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How to Pitch a New Brand and Make It a Success

October 9, 2018 by Carmen Hernandez

Here at Konnect Agency, we get the opportunity and honor to work with a lot of amazing new brands. I’m talking about brands/products that media and consumers have never heard of or seen before – fresh to the market. While this is a great privilege and a very exciting time to help pave the way for how a brand is going to be perceived by media and ultimately consumers, it also comes with great responsibility and sometimes challenges.

For many entrepreneurs, founders, CEO’s and employees, their company is often referred to as their “baby”–and for good reason! They have poured their blood, sweat and tears, endless hours, countless meetings and never-ending phones calls to get their brand off the ground. That’s why it’s so important for a PR Agency to get the messaging and press “spot on”. Over the past several years I have had the pleasure to work with a range of lifestyle and food and beverage brands that have started out in the known “baby” phase and have helped them grow into an infant, teenager and ultimately an adult. It’s so amazing and rewarding to play a part in helping these brands grow and reach consumers. From my personal experience as a Los Angeles publicist, I wanted to pass along some valuable advice that I have learned along the way on how to pitch a new brand and make it a success!

Target publications relevant to the brand

When pitching a new brand (and let’s be honest, really any brand!) the most obvious, but extremely important thing you need to know is who you are pitching and why they are relevant to the brand. Every time I pitch an editor I ask myself, are they really reaching my clients targeted demographic and how will this ultimately benefit the brand? For example, you could secure a great placement for a client but if it’s not something your team or client values as important it can often be a waste of time and resources. That’s why it’s so important to make ensure the client and the Public Relations team are all on the same page. Know who you are pitching and why!

Create an authentic pitch – no advertising needed here!

Editors are not interested in your “advertising” pitch and will most likely skim right over your email. It needs to be authentic and something they would generally be interested in writing about – remember you are not paying them to write about the brand so you need to give them a HOOK that ignites their curiosity. Before pitching an editor, I always research recent stories they have covered and topics that have been gaining their interest. Often, it’s trending news topics, national holidays, events, new trends, etc. For a new brand, it’s so important to know the editors who often cover new trends, brands, founders, innovative ingredients, etc. These editors should be your first call. Hopefully you have already created a great relationship with them and are able to send them a quick email or phone call to put this new brand on their radar. By having the right contacts this will help get your client’s brand messaging to the right outlets.

Timing is everything

Most print magazines work 4-5 months ahead. If you’re working with a new brand it’s important to know when they will have samples available to send to media as well as any confirmed distribution details for retailers or online stores. Knowing print editors work so far ahead it’s even more imperative to know the timing of the products so you can target those long lead publications early. For online publications, they usually have a bit more of a flexibility and only need one-month lead time depending on their schedule and work load. Please note, many editors will require samples to try the product before recommending it to their readers, so make sure you keep this in mind before you begin media outreach!

Media Spokesperson

Often, editors you’re pitching are going to ask to speak to the founder/s, CEO or a key representative for the brand for editorial consideration. This is a great way to personalize the brand and help editors understand their mission and why it was created. If the brand doesn’t have someone available, ask for them to provide around 4-5 quotes to have on-hand that you can send to media.

Always remember that you are the liaison between the client and the media so make sure you are portraying the right messaging and targeting the right people. Happy pitching! ?

From your Aussie mate, Amy!

The Key To Booking Press: Fail, Fail and Fail Again

June 29, 2017 by Carmen Hernandez

Failure is a scary word. I actually have an allergic reaction whenever I say it out loud because, like most publicists, I’m a perfectionist and for a long time FAILURE was my version of the “F” word. I forbid myself from saying it because if I actually accepted the fact that I failed, I would have an emotional breakdown and leave the office crying (true story on many occasions). Well folks, in a world where the ratio of publicists-to-journalists is 5:1, failure is a fact of life. We have to get over our perfectionist tendencies by picking ourselves up and pushing through. Sometimes in our most desperate points, we come up with the most creative of ways to make press happen for our clients.

Take my experience booking Sky Zone in the latest issue of Forbes as an example of “rising from the ashes,” so to speak. For those of you not familiar, Sky Zone is the creator of the billion dollar trampoline park industry. Because they’re the first, and the most profitable, you would think reporters would be jumping at the chance to write a feature on the brand, right? WRONG. After 6+ months of pitching the evolution story of Sky Zone and how it’s changing the trampoline park industry to at least 5-6 reporters at The New York Times, Fortune, Inc., Forbes, Fast Company, and pretty much every single other business outlet, the most exciting response I received was from one reporter who said, “Why would I want to write about this?” LOL.

I was at my whit’s end this March when I was thumbing through an issue of Forbes and came across a story on Family Video, a video rental franchise in the Midwest that still exists and is actually quite profitable. A light bulb went off in my head and I thought, “What if I pitch Sky Zone to this writer? Surely he likes nostalgia-inducing businesses, and Sky Zone is technically considered one of those because a lot of people had a trampoline in their backyard growing up.” While this thought process was somewhat of stretch, I pitched the writer anyways, and, SURPRISE, he loved it so much that I only had to follow up with him once.

Making this story come to life was probably the highlight of my career because it’s living proof that I didn’t give up after thinking I exhausted all of my contacts. Whether you’re in the business of franchise PR, or food and beverage PR, your version of this might be a bit different. That pitch you’ve been sending for what seems like your entire career might not be a fit for a writer at Forbes, but it could be the perfect story or roundup for an equally valuable outlet to your client like a key trade magazine or the major in-market daily where their corporate office is located.

So, at the end of the day, remember that it isn’t the end of the world if that one reporter at whatever A-list outlet didn’t respond. Keep trying. You’ll never know until you press that send button.

–EJ

3 Tips to Remember When You're on an Editorial Deskside Tour

June 26, 2015 by konnectprdaily

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Every publicist loves this feeling … going up the stairs of the Hearst building **sigh**

Last week, my lovely public relations colleague Amanda Molina and I were on a whirlwind NYC deskside media tour. Through our experience, I would love to share some tips to have successful media meet & greets during the non-stop hustle and bustle.

  • Build a great rapport with your contacts / soon-to-be media friends. Desksides provide the opportunity finally be face-to-face with people that you’ve probably emailed a million times. It is quintessential to make complete use of the time you two are together and wow them with your enthusiasm and pitch! Once that happens, your guys’ relationship will be stronger and hopefully it will turn into something where they can turn to you as a great resource.
  • Give yourself enough time from appointment to appointment. Map out your destinations and apply plenty of buffer time to get from one place to the other. Remember to think about potential traffic or longer desksides that might hold you up. Take it from me, you don’t want to be running, sweaty and 20 minutes late your deskside!
  • Take many notes. It is imperative to jot down lots of notes when you are meeting with so many editors in a day and trying to memorize everything they said! Write down things that the media likes and doesn’t like, if they are working on any themed roundups or stories that would be a perfect fit for your client, personal tidbits about them so you can reference these details in your follow-ups, etc. This will go a long way when you’re downloading the tons of info for your desksides recap at the end of the day.

Think of any more tips? Hope you knock ’em dead on your next deskside! 😉

xx Kim

Wait for it…

April 16, 2013 by konnectprdaily

Last night on How I Met Your Mother, Marvin Wait-For-It Eriksen was sporting his Black Ops Black Babiators while strapped onto his dad, Marshall’s chest while riding a motorcycle! At this PR agency, we are always so excited to see our hard work come to fruition, and what not a better way than on such an amazing TV show!!

HIMYM

This week has been a big one for this PR firm and our client, Babiaors – first, as mentioned above, they were on HIMYM. Secondly they just launched their new Polarized line on Babiators.com!! These glasses feature polarized lenses to reduce harsh sun glare and come with a stylish Cloud case! Be sure to check them out here

3_9 4_9

Sweet! SweetSeat Scores A Top Spot As A Finalist In the Red Tricycle Awards

September 12, 2011 by konnectprdaily

This year Red Tricycle, a website dedicated to helping parents have more fun with their kids, launched its ‘Totally Awesome Awards’ in search of the best local parenting resources along with readers’ favorite online resources. Categories range from Best Schools and Places to Shop, to Best Mom Forums, Nursery Gear, Meals and Snacks and more..

SweetSeat has been selected for the Most Awesome Feeding Supplies category, as colorful, comfortable and easy-to-clean booster seats that make mealtime and playtime fun.

 

Learn more about SweetSeat, and then head on over to Red Tricycle to cast your vote on why it’s so unique, adorable and TOTALLY AWESOME!

All winners will be announced next month on October 15th!

 

~Shonte

The Fashion Industry Promotes Itself In An Annual After-Hours Extravaganza

September 8, 2011 by konnectprdaily

From Manhattan to Milan, Atlanta to Australia, boutiques, department stores and even neighborhood pop-up shops across the globe will stay open after hours TONIGHT to help celebrate what many call the single biggest shopping event of the year (yes, even larger than ‘Black Friday’)- Fashion’s Night Out!

Having started in 2009 as a way to encourage consumers to shop ‘til they drop all in the name of supporting the fashion industry, this is an event filled with celebrities who want to be seen, designers who want to be known, and of course die hard shoppers (I included) who want those exclusive items that were virtually unknown and/or unattainable up until this very moment. Since its inception, Fashion’s Night Out has expanded to more than 15 countries, with each year becoming more popular than the previous. How you ask? Promotion of course, with a team of people behind FNO publicizing the heck out of it! And this year, they made sure to get the public’s attention in one of the top ways we’re communicating today- through technology and social media.

A special (and FREE) Fashion’s Night Out cell phone app was released earlier this month (for iPhone and Android) which allows users to receive real time event information with “around me” options that help them navigate throughout the night.  You can even communicate plans with friends via e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter, making a meeting at Jimmy Choo as simple as a few taps.

It’s a brilliant idea if you ask me, way to think like a publicist FNO. 🙂

 

~Shonte

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