Toss or Keep: What’s the value of a press kit in today’s media landscape?

PR peeps, do you remember the time when we had to research magazines the hard way, by reading them cover to cover, or when there were no databases and you had to pull out the good ol’ phone book. Well, this is where the old press kit process lies. Gone are the days of sending over a release, a fact sheet and a contact list. Now we have so many other interesting ways to gain the media’s attention. For example, if I want a reporter to attend one of the biggest barbeque events in Colorado I won’t send a press release, I’ll send some barbeque sauce to whet their appetite for more. One catch, though: you have to do your research to make sure they like barbeque first.

Below are a few of the attention-grabbing press kits we’ve created over the years

Girls’ Only –this popular two-woman show, which celebrates womanhood from adolescence to menopause, had its debut in Denver in 2008. To entice the media we provided a memory filled with all the little girlie stuff you’d include in your memory box as a girl. To top this we knew we’d need something shocking, so we created a bouquet of flowers made out of maxi-pads. Some might say that was a bit over the edge, but that over-the-edge press kit got lots of attention, and many entertainment journalists wrote not only about the show but also about the great maxi-pad bouquet they received — which matched perfectly with the maxi-pad skit scene in the Girls’ Only show.

 

Town of Frisco Wassail Days – to gain publicity for the Town of Frisco’s annual holiday event, we promoted 12 events that were taking place every day in Frisco to celebrate the holiday season. These events included a Santa Dash, tubing at the Frisco Adventure Park, a wassail competition and tasting, a visit from Santa, and much more. We could have provided a calendar with all the details, but where’s the fun in that? Instead, we designed and created an Advent calendar that included an item describing each event taking place during the 1- day Wassail Days celebration.

These are just a few a few of the ways you can gain attention from the media. But remember, it’s not all fun and creative; we need to remember, “Just the facts ma’am.”