It’s no coincidence that some companies and products receive constant media coverage, while others never see the light of day. While a solid, innovative product has a lot to do with the coverage a company or product receives, there are other crucial factors affecting a successful media campaign. Below are the top four reasons that companies become media darlings.
Creativity (when a straight product pitch won’t cut it)
It’s all about how the story is pitched. Since there are only so many latest, most innovative, sexiest companies or products, creatively positioning a pitch can be the difference between getting coverage and getting a dial tone.
For example: RLM formulated a pitch for a lip balm. Instead of pitching the gooey product as its own story, we used a dermatologist as a spokesperson, and pitched a TV segment on keeping your skin healthy during the cold, dry winter months. As the dermatologist was giving tips, she worked in the lip balm as a great preventive measure and therapy for dry lips. The producer was happy because she had an expert giving her audience free advice and our (thrilled) client got a brand mention on live, and then viral, TV.
Uniqueness
Of course, if a product is groundbreaking or completely different, media coverage is all but guaranteed. My five-year-old nephew could have placed Viagra or BOTOX stories.
Timeliness/current events
Timeliness is always a key factor in securing optimal media coverage. For example, there is no better time to pitch a digital camera than December for the holiday Gift Guides.
In addition to leveraging reoccurring events such as holidays or seasons, using current events like a really unusual election (read: recall) can also pay nice dividends. For instance, we pitched a “career expert” client so that she could give commentary on life-changing careers as she promoted her new book.
Relationships
At the risk of sounding self-serving, which I risk every day, a good PR firm with established relationships is a key component to placing a story. As with anything in business, strong relationships will take you far. Developing mutual trust and respect with producers and editors will not only increase the chances that they will take a call from a PR pro, but it also increases the likelihood that they will cover stories that have less “headline appeal.”
Yes, of course, these four factors do not guarantee media coverage (or lack thereof), but understanding them will increase your chances of being the next big thing.
Simply put, at that point you can decide if autographs are allowed, darling.
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