After pitching a particular topic for X weeks, months or even years, PR professionals can start to feel as though they’ve reached an unavoidable road block. You’ve hit every outlet under the subject’s umbrella, pitched every relevant contact with every reasonable angle you can come up with – and now finding a new, creative direction feels like squeezing water from a rock. It happens to the best of us.
In these situations, I find great value in brainstorming with colleagues (especially those not directly on my accounts). I’m regularly amazed by the gems of ideas that can come from people meeting to think out loud. Bouncing half-baked ideas around helps me to avoid the tracks of my day-to-day approach and map out new strategies.
Then there’s something to be said about wandering off the normal path entirely – it could be a little dicey, but it could also lead you to a great, unexpected place. I took a cue from Matt Armendariz this weekend, a food photographer, esteemed blogger, and amazing self-promoter. Through no help of any PR folk, he wound up as the front man on the West Elm blog last week. Though Matt’s subject matter is far from impossible to pitch, this placement represented a brilliant realm of outlets I hadn’t yet thought to explore – retailer blogs.
- What are some of the ways you get out of your own head when pitching?
- Do you have an example of an “aha” moment, when you suddenly came up with a new, creative direction?