That’s what Liz Murphy of Formula PR in el Segundo, California did. Several month sago, she pitched the morning TV talk shows on behalf of her client, FatCatInc.com, which makes pet toys. To make the story more enticing, she offered photos of other pet-related items with a political twist, including those from PoliticalPartyPets.com and RuffRuffandMeow.com.
Publicity Hound Lisa Solomon of Political Party Pets emailed me yesterday and was shocked that her company was mentioned during a six-minute segment on political items on the “Today” show yesterday.
“Liz contacted me six weeks ago and asked me to send her some high-resolution images of the Political Party Pets items to include in her pitch,” she said. “Her pitches also resulted in getting my company exposure in a Florida newspaper and on a Florida morning TV show. She rocks!”
Liz’s strategy, which also got her client onto the third hour of “Good Morning America” on the Internet, was incredibly smart and follows the advice given by Lissa Warren, who was my guest during a teleseminar on “How to Get onto the Morning TV Talk Shows.” If you’re pitching those shows, or any journalists or broadcasters for that matter, make their job easy. Let them know about other products similar to yours.
Lisa, of course, can return the favor, and mention Fat Cat Inc. and Ruff Ruff and Meow in her pitches.
I agree that teaming with other businesses to pitch a whole story, rather than going it alone, can be a very successful PR strategy. In fact, earlier this year, Political Party Pets teamed with My Dog Votes (which encourages pet owners to keep pet-related issues in mind when choosing their elected officials) to be “running mates” in a joint 2008 marketing campaign. The press release we sent out announcing the partnership resulted in coverage on pet-related blogs and in newspapers around the country.
I wasn’t surprised that Liz’s pitch was successful: in fact, she told me last week that Political Party Pets might be featured on Monday’s Today Show episode. Since they never contacted me, though, I assumed that they would not be using my products for the story (now, reviewing my recent orders, I’m pretty sure which one came from a Today Show staffer).
I owe all the PR success that all my businesses (including Political Party Pets) have achieved to the valuable knowledge I’ve gained from your website, weekly e-newsletter and 89-day press release writing course. You’re definitely top PR dog in my book!
Lisa, regards your part : “I wasn’t surprised that Liz’s pitch was successful: in fact, she told me last week that Political Party Pets might be featured on Monday’s Today Show episode. Since they never contacted me, though, I assumed that they would not be using my products for the story (now, reviewing my recent orders, I’m pretty sure which one came from a Today Show staffer).” I could wish you best of luck and I’m sure you would get featured @ many many places. you have a very nice site up.
I’m not sure I am in the right place, but I would like to submit an idea for a segment on any of the morning talk shows. Twelve years ago, a group of parents of disabled young adults in Portsmouth, NH founded “The Friends Project” which provides social and recreational activities for young adults with and without developmental disabilities. The organization raises about $150,000 per year to provide the many activities including basketball, bowling, movies, dances, an opportunity to attend the University of NH, and much more. We are very proud and excited about what we have been able to offer to disabled young adults in southern NH. As far as we know, this is a unique program, and we would like to tell others about it with the intent that perhaps they could start such a program in their community. Being developmentally disabled often means lack of friendships and activities. We believe we have somewhat of a solution for that. Our clients, one being my 23-year old son who has Down syndrome, have lots of activities, friendships and are living full lives. We are deeply grateful that we have The Friends Project in our community.
Nancy, you need to pitch this story directly to the morning TV talk shows. Go to their websites. Many shows have pages where you can pitch stories right there.
But first, I highly suggest that you or whoever is in your organization who would be on camera get experience on the local TV shows, where the market is much smaller and where you can make mistakes in front of fewer people. Trust me. You WILL make mistakes. I did when I was on TV for the first time. And it’s a real learning experience.
My other suggestion is that, if you’re willing to spend the time, you connect with journalists and broadcasters from these shows on the social media sites. I presented a training program several weeks ago that explains exactly how to do this. You can learn more about it here:
http://publicityhound.com/publicity-products/marketing-tapes/journalistsonsocialmedia.htm