Here’s how we put our clients on the podium
This year we’re experiencing a summer of sports galore. Last month we saw the European Football Championship grace our screens, Wimbledon made its annual comeback in July, and now we are one week into the 2024 Paris Olympics.
I’m not much of a football or tennis buff, but I am a fond fan of the broad canvas of talent going for gold in the Olympics. So, for our latest PR roundup, let’s see how the Olympics drive to win has inspired our PR activity this month.
Championing our clients’ success globally
The power of the press release lives on! In fact, nearly three in four journalists claim that press releases are the top content they like to receive from PR pros!
We strongly believe that placing press releases with our top-tier industry media is one of the most effective ways to grow a company’s brand – it conveys business success, industry success and solution success. If we deliver relevant content to the right audience at the right time, we gain quality earned media placements.
So, when our Aerospace and Defense client announced a new acquisition, our Pitch and Place team were fast out of the starting blocks! Our pitching efforts resulted in 26 placements in industry media outlets across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East – with a whopping UVPM of over 1.1 million!
Content lifecycle is a marathon, not a sprint
Much like Tom Pidcock, the Olympic cyclist who suffered a tire puncture mid-race and still went on to win Gold for a stellar Mountain Biking performance, we’re never ones to prematurely blow the full time whistle. It’s all about perseverance to squeeze as much value out of a campaign as possible!
So, when a journalist from a brand-new publication reached out to request content from our client for their inaugural issue, our editorial team didn’t hesitate to select an existing article from a previous campaign to update and refine for this publication.
That’s not all! A second journalist who previously requested content from the same client for another brand-new publication liked the content so much, that they asked for more! We tapped into the publication’s niche and selected another existing article in our archives to update and refine for publication.
This is a textbook example of using classic content to our advantage! With a few minor tweaks and updated stats, our content was ready to send to each journalist, and published within days of submission!
Fail to prepare, and prepare to fail
These summer months are well known in the world of PR and Marketing as the ‘silly season.’ Busy journalists and our clients enjoy a well-deserved summer break but that doesn’t mean we down tools! Last year we shared how we use this time of year to prepare for success by ‘leaning into the lull’ – think keeping up with PR metrics, conducting research, and keeping track of new emerging themes.
Much like Olympians with their extensive training regimes, our preparation paid off! Our themes research spotted a new trend for our Data Movement client in the convergence of AI and IoT in retail. We wasted no time in arranging a briefing call with our client’s SME, putting fingers to keyboard to draft an article, and then pitching out to our top-tier technology and retail publications. The proof is in the top scoring success with10 placements across the North America, DACH and Benelux regions. Who said this was the silly season?
A summer of sporting glory
Aside from The Olympics, the IBA Team has also enjoyed our annual Founder’s Day at Newmarket Racecourse to celebrate 58 years of IBA.
We had no big wins on the day – we’ll leave the big wins to our clients!
Caitlin Goldsmith is PR Executive at IBA International
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