THINK OUTSIDE THE SQUARE AND BOOST MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES
Sometimes the best value PR can come from media that might initially appear unrelated or unimportant.
When designing a PR campaign, it is important for the client and PR consultant to sit down and work out exactly what the target media are and why. At Square One, this is identified in three tiers; primary media, secondary media and associated media.
We do this for several reasons. Firstly, it often helps to indicate a base timeline eg. primary media are usually targeted first so the majority of the target audiences are exposed to the client’s name, product, service or concept.
Secondly, journalists read other journalist’s stories. When media coverage is achieved in various publications, this often produces a domino effect, whereby a chain of other media outlets become interested in the story. So sometimes a story in a publication that wasn’t on the top of your target list has suddenly helped you secure a story in a primary media publication.
When contacting a seemingly unrelated media source, you have nothing to loose and everything to gain. Often, and in Square One’s experience, it’s just a matter of finding the right angle to suit the publication. Angles will usually exist organically, they just need to be found, however, creative PR including research and statistics sometimes has to come into play.
Senior consultant at Square One, Sarah O’Brien said seemingly unlikely articles have been printed and used by media, mainly because the approach was creatively tailored. Think jewellery in car magazines; technology in health media and music stories in parenting magazines.
“It is about finding an angle suitable to that publication. It’s not hype and it’s not spin, it’s really just discovering a suitable angle for your business in a publication that was perhaps not so obvious to you in your initial planning.
“By doing this and thinking outside the square, you might find that the true benefit of targeting ‘associated’ media is actually the emergence of a previously unidentified target audience and access to another realm of clients and other associated media,” said Ms O’Brien.
