The terrible nighttime TV, a heat index of 102 and a beach vacation on the horizon all add up to one thing if you’re working in PR: It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas.
It’s that time of year when long-lead editors are pulling together winter editions. November and December media are rife with gift guides and lifestyle pieces that bring in readers and big advertising bucks – not to mention prime media placement for your clients. Just last week there were already a few HARO Queries for holiday media. If you haven’t got your hook handy, it’s time to start immediately planning any long-lead holiday PR.
Even short-lead targets require longer lead times around the holidays than you might expect. In 2008, PR Newser released this friendly reminder: It’s Never Too Early To Start Your Holiday Pitching – citing that there were already 23 pages of holiday-themed press releases – all before Halloween. The lesson: get well ahead of the competition.
Your client can’t shine if you’re just another “How to Beat Holiday Stress” or “Entertaining Tips” pitch this year. Between October and January 2010, on just one wire service, roughly 35% of posted holiday releases focused on holiday entertaining. Another 32% were about travel and 13% dealt with stress.
A key differentiation during super-saturated calendar events is incorporating survey data into your pitches. In the coming weeks, our Christmas in July series will provide tips from our Editorial Panel of journalists on how to keep pitches hot over the holidays. These will be posted on:
Tips & Tricks for Pitching Holidays
Or, contact Wakefield today to learn more about how PR polling can help your business.
Update: Thanks to Ragan’s PR Daily for republishing this post.