Publicity tips/Slow News Week Alert July 3, 2007
The Publicity Hound's
Tips of the Week
Issue #353 July 3, 2007
Publisher: Joan Stewart
mailto:JStewart@PublicityHound.com
http://www.publicityhound.com/
http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)
The Publicity Hound®
Circulation: 31,087
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In This Issue
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1. Slow News Week Alert
2. Farm & Food Tours
3. 1,300 Toothbrushes
4. Media Leads
5. How to Promote a Technology Center
6. Help This Hound
7. Hound Quote of the Week
8. And at My Blog...
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1. Slow News Week Alert
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Tired of competing with everybody and their brother for primo TV time, and space in your local newspaper?
With the Fourth of July holiday plopped right in the middle of the week, it seems like everybody and their brother are busy preparing for the holiday, or on vacation.
That means prime pitching opportunities for smart Publicity Hounds who understand this is one of the slowest news weeks of the year.
To find out what the media will be covering, check out Al Tompkins' excellent column for PoynterOnline.org at http://www.poynteronline.org/column.asp?id=2&aid=125963 Each week, he gives journalists a long list of timely story ideas that are just as valuable for Publicity Hounds. This week's include:
--Fireworks safety tips. In 2005, four persons died, and an estimated 10,800 were treated for fireworks-related injuries in the United States. This is a perfect time for hospital PR people to talk about what goes on inside their emergency rooms during a typical holiday week like this one, and how to avoid ending up there.
--Are sparklers OK? The Center for Disease Control says sparklers are the second-leading cause of fireworks injuries and the leading cause among little kids.
--Fireworks are being banned in some communities from California to Florida because of dry weather. If that includes your locale, what are you doing on the night of the Fourth?
--Al suggests newsrooms ask their photographers/videographers to do a multimedia piece showing the public how to take great fireworks pictures. I think any professional or amateur photographer or videographer could offer tips on how amateurs can take great photos of the fireworks.
--Some communities are banning those wildly popular fire pits. Why? Have a great story to tell about how you use your fire pit? This is the week to share it.
--One idea I didn't see on Al's list is how to keep dogs and cats calm during the big fireworks displays. Should pets ever be drugged? Do vets dispense drugs? How often?
--Michigan TV producer Shawne Duperon says lots of people, including her daughter, are getting married Saturday, on 7-7-07. She suggests wedding planners, historians, religious experts and numerologists comment on the significance of those three sevens.
How about creating a fun quiz that ties into your holiday-related product, service, cause or issue? "Briefs, Fillers & Quizzes: How to Create Them & Why Editors Love Them" will show you the value of briefs, those short little items that fill odd-size holes on a page. It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can be reading as soon as your order has been approved.
Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/d74h7
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2. Farm & Food Tours
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While you're reading this, scores of foodies are visiting cheese factories in Wisconsin, picking lavender and peaches in Texas, and sampling wine in northern California.
They're participating in what's called agritourism, which lets tourists pick fruits and vegetables, ride horses, taste honey, learn about wine, and shop in gift shops and farm stands for local and regional produce or hand-crafted gifts.
In some states and countries, families can live on a farm for a week, pick their own food and even milk the cows in the morning. More sophisticated foodies can tour a particular region, talk with growers or vintners, then cook under the guidance of a professional chef.
Here in Wisconsin, you can go on a Cheese Tour, learn about cheese curing caves, then visit a chocolate and cheese house where you pair those two foods with wine. Then it's off to a chalet for a lesson on how to prepare and taste fondue.
Agritourism creates a valuable revenue stream for farmers, ranchers and food producers. Some farms, for example, get together to form festivals, tours or other events.
If you're participating in one of these tours as the host or the guest, pitch the story to travel and food writers, and even to business reporters. Collect some recipes along the way and offer them to your media contacts.
If I were in charge of the promotion for an agritourism event, I'd pay particular attention to the inflight magazines for airlines that serve the city were my event was occurring. Getting a calendar listing in one of these magazines could bring additional tourists who just happen to be in the area.
If you're pitching inflight magazines but you're not having much luck, try submitting a good-quality stand-alone photo with a caption.
"Special Report #27: Fly High with Publicity in the Inflight Magazines" gives you dozens of tips for pitching these magazines, many with high circulations. It also includes contact information for 42 magazines. Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/6uz9g
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3. 1,300 Toothbrushes
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Sometimes all it takes is a little twist to turn a pretty good story into a really great story with fabulous visuals and real media appeal.
When Dr. Ronald Henderson, owner of Healthy Smiles dental office in Dover, New Hampshire, planned a medical mission to Peru, his publicist came up with the perfect twist.
"We appealed to the community's heart and asked for donations in the form of toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss and mouthwash," publicist Traci Bisson of Bisson Barcelona said.
Local residents donated more than 1,300 toothbrushes and other dental supplies. That made a great photo and story. Healthy Smiles was featured on the front page of the Dover Community News and Fosters Daily Democrat and on two local radio stations.
Dr. Henderson also did interviews with the New Hampshire Business Review regarding not only his trip to Peru but his state-of-the-art technology called Cerec®, the world's only system for the fabrication of all ceramic dental restorations in one office visit. The newspaper wrote a full-page article.
He was also featured in Business NH Magazine.
Up until then, Dr. Henderson didn't generate even an ounce of publicity even though he had been in business for more than 33 years.
"Our publicity team needed to position his expertise with the local media in order to build credibility and generate interest in Healthy Smiles," Traci said.
Can your company ask for donations that tie into something else you're doing? Campaigns like this one side step the boring fund-raising drives that usually result in the equally boring check-passing photo.
"Fun Alternatives to Boring Ground-breakings, Ribbon-cuttings and Check-passings" offers even more ideas for generating far more publicity than you've ever imagined. It's available as a CD or an electronic transcript that you can be reading as soon as your order is approved.
Read more about what you'll learn at http://tinyurl.com/7cl6z
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4. Media Leads
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--OverTime (OT) Magazine, the leading business and lifestyle guide for professional athletes, is looking for product pitches for its annual "Holiday Hot List" featuring gifts that athletes will be giving and receiving this holiday season. Items range from the affordable to the elite and customizable, and include bigger gifts, stocking stuffers and hostess gifts based on their uniqueness and specific appeal to athletes who might need a little help deciding what to buy others. Previous lists have included custom-fitted earphones, gift certificates for an ultimate NASCAR experience, and handmade purses by Spacia. If you think you've got the right product for this elite demographic audience of more than 40,000 professional athletes and sports industry insiders, send a brief introductory email outlining your product suggestion and its price to Melissa Gillespie at mailto:mgillespie@ot-magazine.com No photos or image attachments. She will ask for them if she likes the pitch. Learn more about the magazine at http://www.ot-magazine.com/
--Connie Bennett, author of the book "Sugar Shock" and a member of The Publicity Hound Mentor Program, says a producer of a well-known national TV talk show is looking for someone with diabulimia to interview. If you have type 1 or 2 diabetes and you skip your insulin hoping that it will help you peel off the pounds, you might be part of what the producer says is "a sensitive piece on diabulimia." You can read more about this at Connie's blog at http://tinyurl.com/2f9gwx Or contact her by using the form at http://www.sugarshock.com/contact_connie.html#contact
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5. Promotion for a Teleconferencing Center
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This week, three Publicity Hounds have tips for Nellie Lamers of Reeds Spring, Missouri. She wanted ideas on how to promote a teleconferencing site that offers interactive video services, classes from other colleges across the state, training, and free public access to computers.
From Kim Duke:
"Contact the nearest chapter of the National Speaker’sAssociation at http://www.nsaspeaker.org/. Speakers are always on the lookout for fabulous facilities as well as alternatives they can present to their clients for training.
From Dawn Lanier:
"Use Craigslist at http://www.craigslist.org/ to advertise it in Missouri...Identify information sites, portals, businesses, organizations, in and around your local area. See if they’d be willing to link to your website, mention the center in their newsletter, and blog about you." See "How to Use Craigslist as a Valuable Publicity Tool" at http://tinyurl.com/geog2
From The Publicity Hound:
"Contact all the local Toastmasters groups and let them know about your facility. Also, let every small-business group and all the fraternal organizations and service clubs know. Sometimes their members include speakers, and they might like to take advantage of your facility.
"Get in touch with your local chamber of commerce and see if you can host an after-work networking session there. Wouldn't it be fun to take photos of people who attended, then project the images within minutes on the screen in front of the room? I see this all the time at conferences, and it really creates a buzz.
"Team up with some of the nonprofits that serve the over-60 demographic and offer free classes on how to use computers and the Internet."
Many of the ideas in "Special Report #15: Publicity Tips for Schools, Colleges and Universities" would work equally well for facilities like Nellie's. Only $10. Order at http://tinyurl.com/6uz9g
Read the complete responses to this Help This Hound question at http://tinyurl.com/2875c8
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6. Help This Hound
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Jeff Flowers of San Diego, California writes:
"I am an advertising guy in California and I am working with a man named Tom Jones.
"Tom is an extreme athlete and he takes on unbelievable challenges to support causes that he believes in. For example, Tom has run across the entire country, from L.A. to New York, at a pace of a marathon a day for 120 straight days to raise money for foster kids.
"Now, he is paddling a surfboard the entire length of the California Coast (over 1,200 miles) later this summer to draw attention to the problem of plastic pollution in our oceans. He calls the event California Paddle 2007--A Campaign for a Plastic-Free Ocean. You can learn more about it at http://www.californiapaddle.com/
"I would like the advice of your fellow Hounds to see how we can get exposure for this very worthwhile, world-record setting event and the cause it supports."
The Publicity Hound says: Calling all Hounds with great ideas, particularly those who know how to publicize a publicity stunt like this one. Post them to my blog at http://tinyurl.com/2hss6p
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7. Hound Quote of the Week
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Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through the snow.
DOG JOKES & QUOTES EBOOK: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes, perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few good laughs.
BONUS: Buy the ebook and you also get a compilation of the 50 best websites for dog humor.
http://www.publicityhound.com/dogjokebook/
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8. And at My Blog...
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Get Organized with Organize magazine
http://tinyurl.com/ytjvvr
Writers, photographers: Check out Gather, social networking site
http://tinyurl.com/yqpoo6
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Where to Meet or Hear The Publicity Hound®
July 19: Teleseminar for Fitness Trainers
"How to Promote Yourself as an Expert Fitness Trainers and Generate Online & Offline Publicity," 1 to 2 Eastern Time, with Sean Greeley. Details pending.
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Reprinted from "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," an ezine featuring tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity. Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email the handy list "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."
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Joan Stewart
a.k.a. The Publicity Hound®
3434 County KK
Port Washington, WI 53074
U.S.A.
Phone: 262-284-7451 (Central)
Fax: 262-284-1737
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