You might think that news is unpredictable – who could have foreseen the terrible scenes of fires raging in Australia or the plane landing on the Hudson River?
Stand up the person who predicted the Credit Crunch.
Now we are all sitting comfortably turn away from the front pages and there is a completely different picture. The beginning of February saw snow on the ground and love in the air. Every year we are surprised by some winter weather (which always turns out to be the biggest, deepest, windiest or wettest since records began) and every year the media get all loved-up over Valentine’s Day.
As soon as that is over the magazines and newspapers will be turning their minds to filling supplements on Mother’s Day and the television and radio will be looking for those “special mum” stories to fill the air time.
Soon after that it will be Easter and everyone from The Pope to the chocolate manufacturers (stand by for record sales of chocolate being announced as the credit crunch turns us all towards comfort eating) will be jumping on the bandwagon. Rabbits will get a chance to make headline news for a day or so and the media circus will move on.
You see much of what appears in the media is highly predictable and by tapping into those milestone events throughout the year the PR savvy businesses will be gaining the most coverage.
Of course timing is everything and in the case of these milestone events in the year it is often “first come first served”. You need to get in early with your hot weather story or your St George’s Day yarn.
Planning is the key and drawing up a list of events throughout the year and how you might make the most of them with a good PR story is vital. Then you can have the story on the stocks and approach the magazines a month in advance with something to interest them for that special edition.
In January Empica achieved three pages in a magazine, including a cover picture, around Chinese New Year for Dynasty and Zen Restaurants – but the idea was pitched to the publication before Christmas.
So….thinking caps on and see if you can come up with an idea for May Day while clearing the snow from the driveway.
