Anna Rose Pardue, Director of Communications at Morning Consult, breaks down three key reasons to include data in your PR storytelling strategy.
- Timeliness & Relevance: Data connects your message to broader trends and current events, helping campaigns feel topical and newsworthy.
- Stronger Pitches: Whether you're in-house or agency-side, data helps translate the energy of a campaign into compelling, media-friendly narratives.
- Reporter Expectations: Many journalists now expect data—and some even have quotas. By bringing insights to the table, you not only boost your pitch, you help the reporter do their job.
These tips are part of "Leveraging Reliable Data to Elevate PR Storytelling."
This session was part of the PRNEWS Pro workshop "PR Content Creation and Storytelling."
Watch the full session at this link.
Full transcript:
[ANNA ROSE PARDUE]
So why use data in storytelling? I feel like hopefully a decent amount of you aren't strangers to using data in your work, but just to help make it even more compelling...
One: it helps tie your message to bigger trends. So there's a lot going on, I think, sometimes when we're in the middle of a campaign or a big brand storytelling moment depending on if you work for an agency or in-house for a brand...the buzz and the energy of a big campaign that's coming out can feel very real to us, but sometimes it's hard to translate that to a reporter and and pique their interest. And a lot of times there can be data moments—whether it's consumer data, economic, sentiment, political data that's driving a lot of storylines, and being able to anchor yourself to that can give you a really topical moment to secure coverage for your brand.
Second: it strengthens your knowledge in current events with timely relevant insights. So I know that we are the same as reporters...we move at the speed of light, and we have to stay really up to speed. However I think, especially if you work for an agency...with the wide range of topics you can cover...When I was at an agency I helped cover a local juice company, a global fluorescent light company and a medicinal marijuana company, and there was no way I was gonna be an expert at all those things. And data can help ground you in current events...what's going on, and help you understand each respective industry in a broad, but also more niche way.
Three: this one surprised me when I started working at Morning Consult, but reporters and editors increasingly expect data and some even have quotas. So a lot of the reporters that I've built the best relationships and steady cadences of conversations and earned coverage with are reporters who need data, and constantly need that to get their story past the finish line. So, being able to anchor your brand storytelling moment...your client's campaign...in something that's not only gonna support your client but also support the agenda of the reporter is a double win—making yourself help them reach that quota of data, but also help your client latch onto something that they're already looking for.
Produced by: PRNEWS