A great post appeared on The Bad Pitch Blog a couple of days ago, posted by Richard Laermer titled Without Blinking: Sharing the Vision is a PR Metier. This quote from Richard summed it up:
“A written pitch is spam while a multimedia one is engaging and kind of easy to pour over”
For those of you who don’t know, the Bad Pitch Blog discusses the things PR people do wrong when pitching to media, including publishing some of the worst pitches I have ever seen.
I’d have to say that the best of my insights into pitching to media have come from this blog alone.
Anyway, this post discussed the new type of pitch – using video and other media instead of a written press release. Brilliant.
There are many instances, especially when dealing with consumer products, that a visual pitch would save a lot of talking. They say a picture tells a thousand words…How great would it be to say a few less words to a journo and have them really understand the concept with a informative video interview with the company directors or a walk through of the product or service.
With technology today, something of this ilk is not a hard thing to produce. Embed the video on a branded company channel on youtube and send links to journalists along with the contact details for further information.
Although it might take a little longer to prepare, I believe the value will come through in journalist interest. It’s really just a sensible way of providing something more meaningful that 500 words of carefully crafted, prepared, stearalised, uninspiring text.
