PR HOOK: VALENTINE'S DAY

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We’ve only just seen out Halloween and we’re almost 2 months away from Christmas, but I want you to start thinking about Valentine’s Day.

Do you have a product or service that can be an appealing commodity for Valentine’s Day? The perfect gift? The perfect date destination? The ultimate pamper package? The Anti-Valentine’s Solution?

Once you’ve established that you’ve got an offering to work with for this PR hook, the next thing is to work out what type of media you’re going to be able to target. Let’s follow the principle of lead times:

  • Long Lead = 3-6 months in advance

  • Short Lead = 2-12 weeks in advance

So, we’re about 3-4 months out but keep in mind that the February issues of the long leads will come out in January, so really, at this stage, we’re looking to short lead media.

Get your pitch ready, select your imagery and start to pull out the media you want to target. What is the audience of your offering? Magazines like the weekend newspaper supplements often give a broad cross section of gift suggestions, meeting all styles and ages. Perhaps your offering is a little more niche? Find where it will sit, do the preparation and start reaching out towards the end of this month.

Make a couple of calls: ‘When are you putting your Valentine’s Day content together?’ ‘Who is the best contact for the Valentine’s gift guide?’ and pitch accordingly.

Timing is everything in PR. If you’re a little early, it’s no bad thing, just make a note of when that magazine will be tackling Valentine’s content, or try a couple of weeks later.

Start your targeting to short lead print media end of November, early December and tackle online on the other side of Christmas, perhaps the second week of January.

Make it happen; if you’ve got a great product or service, get out there and tell people about it!

Fiona Minett