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Promotional Products Week 2015 PR Guide
With the bpma running their third Promotional Products Week from the 14th to 18th
September 2015, raising the profile and effectiveness of promotional products is vital to the
success of the week. Sending out a press release to targeted media outlets outlining your
company’s contribution to the Promotional Products Week is key to promoting the event,
the power of promotional products and most importantly generating publicity for your
company. This guide will help to ensure your press release is sent to the right media outlets
and that you follow up successfully.
Research, Research, Research
One of the most important parts of sending out a press
release is also the first one; which is to be sure you
research your target media properly. You need to send
out the press release to your local media, so firstly make
a list of all your local newspapers in your town, as well
as any regional business magazines and your local radio
stations. Visit their websites to find out the email
addresses and telephone numbers of the News Editors,
or Editors if it’s a small publication. It is very important
that you target the release to the correct journalist and
by name. Not taking the time to research your media
contacts will result in you targeting the wrong person
and irritate whoever you’re pitching. This may result in
not achieving any coverage. Look through your local
paper and see what kind of pictures/stories get
covered. See what the journalists did accept and
publish!
Target your Press Release
Now you have the email addresses of all the people you want to send your press release to,
the next step is sending it out. Firstly make sure you fill in the relevant gaps in the attached
press release: this includes your company’s name and town, as well as your
spokesperson’s name.
The press release is all written for you so you don’t need to worry about writing anything
else. Next, paste your press release into the body of your email, as well as attaching it to the
email. Most journalists prefer to scroll down and read the press release in the body of the
email as attachments take longer to open, but it can’t hurt to attach it just in case. Following
this decide what you are going to put in the subject line of your email. The subject line is an
important factor on whether your news gets read or not so make sure you keep it short,
to-the-point and gripping. This will help to attract journalists’ attention instantly and ensure it
doesn’t get deleted as ‘spam’.
The Power of Photography
You need to attach a logo of Promotional Products Week to
your release (you can download it using this link
http://bpma.co.uk/ppw/bpma-members-area). Also attach
a picture of your company founder or MD (head and shoulder
shot) that is quoted in the press release. Make sure this is high
resolution and in jpeg format with at least 300 dots per inch
(300 dpi).
Next, you need to think about how to caption the photo. This is
a description of who is in the photo with their contact details,
including the name of the person featured, company name,
website, email address and phone number.
Once you have attached this photo to the release you are ready to send it out. However
think carefully about when to send out your press release, as believe it or not, timing is
actually very important! Never email a press release on Monday or Friday as journalists
aren’t generally in the mood to read your release and are too busy on these days as they’re
close to the weekend. Instead aim to send it out between Tuesday to Thursday, between
10am and 3pm for the best chance of it being read!
Aim for MAXIMUM MEDIA IMPACTS! - Ring up the Media Promote your Release!
Following up on your press release is vital for achieving coverage. It is best to wait 24 hours
after sending out your release to ring up each publication or radio station directly and ask to
speak to your named journalist.
However NEVER ask if they have received your press release as journalists receive
hundreds of press releases every day. Instead make reference to the press release and ask
if they have any questions or would like any more information about it. Do get into a
conversation and talk about your company and the Promotional Products Week, explaining
why the press release is newsworthy and why you are involved.
Social Media
Once you have filled in the relevant gaps of the press release it is a great idea to put it on
your website straight away. You want as many people to see the release and hear about the
event as possible!
You can also put a link to it on your Facebook page and Twitter site, however it is best to
wait until you have achieved coverage in your local media before doing this.
Social media can broaden the reach of your release considerably and get people talking
about an event. Make sure you use keywords and hashtags when using Twitter to ensure
your tweet is seen by as many people as possible. Last year we successfully launched a
twitter campaign for #PPWeek, simply interacting with the audience by asking questions
like; ‘What’s the best promotional product you have received, given or sold?’. Twitter is the
powerhouse when it comes to #BreakingNews, but you should also post your press release
on other social networks and be available throughout the day to address comments and
answer questions.
However please don’t worry if you don’t have Facebook or Twitter, you will just have to work
closely with your media contacts on your release and photography to ensure it stands out!
Interesting fact!
Promotional Promotional Products Week won the
Constant Contact Award for Outstanding Digital
Achievement 2014
Photo Stunt - Highly Recommended!
Having sent your press release, this is where the fun starts…
Think of a photo stunt that you could create to represent
your company and your products in line with Promotional
Products Week. Try and be as creative as possible with this,
as the more innovative the photo the more coverage you
could potentially achieve. Remember a picture is worth a
1000 words so think ‘over the top’ and unusual!
Ideas to help spark your imagination!
The theme for Promotional Products Week this year is ‘Promotional Products
Invoke Action!’. This theme MUST be used in ALL your marketing campaigns.
The bpma have already started using this theme – the bpma stands at Technology For
Marketing & Advertising, Motivate Europe and Marketing Week Live embraced the
‘Promotional Products Invoke Action!’ theme. Below are some tips to help you decide how
to get involved.
• The bpma will be featuring images of promotional products in action on its Pinterest site.
Send us your inspirational and attention grabbing images that will excite and motivate the
end user community, influencing them to use promotional products in their marketing
campaigns. Please make sure images are high resolution and in jpeg format with at least
300 dots per inch (300 dpi). www.pinterest.co.uk/thebpma
• Send a press release or organise an interview with local newspapers, magazines, radio or
TV. You could even get them to cover an event you are putting on. You can use the press
release template the bpma will be sending out to help you gain more exposure.
• Get your team involved in your brain storm for ideas, this will stimulate productivity while
getting them excited to celebrate the week.
• Use the bpma research to promote the week within a special PPWeek email, you can send
this out to your database featuring reasons to use promotional products within marketing
campaigns.
• Put on an event in your local community or organise an exciting PR stunt. You could even
engage with a local charity to give your event more exposure.
• Run an exclusive promotion with your clients/prospects through September - maybe
including free product.
• Use social media to promote Promotional Products Week – you can also interact with the
bpma on:
o Twitter: @PPWeek #PPWeek
o Facebook: www.facebook.com/thebpma
o Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/thebpma
o YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/thebpma
• Create a 30 second video promoting your activity and send it to [email protected] –
the bpma will feature this on YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/thebpma). This will be
entered into a competition with the best video winning a mystery prize.
• Send the bpma any blogs you write promoting Promotional Products Week and we will
feature them on the blog section of the Promotional Products Week website.
• Use the Promotional Products Week logo on your website, email signatures and quotations
to show your support. Make sure you link this to the Promotional Products Week website:
www.promotionalproductsweek.co.uk
• You could create the biggest promotional product ever produced, with a logo of
Promotional Products Week and your own company on it. Then take a photograph with
your company’s founder / MD stood next to it.
• You could build a mountain (or a large mound) of your products. This could make a stunning
photograph and have the PPW and your company logo on the placards, surrounded by
members of your team or alternatively get creative by posing for a photo with your team
waving PPW flags outside your office.
• You could invite a local personality such as your local Mayor, the local MP or if you know of
a local celebrity who lives in your area invite them to your offices to celebrate PPW and you
may wish to present them with a promotional gift from your company as a memento of the
visit.
• You could host an open day for buyers to generate a buzz in the local area, not only would
this be good opportunity for potential new business, it could entice the local media.
• Thinking of launching a new promotional product? Why not let this coincide with the week.
Launching a product could potentially lead to great coverage, it could also make for a
striking photograph.
• Snappers!
The local newspapers have staff photographers. If you can persuade the newspaper that
your photocall for PPW is newsworthy and would make good picture material they may
send their “snapper” to attend the photocall. If successful then you will have a higher
chance of getting it published. But if not, please arrange to take your own photography.
Please remember the guidelines under photography mentioned earlier in this guide. Try to
make your pictures unusual, not just two or three people standing in a line!
• Caption
You then need to caption your photo, using the main points of your press release, i.e. who,
when, what and why. This is essentially one paragraph: “summing up your photo stunt and
telling the story in the picture” and will include your company’s name and the name of
whoever is in your photo.
For example: <<COMPANY>>, based in <<TOWN>> is supporting the Promotional
Products Week, which is taking place from 14th – 18th September 2015. <<NAME OF
WHO IS IN YOUR PHOTO>> is proudly presenting the biggest promotional product we
have ever produced, which is a XXX to the Mayor of XXX.
Last Tip
Good Luck, enjoy generating your own PR and have a successful Promotional Products
Week 2015.
How to find us on Social Media
o Twitter: @PPWeek #PPWeek
o Facebook: www.facebook.com/thebpma
o Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/thebpma
o YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/thebpma