Are you looking to generate media coverage of your work? Here three tips for hooking the media, followed by a recent sample ABC clip featuring one of my clients:
Local Angle
If you are an author giving a local presentation, or if you are a local business launching a new service, or if you in any way behind some happening in a local area, pitch the local media, and emphasize the local angle. Among other advantages, local media is a terrific way to build up clips on affiliates of the national networks - ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and NPR - in turn opening the door to getting national media attention from those networks and more.
National Holiday
From a festive holiday like Thanksgiving to a health observance like Heart Month, national holidays abound throughout the year, and editors/producers are always on the lookout for stories on these themes, to fill their media coffers. Plan ahead and coordinate your work with a holiday, to give the media an extra reason to feature you.
Visually Engaging
In the case of television, producers are always on the lookout for segments that are colorful and filled with action. Do your homework and tell the television producers how exactly your work can be presented in a visually-engaging way that will make for great television. If you are a doctor who recommends a particular diet, come prepared to do a live demo of a simple recipe. If you are a massage therapist teaching how to pamper a significant other for Valentine's Day, bring a massage table and volunteer massage recipient, and demonstrate simple moves on set.
Keep in mind that the more media hooks you pile on, the more likely editors and producers are to say yes to featuring you.
Here's a sample ABC clip (KOMO in Seattle) from my client, Pure Pies, whose business launched in the first week of November, with a local pie-tasting event. For the campaign, we piled on all the hooks above: We emphasized the local event, used the Thanksgiving hook, and pitched a live pie demo on set. And the producers, as you can see, ate it up.