The month of October provides opportunities galore for pitching.
—October is Consumer Information Month. Your company or nonprofit can offer tips and free advice on product safety, how to avoid rip-offs, and how not to abuse credit cards.
—Sponsor a pumpkin-carving contest among your employees or customers. Invite people to carve the logo of certain local TV station. Then invite the TV station to feature the winning carver along with the winning pumpkin. It’s a sneaky but perfectly legitimate way to get featured on TV.
–National School Lunch Week is October 10-14, a perfect time to pitch stories about nutrition and obesity. If your school serves great lunches, invite local reporters to do a taste test and write reviews.
–October 22 is the 14th annual Make a Difference Day, sponsored by USA Weekend magazine. It’s the single largest day of volunteering, the one day set aside for people throughout the U.S. to do good deeds for others. If you or your group has a worthy project, you can apply to receive one of 10 awards and be featured in USA Weekend magazine. Check out the long list of publicity ideas
–Daylight Savings Time ends on Sunday, October 30, Halloween. That means we gain an extra hour. Non-profits can kick off a campaign urging people to donate that “extra hour” to a worthy cause by volunteering.
–And for Halloween, dentist’s offices can pitch stories about the kinds of candy that people with braces should avoid eating. To piggyback onto the lo-carb craze, what’s out there in the way of low-carb candy?
These are only a few of the more than 100 ideas suggested by TV reporter Shawne Duperon and me during the teleseminar titled
“113 Sizzling Story Ideas from July Through December” and the companion 106 WOW! Story Ideas from January Through June“.