If you are a consumer product company and have been following our PR advice, you’ve already lined up a few holiday gift guides that will be featuring your product in the next 60 days. Nice work! While holiday gift guides are a big part of our efforts June-December, there are many other seasonal topics and angles that you must work into your PR efforts this time of year to maintain a consistent presence in the media.

Long Lead Media:

National magazines work as much as six months in advance, which means editors at these publications are already putting together stories for March/April issues. I know fall just started, but it’s time to think spring! Depending on your product or service, angles you can be pitching now include:

• Getting fit for summer
• Outdoor entertaining
• Products for outdoors
• Spring break
• Spring cleaning
• St. Patrick’s Day
• April Showers
• Easter
• March Madness (NCAA Basketball)

Regional magazines and a few national magazines do not work quite as far in advance, and there are even more angles to be pitching for January and February issues.  If you want to find out where a publication is in its editorial schedule, call an editorial assistant to find out on which issue they are currently working. Angles to pitch these magazines now include:

• New Year’s Resolutions (to be green, to be more fit, to be more financially responsible, etc.)
• Winter fashion
• Cold weather activities/gear
• After-holiday sales/discounts
• New Year’s Eve fashion, products, entertaining
• How to break the winter blues
• Valentine’s Day Gift Guides
• Pink products for Valentine’s Day
• Super Bowl parties, gear, fashion
• President’s Day (red/white/blue or stars & stripes products, fashion, entertaining, etc.)

Short Lead Media:

Now that we’ve addressed what angles you should be pitching for the future, let’s talk about what angles you can be pitching now to daily newspapers, broadcast and online media outlets. First and foremost, short lead outlets are still looking for products and ideas to feature in their holiday gift guides, so be sure you are still making effort on this front. Outside of holiday gift guides, however, there are several angles to consider for the next 60 days:

• Halloween products, entertaining, safety
• Tailgating products (height of NFL and NCAA football season)
• Fall fashion
• Outdoor entertaining
• Holiday travel (products, advice, destinations)
• Hostess gifts
• Holiday entertaining
• Campfire products/gear
• Daylight Savings
• Election Day (red/white/blue and star & stripes products, fashion, entertaining, etc.)
• First Day of Winter

Whatever it is that you are pitching, it’s important to always think about what you can pitch now in order to achieve press coverage throughout the year. I recommend coming up with a monthly PR plan that identifies the angles you should be pitching for that month, breaking out the opportunities for long leads and short leads. Together with a well-executed social media plan, an organized outreach strategy can increase your brand awareness and achieve more visibility for your product or service.

If you’d like to talk to us about executing an integrated social media and PR campaign for your brand, contact us for more info.

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