Many in PR lament that the art of pitching stories, or having a jaded and overworked media accept and then follow through on the story lines, is a thing of the past. However the pitching of stories will hopefully remain a key, if not the key component, i. publicity. Especially with business partners looking for more and more ROI, pitching those great human interest stories and working in the business partners or the events are probably more critical now than ever. So with that we set out across the web on Sunday to find some unique pitches and receptions on some mass media sites. here are some good examples of successful pitches worth reading. Rachel Blount of the Minneapolis Star Tribune had a great feature on the life of former collegiate hockey player Maggie Souba, now playing professionally in Russia, a great slice of life to show the adjustments athletes have to make in sports away from the limelight. In the LA Times, Kurt Streeter had a very strong piece about the University of Tennessee's star Kandace Parker and the skills she posseses that make her “the one” to resurrect the LA Sparks and the WNBA...great hook for women's hoops in LA as well as exposing a rising athlete to an audience that may not know about her just yet. Then the Toronto Globe and Mail had a great piece on the Raptors Jamario Moon, his well traveled route through Europe and the D-League and finally to the NBA...another great story that shows the route athletes sometimes have to take to achieve their goals. All three didn’t fall out of the sky, they were the work of solid publicity campaigns, smart editors and dogged writers who could capture the storytelling aspect for the reader, and expose these stories to a wider audience. All examples of how the proper pitch can work.
Couple of other quick notes…Good piece in Ad Age by Jeremy Mullman looking at sponsor effects out of the Mitchell Report (which won’t be much)…Darren Rovell yesterday called Andy Pettitte admission of using HGH the PR Move of the Year. While not quite that, since he is at the end of his career, has mimimal sponsor activity and is not Hall of Fame material, it was a strong first strike move by the athlete and his reps to be out front and be the first real name to move past the issue. It's all about looking forward. Lastly, check out Terry Lyons blog about the St. John's Hoops Symposium from Saturday. These types of events have huge upside if run and merchandised correctly locally and regionally, and Terry has a nice critique on the day. New York college hoops seems to have lost its way recently, and finding a way to merchandise and promote the rivalries with events like this could make sense.
