I know, it seems as though 2020 has been on standstill for the past three months – how  dare I mention the C word now!

 But the truth is  if you’re a product based business and hope to secure media coverage to boost festive sales, now really is the time to start thinking about PR because Christmas is in July for many journalists.  If you don’t believe me check out this event – http://christmasinjuly.co. It provides a  great opportunity to meet a  huge range of journalists under one roof and it’s happening in September this year because of the current pandemic.

“…now’s the time to do your research: think about the titles you’d like your product to be featured in; follow the journalists who write within your sector…“

Aside from the event, you can still start thinking about which key titles you would love your product to be featured in. Lead times (deadlines) vary within titles. It’s likely magazines which are less frequently published, say every quarter and monthlies, will be putting their Christmas editions to bed at some point over the summer.  For weekly titles this might be early autumn.

Either way, now’s the time to do your research: think about the titles you’d like your product to be featured in; follow the journalists that write within your sector (both in-house and freelance); and most importantly prepare samples of your Christmas range and be willing to send these to the right journalists (you can loan more expensive items).

It’s worth saying with all that’s going on, it’s likely this will work differently this year. With journalists on furlough and editorial budgets slashed, magazines may take a different approach.

If you’d like to book an hour’s chat where we can look at the best way to maximise opportunities such as this,  please do get in touch.