As we all read or listen to the news we have all developed an ideal of what a good news story looks like.
How then to take a product launch for example and make it news worthy? Well if you are Sir Richard Branson you may decide to abseil down the side of a building in a business suit. But if you aren’t Sir Richard you are going to need some creativity. Here are a few ideas.
Why Today?
Launching your story on a memorable day is a good example of building a story around the content. There are literally hundreds of awareness days. For example, June 21st is not only my birthday and usually the summer solstice, it is also World Music Day, International Day of Yoga and the International Day of Purpose. You can find an exhaustive list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_awareness_days
Not only are there awareness days there are weeks, months, years and even decades. Some are regional, some are national, and some are international.
By choosing a relevant awareness day for your product launch you can create a sense of urgency to your story this time element is important to journalists. Journalists are always looking for content that is relevant to their readers. There are even annual events like CES which are basically virtually dedicated to new product launches and introductions. You can read more about how to thrive at CES here.
CES – the go to event for high tech product launches.
Human Interest
People are interested in people. This is at the heart of celebrity endorsement and the explosive growth of “influencers” and “opinion leaders” on social media.
Taking your product and illustrating how a typical customer might use it – how they would integrate it into their lives and what it might say about them is vital. You may call them case studies or simply customer stories it doesn’t really matter. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth ten thousand. It doesn’t have to be a big budget production – most people will be watching on a five-inch screen while waiting for the train home.
Expert Opinion
Gurus, specialists, and experts are all have opinions that can be added to your content on your content. A supportive quote from and industry guru plus a picture of the said guru will go a a long way to build the story. Journalists with trade journals may well just run stories and quotations verbatim. Journalists at larger news organizations will want to talk with the source. Firstly, to verify its accurate and secondly to try and extract some unique comment. Make sure anyone you introduce to the media is media savvy and knows the difference between talking on the record and off the record. If in doubt don’t.
Organizations are putting vast amounts of effort into creating content that can used in blogs, websites, brochures and email campaigns. With a little creativity and some effort that content can be crafted into a story that will pique the interest of a journalist. If you don’t want to do it yourself, you can always contact a company like OOKII Company who will do it for you.
First published by Adrian G Stewart at OOKII.Company
