A few of our Stormettes were lucky enough to attend the Networx Sydney event last week, “What Media Want”.
Along with drinks, canapés and great networking opportunities among our fellow PRs, the night focused on how getting your brand cut-through in the media is essential to succeeding in PR. With questions posed to the media guest panel, attendees were able to address what the media want and don’t want when it comes to pitches and building relationships. Knowing these key points could definitely improve an Account Manager’s success rate when securing coverage for their client or brand, so we thought we would share some of the secrets with you!
The media panel included:
- Tom Ivey, Nova 96.9 Breakfast Producer
- Kate Calacouras, News.com.au editor
- Lisa Brown, A Current Affair Producer
- Katarina Kroslakova, AFR Life and Leisure Editor
So, what do these journalists and producers expect from your pitch?
- Be personal and specific – know the publication you are pitching to, think of the publication’s audience, address the journalist by name, know specific or personal details about the journalist to grab their attention and show you are not mass pitching.
- Be short and succinct – bullet points are great!
- Time your release appropriately depending on the publication or journalist.
- Make sure you understand your brand/client.
- Show attention to detail.
- Use the word ‘exclusive’ in a pitch subject line to really grab the attention of a journalist.
- Don’t pull the wool over a journalist’s eyes – you need to make your pitch sound as little like an ad as possible, especially when pitching to news-style organisations.
- When pitching to whole publications, pitch only to one or two people. This will ensure journalists don’t waste their time doubling up on stories. Remember journalists are friendly, they will hand over interesting pitches to their colleagues if they think it’s relevant. Better yet – pitch to the right person first go!
- Twitter is always followed for breaking news, so it may be worth generating twitter conversation about clients.
- The only way to avoid your client being lost in a good news story is to have a relationship with the journalist so they cover your back!
Signed,
Taryn and the Stormettes
