chair and lets out a heavy sigh.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re in the\u00a0middle of November, and while we\u2019re not Christmas scrooges (far from it, some of us have already completed our Christmas shopping while others are signing off their emails with Mrs Santa), we have already had more than 20 briefs from PR\u2019s wanting to capitalise on the biggest event in the calendar.<\/p>\n

So why such a negative reaction from the team you may ask? Everyone loves Christmas, so it must have great talk value?<\/p>\n

Well yes, everyone loves Christmas, but that doesn\u2019t make it news.<\/p>\n

The 25th<\/sup> December might be a big deal for PR\u2019s and businesses who will benefit from the event, but for the press it really is just another day in the year.<\/p>\n

And if the media aren\u2019t bothered by Christmas, they\u2019re not going to dedicate pages and pages to survey-led stories about opening presents, gobbling turkey and overspending \u2013 not unless the stories are REALLY good.<\/p>\n

So what are our tips to achieving the most for your brand, in the lead up to Christmas Day?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t send the story out in the lead up to Christmas Day<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Okay so this might be an impossibility, but what we\u2019re trying to say is that the competition for coverage at this time in the year is HUGE. So if you do need coverage in December, make sure you\u2019re doing something that will beat all the competition.<\/p>\n

Consider Christmas Day<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Do you have to send your story out before the big day? If you want coverage in December, but don\u2019t necessarily have a brand which needs coverage to generate sales, you might want to consider lining up a story to go out ON Christmas Day. This is a fantastic \u2018open goal\u2019 opportunity for coverage, as news desks are receptive to any light list-based material. Alternatively \u2018quick win\u2019 stories are perfect for issue on Christmas Day, so if you\u2019re an internet business capable of monitoring sales quickly contact us. We can very quickly pull together a sales-based story to show how many people are buying holidays \/ gym memberships \/ divorces on 25th<\/sup> December.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t send out the same old story<\/strong><\/h4>\n

We\u00a0all know news is on a loop and Christmas is an example of just that. Every year we see the same survey stories make\u00a0 \u2013 \u2018XX per cent of Brits received unwanted presents\u2019, \u2018the average Christmas looks like XXX\u2019, \u2018British households look set to spend \u00a3XXX on Christmas\u2019 \u2013 but they don\u2019t make BIG. If you want more than a \u2018nib\u2019 or a \u2018stick\u2019, do something different.<\/p>\n

If budget allows, <\/strong>make a video<\/strong><\/a><\/h4>\n

So we know we can\u2019t compete with the John Lewis Christmas advert, which has already had almost 12 million views online, but if you\u2019ve got a little more money to spend, a video is a great way to secure coverage online<\/a> and has great longevity for the brand.\u00a0 Stories which are cross-platform definitely have the best chance of making, and news sites are crying out for videos to support any content they publish. However make sure the idea has been well thought through – last year TGI Friday had the brilliant idea of sending drones around their restaurants with mistletoe and a \u2018kisscam\u2019 but the stunt backfired spectacularly when the drone hit a diner in the face, and the brand received more coverage for the epic fail than the original idea.<\/p>\n

DON\u2019T talk about Christmas<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The best way to get a survey story into the press in December is to make sure you don\u2019t mention the C-word. So if you\u2019re thinking of a survey led story, think about the USP\u2019s of the brand, and most importantly, why is it so cool the other 364 days of the year? This should be the focus for any story you put out.<\/p>\n

Try not to over-brand<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Actually this is the advice which we give at all times of the year, but it\u2019s all the more important at Christmas. A great example of a story which cleverly weaves in the key messages about the brand, without being too Christmassy or \u2018pluggy\u2019 is our Competitive Mums story<\/a> we ran for the launch of Nativity 3: Dude, Where\u2019s my Donkey? which subtly makes reference to Christmas nativities without over mentioning.<\/p>\n

Think outside the box<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Sorry, it\u2019s a clich\u00e9, we hate it, but there it is. When generating ideas for Christmas try to step away from the event itself, try to think of something which is funny; if you can imagine talking to your friends about the subject matter for hours and hours, chances are you\u2019re onto something.<\/p>\n

Go Negative<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A no-no for every PR, and a big fat thumbs up for 72Point, and more importantly for the papers.\u00a0 Want to run a story about how families interact at Christmas? We guarantee you\u2019ll have more luck trying to land a story which looks at the arguments families have on Christmas Day, or the things that went wrong with the dinner, than a story about how well everyone got on and what we love about Christmas.<\/p>\n

Consider all avenues<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A survey is a fantastic way to achieve national press coverage, but a video or infographic could be the clincher when it comes to online coverage, you might even decide that at this time of year you pay for some native advertising to guarantee you that all important \u2018show\u2019.<\/p>\n

And lastly, phone us if you\u2019d like a helping hand <\/strong><\/h4>\n

You might get some advice you don\u2019t want to hear, you might need to re-think your ideas, but you WILL have a better chance of achieving all you want for Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mention the word \u201cChristmas\u201d in a 72Point brainstorm session and listen for the audible whoosh of air as every single […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":38495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[269,277,278,375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pr-insight","category-featured","category-pr","category-christmas"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to give your story a real Christmas presence - 72Point.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.72point.com\/us\/how-to-give-your-story-real-christmas-presence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to give your story a real Christmas presence - 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