New seems to be the biggest buzzword for the media – it’s all about what’s fresh, what’s hot, what’s never been seen before. While this makes sense for many reasons (press does work in “news” after all!) it can be a bit challenging if your company or client has a fantastic line but no new launches slated for the near future.
Promoting a product/line that isn’t new certainly can be tricky, but with a little bit of creativity, dedication, and luck, you can still make a huge splash for brands that don’t have the seemingly all-important “newness” to them! Read below for some strategies and tips to create compelling pitch angles and buzz for a line’s existing products.
Does the founder of the company frequently travel to South America to get inspiration for her designs, or maybe the CEO is a huge fan of rock climbing? Find out what is truly cool and interesting about the person behind the brand and tell their story. Editors love to hear about interesting people and to know that there is a great story and a face behind the brand. You can expand outside typical fashion/beauty contacts with these types of stories too – depending on the narrative you’re creating, you may want to reach out to travel editors, career editors, or even niche outlets like running magazines (maybe you’ve got a client who ran the Boston Marathon!). Even better are feel-good stories – overcoming the odds to create a business, a charitable component to the line, or how your client manages a work-life balance with career and family can also make for compelling pitch angles.
Reference and tie-in to the bigger trend at hand to establish relevance for the products – being an authentic part of a “bigger picture” can create instant credibility for brands and increase the chances that media will be interested in covering!
via @thejanetli
Look to pop culture and the news for this – does the brand tie in to any larger trends within the respective industries? Love them or hate them, the Kardashian/Jenner clan has made terms like “tan-touring” and “strobing” practically mainstream – do you have a makeup product that can create a similar look?
Research the industry as well – if you’re seeing that quite a few brands are using a particular material to make their products and your brand does as well, create a story around why your line uses this certain material and its benefits. Reference and tie-in to the bigger trend at hand to establish relevance for the products – being an authentic part of a “bigger picture” can create instant credibility for brands and increase the chances that media will be interested in covering!
Get some more buzz around existing products by implementing a celebrity seeding strategy. Whether sending key products from a make-up line to key celebrity make-up artist or gifting notable names who perfectly suit the aesthetic of a hip T-shirt line, affiliating with celebrities instantly makes your products newsworthy and “pitch-able” to editors. While getting the products into celebrities’ hands and being able to cite them as fans can be challenging, if you target the appropriate celebrities who are truly in line with the brand and reach out to the right contact on their team (be it stylist, publicist, makeup artist, etc.) your chances for success increase greatly!
Whether sending key products from a make-up line to key celebrity make-up artist or gifting notable names who perfectly suit the aesthetic of a hip T-shirt line, affiliating with celebrities instantly makes your products newsworthy and “pitch-able” to editors
If you do receive that coveted celebrity placement – whether a paparazzi shot of a buzzworthy star wearing a fashion item or confirmation that a hair stylist used a hair care product for a red carpet appearance, take those images and information to “PR the PR.” Reach out to weekly magazines, digital outlets covering celeb fashion and beauty, and national publications that feature celeb-loved brands with your brand’s affiliation with any noteworthy stars and keep your fingers crossed for coverage!
When the real news is slim, it’s time to think about creating a newsworthy story with a few creative communication tactics.
