The New Pitch

Engage, pitch, annoy, alienate… Whatever category you fall in, all PR pros have one shared lament: a desire for closure. How many story pitches have you made over your career that went nowhere?

I’m not talking about having the phone slammed down after you deliver your spiel. I’m talking about no reply whatsoever…zero…zilch…silence.

I don’t mind rejection. At least with rejection comes closure. It’s that netherworld that irks me (and prompts many a PR person to leave that death knell of a voice-mail: “I’m calling to see if you received my email.” )

Sure, who can blame those beleaguered journalists on the receiving end of the endless string of inane, ill-conceived and frequently misguided pitches? And what does work in this changed media landscape?

Jeremiah Owyang today shared one effective, and decidedly hybrid story pitch for a mention in his blog. For it, Owyang received a snail-mailed invitation to visit a website where he encountered a video pitch. Here’s the Forrester analyst’s tweet about it:

Jeremiah jowyang I get a lot of pitches, few of them ever stand
out, this one clearly did, “how to get me to blog about you” http://tinyurl.com/ywtq5m
about 1 hour ago from web.

The creative approach worked.

Then there was that Ozzie New Yorker Young Paull, I mean Paull Young, who relayed his success engaging a fellow blogger, via Twitter, about his client.

paullyoung Hi Devra! I work with Graco. I’ll be attending the DC Moms blog Get-Together on Mon. Found you via mammaloves – nice to meet you! 06:29 PM January 05, 2008

Devra Hi Paull, Oooh Graco! You would have had me at “Pack N Play” LOVED that when my kids were little! Mamma Loves is tops tho! 09:48 AM January 06, 2008

paullyoung That’s great to hear! Did you know the Pack N Play just turned 20? 1 of our first posts on the new Graco blog: http://tinyurl.com/348tym 03:35 PM January 06, 2008

He posted the authentic and transparent dialogue on his blog, which WOMMA subsequently lifted for its blog. No heavy sell here. Just a friendly chat…gently infused with his client’s message (and URL).