Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York

Pierce Mattie PR client, Equmen, the underwear brand that created the Core Precision Undershirt, one of the first shapewear shirts developed specifically for men, and Precision Underwear, announced that they were traveling to Seattle for a big launch in Nordstrom. To support their launch, the spokespeople at Equmen wanted some local broadcast coverage while they were in the market. 

Now, we realize at times securing news segments can be difficult in this market where the people love everything coffee- and outdoor activity- related. How can we spin a store launch into something interesting enough that our phone will be ringing off the hook with news producers begging to book a segment with the brand’s spokesperson? 

First things first, we always start by building a strong media list that includes segment producers and guest contacts for appropriate shows. Next, we send out all of our media alerts via fax (yes we still use fax) and email and wait for the shows to contact our fashion dept. about booking a segment. We wish it was that easy, after a few days of no response and the client requesting a media update, we had to revert back to PR 101.

Smile and Dial J

So, we had to call every station in Seattle to nail down any producer who would listen to us pitch for more than 30 seconds. When a producer would tell us no, we then had to change our voice and call back 30 minutes later. We called every other day, until someone was willing to book our client. Persistence is key.

Mail and Prevail

For the stubborn producers who didn’t respond to our fax, email, or multiple phone messages, we decided to ship some of the products to the station to create some urgency in booking. 

Regroup and Research

If the response is not going as expected go to plan B. We reverted back to what a librarian taught us about researching and found every fashion, men’s interested blogger, writer, and radio talk show who published material in the last four weeks. Thank you ProQuest. This all combined with having authentic relationships that have spanned over the last decade with several segment producers in various parts of the country combined with the right contacts- made this happen. In all, the fashion team spent approximately 15 hours that week trying to secure segments. All of these tactics resulted in five minute segments on Q13 FOX News in the Morning, New Day North West (NBC) and a CBS radio segment on KIRO-FM.

Bottom line - have fun, don't stop pitching and most importantly win!!!