PR practitioners should revise the old real estate expression about the three things that matter in property: “location, location, location” to three things that matter in public relations: “timing, timing, timing.”
As seen in a recent article in PR News, St. Baldrick’s Foundation used its relationship with its agency partner, FleishmanHillard, to pitch a targeted story that ended up landing the organization on NBC’s The Today Show.
Knowing St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s message would resonate better on television than print, FH targeted their message accordingly. In FH’s research, it found out “The Today Show” was doing a week-long segment in which people were trying to break Guinness World Records. Subsequently, FH developed a pitch in which St. Baldrick’s would try to attempt to break the record for the most heads shaved in an hour, being broadcast live on TV.
The segment was extremely successful, earning more than 20 million media impressions and raising almost $36,000 for the foundation.
St. Baldrick’s pitch to “The Today Show” was the right idea at the right time. This is just one example of how timing is extremely important in this industry. If you get it right, you can reap many benefits.