As the U.S. election approaches, PR professionals face a dilemma: surrender to a sea of politically-dominated coverage or navigate onward and continue pitching media?
Don’t assume pitching this time of year is an automatic “no.” With strategic timing and a focus on non-partisan pitches, PR pros can successfully sail through this season without sacrificing coverage goals.
“Every two years, I’m asked this question from a position of presumed failure,” PR coach Michael Smart says. “Often it's not even a question—it’s a statement…you know, they'll only be covering the election.” Don’t be defeatist. Regardless of a major election, most PR pros have expectations from their employers or clients to land coverage. Plus, the majority of communicators are not representing policy or issues that would relate to partisan politics.
On the media side, freelance journalist Aly Walansky confirms she’s open to pitches and will be continuing work as usual. “Life keeps happening… the pandemic, hurricanes, wars, terrorism. It's all important and it's all scary and we should all pay attention,” she says. “But at the end of the day, we still have to do our jobs and meet our deadlines, and that requires PR pros pitching and journalists reading those pitches. The election will be no different.”
Keeping this in mind, here are a few tips to help you continue your media relations efforts:
1. Recognize specific limitations
As with anything in media relations, it all comes down to doing your homework and being smart with who you pitch.
- If you're trying to pitch local TV in one of the swing states where the candidates are often visiting, the news hole is significantly smaller.
- If you're trying to pitch a national news desk political-leaning reporter, you may have a more limited opportunity.
2. Capitalize without being partisan
Does your brand have a natural tie-in to the election without taking sides? “If you can use the election to make your issue or company or service timely in a nonpartisan way, it's an asset,” Smart says.
For example: A software for expatriates to do their taxes conducted a survey that found that 60% of expats are considering trading in the right to vote so they don't have to pay US taxes. “It's not tax season, but they found a way to make it timely by tying it to the election without the risk that none of us want to take on about picking a side,” Smart says.
3. Timing is everything
What about pitching the day of the election or the day after? It doesn’t hurt to pause pitching, but it’s definitely not mandatory.
However, be careful when it comes to campaign launches or announcements. Smart advises to hold product launch announcements the week of the election, but through Halloween and around 10 days after the election should be safe.
You can always pull plans back, but you can’t always ramp things up if the media agenda ends up being more open than you initially planned.
4. Consider where you’re pitching
PR pros may have more luck with specific types of media outlets over others during the busy election season.
Consider the trades: “They may not have the luxury of not producing content for a day, so maybe that day would actually be better to pitch, because there'd be less competition,” Smart suggests.
In short, keep pitching—smartly
Don’t let the election slow pitching efforts. Not everyone is covering politics, and in fact, the public may be craving non-political news. Get creative—look for opportunities to pitch in a sensitive way, instead of assuming you’ll need to shut down for the next three weeks.
Linda Zebian is Senior Director of Communications at Muck Rack.