Pitching Media Around the Holidays

With the Fourth of July quickly approaching this week, it can be both a busy and slow time for media outreach, depending on what angles you have to offer and who your media targets are. There can be a number of challenges with pitching media around a holiday – reporters could be out of office on vacation, inundated with holiday-oriented pitches and/or not fazed by the observance at all depending on their beat. But, there is also so much opportunity to garner coverage surrounding holidays, as these special dates lend themselves to creating new angles you likely otherwise wouldn’t have. Here's what Bolt's public relations team in Dallas, Orange County, Pittsburgh and Raleigh have to say about finding success when pitching media around the holidays.

Plan Ahead

For any big announcements around a holiday, whether related to the observance or not, you’ll likely want to start initial outreach a little earlier than you normally would to account for media taking time off or covering other timely, holiday-related, angles in the middle of your pitching window.

Consumers Love a Theme (and a Deal!)

If you have a product, service or offering geared toward general consumers, leveraging holidays and timely observances can be a great way to drum up some newsworthiness when there otherwise might not be!

• For hospitality clients, themed-offerings like specialty cocktails, menu items or free public events are a great way to tie into stories already being written about ways people can celebrate the holiday – whether locally or to give people ideas they can carry out in their own home, such as recreating a fun red, white and blue drink thanks to a recipe article.

• For products and other services, most holidays are all about promoting special sales and deals! There are so many deal-oriented opportunities for coverage surrounding holidays, so a good place to start is finding a writer who has covered similar deal pieces in the past to see if they’re working on something this time around. Additionally, so many holidays are known for specific types of sales – for example, the Fourth of July has some of the best furniture deals.

 Business as Usual

• If you’re pitching B2B media outlets and not focused on reaching general consumers, the biggest impact the holiday will likely have on your outreach is media contacts being out of office. Typically, unless there are big industry trends or sales that take place surrounding a holiday, trade business writers will stick to their normal topics.

Success Starts with Research

As with any media pitching, research is key. Learn who covers holiday pieces and what types of articles they write, and who doesn’t cover holiday observances at all, and tailor your pitches accordingly to maximize impact when pitching around a holiday! Are you ready to increase your brand’s visibility? Contact Bolt Public Relations at info@boltpr.com or call any of our offices in Dallas, Orange County, Pittsburgh or Raleigh and let’s get the PR conversation started!

‍