Between quick runs to the beach, PR pros are busy making their holiday press lists and checking them twice. Among companies pitching for the holidays this summer, we were not
surprised to find that home, comfort and charity are set to dominate coverage this year. Oh, and as we also discovered, make sure you wrap everything digitally this year.
Wartime: Year Two
Although this is the second holiday after the Sept. 11 attacks, the ethos of wartime continues to inform how media cover the season. "You'll find a lot of tie-ins," says Susan
Stern, VP, Danika Communications. Her firm handles the Volunteers of America - Greater New York account, including the charity's Sidewalk Santas, which are celebrating their
Centennial of ringing for change on street corners. Charity and higher values continue to be major themes with great media appeal in the current environment, according to Stern.
She expects that, much like last year, pitching Christmas spirit within the tsunami of new product/potential holiday gift pitches, will help both charities and corporations break
through the noise.
"People are being charitable," says Stern, "And in spite of hard times, companies still want to be charitable." She is looking for private sector partnerships in order to tie
her Santas in both with the gifting season (Santa on a Sharper Image scooter last year) or institutions associated with the holiday (Radio City's Scrooge instructing the Santa
School). In this year of corporate scandals, many companies will be looking to show their human side.
Comfort Christmas
Product pitches to editors almost certainly will follow the return to home and hearth theme, says Whitley Bouma, account supervisor, Magnet Communications, which handles home-
savvy retailer Crate & Barrel in the Chicago area and its hip new online spin-off (http://www.CB2.com). "We have a feeling family is going to be very big," she says, so the company is focusing on comfort foods such as jams and
the accessories for giving homey gifts (cookie tins, et. al.). Rather than simply pitch to the various magazine gift guides, which women's and national magazines start planning
now, Bouma tries to shape story angles that will offer an opportunity to feature her client.
She is actively looking for secondary research about what consumers are likely to want this holiday. "Find some numbers or percentages to start that pitch letter," and you're
much more likely to appeal to reporters looking for holiday trend stories, she says. Bouma also recommends using The Gift List (http://www.giftlistmedia.com), a holiday-oriented contact list that netted her substantial magazine and newspaper coverage last year.
Stress reduction, at-home solutions, and relationship-management are three ancillary themes coming off of the world situation that Susan Weiss, principal, SWPR, is riding in
her promotion of the Master Portable Massage Table. "What I am trying to focus on is that people are staying at home more and looking for ways of being intimate and relieving
stress," says Weiss.
Timing the PR Waves
Most PR pros are planning their holiday assaults in waves, as usual. National magazines come first because of lead times, and they are taking pitches now. The next step in
early fall for Weiss will be using PR Newswire's Feature Desk, which starts packaging themed holiday releases together in early October so that editors who are looking for
material can find it all in one place.
In fact, PR Newswire's Feature Desk Director Fred Fergusen offers holiday pitchers a laundry list of suggestions at http://www.prnews-wire.com/features/features_holiday.shtml. Weiss uses this service to hit daily
newspapers and wire services. According to PR Newswire, two holiday packages will go out in October, along with Thanksgiving and philanthropy material. A flurry of packages will
come in November.
Danika Communications leverages the VOA-NY's greatest press asset, more Santas than even the greediest child or TV producer could want. "We start pitching at least three months
in advance for the national morning shows, as early as we possibly can, knowing that these holiday shows fill up very quickly," says Stern. At about the same time, she starts
hitting the metro magazines and hoping for cover stories, which most editors are planning by September. Closer to the Thanksgiving Santa events, Stern and co. start pitching
local/regional TV, and then in December, the last minute newspaper pieces surrounding philanthropy or heart-warming photo opps.
We're All Digital Now
Almost all PR pros say this Christmas the pitch is digital, which changes things. "People don't want to talk on the phone anymore," says Weiss. "There is much more email
pitching, which doesn't give you a lot of opportunity to interact with what they are thinking." Keep it short and in bullet points, she recommends. Bouma also warns that since PR
pros have less of a chance to feel out an editor by phone, "You need to research what that editor covers and pinpoint it precisely in as few words as possible: what you are
pitching, what column it fits in and who you can offer to interview."
Gift guides are all about the photography, says Bouma, so make as many images as possible available for the editor digitally to lessen her desk clutter. She also saves money by
emailing product shots to editors as qualifying leads for actually sending the products themselves.
Danika learned long ago to cover its own holiday events so that footage and images can go directly to media who can't or won't attend. The company now routinely hires its own
media pro to shoot both video and digital stills, edit and turn them around in hours, so that networks have something to distribute to affiliates. "Your whole media day can be
wrecked if there is something political going on, or an accident or fire. You've got to feed something to the media," says Stern. "Ideally, hire a person who has news producing
experience and knows how to look at a piece that producers would like," she advises.
And for those eleventh-hour pitchers, Bouma reminds us that we now have a true real-time media platform that actually thrives on nano-second lead times. "Think Web sites. Go
after the e-commerce media."
(Contacts: Whitley Bouma, 312/494-1463; Anne Ryan, 203/661-8130; Susan Stern, 212/691-0910; Susan Weiss, 312/222-1337)
Centennial Santas
Organizations that are 107 years old have a tendency to plan ahead, so the Volunteers of America of Greater New York had this year's celebration of a century of sidewalk Santas
mapped out long ago. It focuses on a relentless blitz of media events that even the most jaded TV producer couldn't ignore. On Nov. 26, "Santa School" convenes, 100 saintly Nicks
being taught by a celebrity professor (Radio City's Scrooge last year). The day after Thanksgiving the Santa Kick-Off sends a mob of television-friendly Santas down a famous New
York street. Closer to Christmas, the New York Christmas even enlists 25 of the city's most famous chefs at the Four Seasons restaurant. By allying the (Santa?) brand with local
institutions and in telegenic ways, the VOA-GNY netted almost 175 major media hits last year.