About a year ago, we set out to pitch one of our clients as an industry thought-leader to the financial media in New York City.
Some peers at agencies located in “The Big Apple” told us this effort would be next to impossible.
Because we had enjoyed national media success for clients before (and continue to work for clients with a significant national profile) this response was puzzling.
We knew we already had the key ingredient in place for success: a highly credentialed client with a great story to tell.
Peers and industry experts long had regarded him as an authority with an unblemished reputation throughout his 40 years of investment counseling.
An angle wasn’t difficult to determine either. Recent polls had indicated 70 percent of Americans viewed Wall Street negatively, so we sought to position our client as a source providing a “view from Main Street.”
The next step was to identify appropriate media outlets and build relationships with relevant editors and reporters. We honed in on individuals at 11 New York-based TV networks, newspapers and magazines.
From there, our account team –former journalists with more than 50 years of combined journalism experience – crafted the story pitch, which concisely focused on the client’s experience, industry recognition, previous media appearances and other points of distinction.
The results? Six of 11 people responded, including four interested in meeting with our client during our trip.
We still needed to coordinate dates, times and places. Certain details weren’t final until the day before the trip, so we had to account for a fluid event-planning component even after we had a few media bites on the line.
By day’s end, we had met with a reporter for SmartMoney and The Wall Street Journal, editors from Money and Forbes, respectively, and a program host at Fox Business Network.
The trip was clearly a success. However, the work didn’t end once we returned to Pittsburgh. We had to keep our client in front of those we’d met and – above all – be patient and persistent. The floodgates don’t open at the national media level right away, no matter how strong of a first impression you make.
Still, within a matter of weeks, our client had been interviewed for a national financial magazine and within a few months, he appeared as part of a financial panel on national television for the first time. This fall, he signed a contract to contribute to a global financial news organization’s website. All were the result of a well-executed New York media tour.
So if someone says you can’t get in front of national media if you’re not from New York, we’re here to tell you we’ve done it and look forward taking another bite out of “The Big Apple” again soon.
Please click here to download the WordWrite Communications team’s “Six tips for generating national media interest for your business from outside New York City.”
_____
Jeremy Church is an account supervisor for WordWrite Communications. He can be reached at jeremy.church@wordwritepr.com and on Twitter @churchjeremy.
