So long 2020, get outta here! As we welcome a new year, inevitably businesses are looking towards the future and planning their marketing and PR activities for the year to come.
When it comes to investing in PR, there is no hard and fast rule regarding the best time for your business, but there are key dates and times to look out for that you can leverage throughout the year. While everyone’s messaging is going to be more relevant at different times, learning how to plan out your PR activities, budget wisely and pivot for reactive opportunities will help keep your brand front of mind, all year long.
Planning is essential
In order for us to achieve the best possible results for your brand, it’s important we have plenty of notice and time to plan. There are so many moving parts in the delivery of a campaign, from the initial creative stages, to pre-recording Audio News Releases and leaving enough time to pitch in your story to reach your target audience! While we certainly can turn campaigns around in a matter of days (and we do!), to give yourself and your spokespeople enough time to become familiar with the campaign messaging, planning is essential. Give us plenty of notice, but most importantly, give your campaign spokespeople plenty of notice too.
Leverage key dates
There are a number of key dates, times and seasons throughout the year where PR just makes sense. Learning how to leverage these key dates and bring something new to the conversation will allow your brand to cut through the noise and get noticed. Some of these times to plan for might include awareness days/weeks/months, the festive seasons and key business markers such as tax time.
Awareness days or weeks are an excellent hook for businesses to build into their PR campaigns. Whether to raise awareness or promote a product, aligning the campaign to a relevant national event or awareness week paves a path to gain traction in the media. Awareness weeks are especially helpful to leverage for charity organisations, given that their cause often ties in quite closely with the awareness week. Product launches and promotions can also be linked in a similar way as a “solution” or “support”.
Holidays are another great opportunity for businesses to talk to their target audience. Given that the holidays are often the busiest time of the year for sales and consumer engagement, it is a great time for brands from a wide range of industries to invest in PR. A campaign with the right research and spokesperson can take advantage of relevant angles to gain media attention. Also, don’t forget days such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day!
Another time of year that can be an excellent opportunity for sales-oriented businesses to harness PR is the end of financial year. Tax time often sees consumers up their spending, especially with juicy sales in the mix. For businesses launching a new product, the EOFY sales are a fantastic opportunity to get your product in the forefront of consumers minds. Alternatively, events that may be happening around this time of year such as online tax returns and online sales, can be similarly leveraged for businesses in these fields. Charities also take up a huge share of voice during tax time with tax appeals aimed at generating donations. PR can make a great addition to a saavy marketing campaign for NFPs.
Be ready to react
An important element when planning your PR budget for the year is to set aside resources for reactive PR campaigns. When an unexpected event occurs that dominates media coverage, savvy PR professionals (like us!) help your brand become part of the conversation. Reactive PR isn’t about us pitching a developed story into the media, it’s about us pitching you! Positioning you as the talent, voice of reason, expert on the topic, whatever it might be, that will add value to the conversation and give journalists a trusted source to speak to about the current news agenda. Reactive campaigns are turned around super quickly, often within just a few hours and require quick approvals but can inevitably be extremely beneficial for your brand when we play our cards right!
If you’re struggling to map out what your campaign plans might look like in 2021, feel free to give us a call so we can brainstorm together. This year, we’ve delivered a staggering 70 campaigns across Radio Days, projects, full-service campaigns and retainers! We’d love to help you get your brand in front of millions of Aussies and get your voice heard!