With triple-hit placements, continuing AI hype, and race winnings under our belts, let’s put an end to the silly season in journalism and PR!
July is a well anticipated and talked about month in the IBA office, not because it’s the beginning of a phenomenon known as the ‘silly season’ in journalism and PR, but because it sees the team return to the Newmarket July Races for our annual Founder’s Day Celebrations. As a Newmarket first-timer, it definitely did not disappoint – even though the weather was against us, the bookies definitely were not! Myself and fellow first-timer Tom came away with winnings in our back pocket – some would say beginner’s luck, I call it skill! The less said about the rest of the team and the office pot the better!
But it’s time for me to get off my high horse (sigh!), as the IBA office has been abuzz with pitch and place activities for our clients. Journalists have returned for another bite at the reshoring cherry and the team secured triple placement for two articles in top aerospace & defense publications, demonstrating the shelf life of good content. Who said we’re entering the silly season for journalists and PR & Marketing?
The world might have recognized PR’s hard work this month with world PR Day on July 16th, but I say every day is a memorable PR Day at IBA!
Bringing it all back home
A long content lifecycle is a true sign of a well-thought-out campaign as it’s important to remember that placements don’t tend to come instantly in the PR world. When journalists make the effort to come back to original pitches saying they will keep it on file for future use it’s not a pass off, so don’t be disheartened. Months may pass but we find journalists do come back to request a comment or article from our client’s subject matter expert when the topic comes back around in the news cycle. We’ve talked about this before but it can also be a true sign of your campaign and subject matter expert (SME) being accepted as a trusty front runner by industry journalists.
This was exactly the case for our enterprise software client, with their comment style reshoring piece. We originally pitched this out towards the beginning of 2023 and gained some initial industry coverage – but our coverage roll didn’t stop there! Fast forward a few months and this topic remains hot in the industry news cycle and two journalists have reached out for our client’s subject matter expert’s opinion. One top IT publication and one leading title in the process manufacturing space – and both resulted in timely interview opportunities for our client’s SME!
The trifecta of article placements
What’s better than getting one placement for an article? How about placing the same article in different formats three times in one publication? A manufacturing systems article by our aerospace & defense client secured its place as the cover story of a major manufacturing industry magazine – but the good news didn’t end there. Later the same day, we saw the online version of the article go live on the publication’s website and our client’s article was also the top story in the corresponding email newsletter.
The placement hattrick didn’t end there – it happened again a couple of weeks later! This time the client’s customer case study with a leading airline in an Aircraft Maintenance, Repair, and Operations focused publication.
What’s more, both articles had significant follow-on traction across social media. And that wasn’t just limited to the client’s own channels. The article was shared by the publications themselves on their social channels, and we were able to submit posts on our client’s employee advocacy board for all employees to further share the placements on their personal social media channels too.
I’m learning that this is achieved by judgement, not by luck!
The race doesn’t stop for IBA despite ‘silly season’ being underway
As my colleague Georgia mentioned in last month’s blog, we are now entering the well-known “silly season” or the summer lull of action in the journalistic, PR and Marketing worlds. Despite our fellow PR and Marketing pros slowing down as people take summer breaks, the action can’t stop at IBA, with plenty of monitoring items already secured for the coming months as journalists trickle back in from their well-deserved vacations.
I mentioned earlier that this month saw World PR Day on July 16, but coincidently it was also Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day, which focuses on the possibilities of a more evolved future for many industries with AI’s offerings. AI is no doubt a hot topic in many industries especially for B2B and B2C organizations – and here at IBA we definitely received the memo! Our CEO, Judith Ingleton-Beer, has secured six placements and over twenty three shares across social media so far for her insightful AI thought leadership piece – with more to monitor over the next few months. A case of the IBA team really practising what we preach!
With all this talk of coverage monitoring, I better get back to being on the lookout for these placements rolling in, so watch this space!
Sam Walker is PR Executive at IBA International.
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