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The Four Seasons of Publicity (cont)
Second Quarter: April - June
What the Media’s Covering: An "anything goes" time of year. With no major
holidays or huge events, April is a good time to try some of your general stories
(business features, new product stuff, etc.) Light, fun stories work here, as a
sense of "spring fever" takes hold of newsrooms (journalists are human, you
know. They’re just as happy winter is over as you are and it’s often reflected in
the kind of stories they choose to run.). As May rolls around, thoughts turn to
summer. Now they’re looking for summer vacation pieces, outdoor toys and
gadgets, stories about safety (whether automotive or recreational), leisure
activities, things to do for kids and so on.
Key Dates and Events: Baseball opening day, tax day (April 15), spring gardening
season, Memorial Day, end of school, summer vacation.
Third Quarter: July - September
What the Media’s Covering: The dog days of summer are when smart publicity
seekers really make hay. Folks at PR firms are on vacation, marketing budgets
are being conserved for the holidays and reporters are suddenly accessible and
open to all sorts of things. Get to work here, with creative, fun angles.
Entertainment-themed pieces do well in the summer, anything with celebrities
works, lighter business stories, new products, trend pieces, technology news,
back to school education-themed articles, you name it. Reporters are about to
get deluged once again come September, so use this window of opportunity
wisely.
Key Dates and Events: July 4th, summer movies, summer travel, back to school.
Fourth Quarter: October - December
What the Media’s Covering: The busiest time of the media calendar, the Fourth
Quarter is when the business media turns serious and the lifestyle media thinks
Holidays, Holidays, Holidays. Business angles need to be hard news. Fluffy trend
pieces won’t cut it, as business editors begin to take stock of the state of the
economy and the market. It’s a tough time to put out a new product release. For
the non-business media, think Christmas. Christmas travel, Christmas gifts,
Christmas cooking, whatever. If you have a product or service that can be given
as a holiday gift, get on the stick early.
Nail down lead times for the publications you’re targeting, call to find out who’s
handling the holiday gift review article and get your product in the right person’s
hands in plenty of time -- along with a pitch letter or release that makes a strong
case about how what a novel, unusual or essential gift your product makes. After
Christmas, you have a brief window for "Best of the Year", "Worst of the Year"
and "Year in Review" pieces. Be creative -- the media loves these things.
Key Dates and Events: Labor Day, World Series, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah,
Christmas, New Year’s Eve.
About The Author:
Bill Stoller, the "Publicity Insider", has spent two decades as one of America's
top publicists.
Now, through his website, eZine & subscription newsletter:
Free Publicity: The Newsletter for PR-Hungry Businesses
http://www.PublicityInsider.com/freepub.asp , he's sharing -- for the very first time
-- his secrets of scoring big publicity.
For free articles, killer publicity tips and much, much more, visit Bill's exclusive
new site: http://www.publicityInsider.com
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