We’re just getting started with our latest client to join the Abelow family: U.K. Countryside Tours. With The Crown’s popularity among Anglophiles and perennial lovers of the English countryside and its unparalleled gardens and historic properties, launching this new tour company is a breeze for our travel PR agency in New York City.
After codifying the key message points and writing our basic press kit for use with the media, we have embarked on the first step in media relations, a strong suit of our agency. Bringing over the founder Jim Dixon this month, we are arranging meet and greet interviews for him with top travel press, in what is known in the PR field as a media tour.
When you have a launch or hard news to brief the press about, a desk side meeting often makes the most sense. Here are the steps to take:
1. Write a media alert outlining the who, what, when, where and why – This should be a short, one-page document that’s easy to read and gives the reporter everything they need to know about why they could potentially being interested in meeting with you.
2. Send personalized emails with the media alert below – With your media list in hand, it’s time to reach out to those coveted press with whom you want to meet. We used our master media list in this case to target which press we want to set up meetings with, including leading online sites, magazines, newspapers and bloggers.
3. Host a small breakfast or luncheon – Invite a few key freelancers to an informal lunch briefing at a convenient place in midtown Manhattan, where you can have a relaxed exchange concerning the tour. In this case, we’re planning a lunch at Bar Boulud with a number of journalists who write for a host of top tier outlets.
4. Take notes and follow up assiduously – Once you meet the journalists, it’s important to provide all the important details they request. That can range from specific photos to facts about the tour that might not be available in the press materials.
5. Create a Google alert and hire a clipping service – While Google alerts will catch a good number of stories that appear, it’s vital to have a clipping service such as Burelles to monitor your coverage. There’s a significant number of articles we find that the alerts fail to catch, so we always recommend to our clients engaging a clipping service.
Call Lorraine next time you want to meet the press in New York City.