Buy this press release
A press release is supposed to be a valuable information resource for reporters looking for good news stories. But sometimes a company uses it as more of a promotional piece. I strongly caution against this. The “look at our amazing company/products” message doesn’t get very far in the news room. Editors, producers and reporters are usually of above average intelligence and they see right through that kind of promotion. Sure sometimes (and by this I mean rarely) you can twist a few arms and get some coverage, but why do it that way when you can give an actually good news story that a lot more reporters are likely to talk about?
What you really want to do is put together a strategic idea that will help you stand out and make the news. Do something wacky, weird or interesting. Get out of your comfort zone and get some attention. Paint yourself blue if you have to. Just do something that makes you stand out.
For example, The Eels, a rock band from the UK, wanted more recognition in the US market. So they bought a one second ad to be broadcast during this last Superbowl. Yep, just one second. What can you do in a one second ad? The band had just enough time to say the first letter of the name of their new album. Huh? Exactly!
The media scratched their heads over their one second ad buy as well. And then they wrote about it. The band was contacted by several different media outlets to ask them about the story behind the ad, resulting in the coverage the band was looking for.
Another example is a restaurant in my city that lets people decide the price they are going to pay for their meal. There are no set prices. They just let people pay what they think the meal is worth. That’s novel, that’s interesting. Maybe a restaurant doesn’t have to do this everyday, but maybe one week or one day a year they do this. That’s newsworthy. It isn’t about how great their food is or how nice it is inside. Nobody cares to write about that. They are doing something different.
Think about your business. Stop thinking “My product is great, buy it” and start thinking what you can do to grab some attention.
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