Christmas in July: Reality of holiday PR campaigns
“Christmas in July” events, promotions and sales are fairly common in the retail world but, all gimmicks aside, in public relations it’s actually a critical time for holiday PR campaigns.
If seeing your product in glossy magazines this holiday season is important to you, it is imperative to start your holiday PR campaign over the summer!
Media timelines are a funny thing – while everyone else is savoring summertime sun and fun, magazine editors are knee-deep testing the latest and greatest items for holiday entertaining and gifting. In particular, national magazines plan and finalize editorial content anywhere from 4-6 months in advance (see timing your PR campaign). Regional magazines generally work about 2-3 months ahead.
All is not lost, however, if you’re reading this in September.
Whether you have the perfect stocking stuffer or the “it” toy for 2015, there’s still plenty of opportunity for holiday coverage with what’s known as short lead media: daily and community newspapers, news and magazine websites, blogs, and TV. This category can have a very wide range of deadlines for their holiday coverage. Most will have it all wrapped up by October/November.
Knowing whom to pitch, when to pitch them and how to secure their interest is our specialty. With our flip flops on, we’re in the throes of holiday pitching for clients right now in hopes of making this next season the most wonderful time of year for their business.
So if you’re contemplating launching holiday PR campaigns as part of your seasonal marketing this year, don’t wait too long to sign up. Soon that ship will sail, as they say!
From all of us here at Orca….Happy Summer!