A distribution of Christmas gifts to San Diego’s needy families. A youth concert in a small town in Florida featuring contemporary Christian artists. A pastor moving his family to a new church in Richmond, Virginia. With the creative twist of a new angle, each of these ordinary events made extraordinary headlines.
The art of publicity is the flair that is needed to develop a good story and create a plan to get your story into the media. The art is what separates your story from everything else that could be potential news and makes it an exceptional story because it is interesting, entertaining or informative.
The main thing media are going to be looking for in a news story is a good angle. This is the time to be creative! While it is essential that you include all of the facts in your publicity information, you also want to create an angle that will interest the media.
Your angle can be anything from a celebrity or well-known person attending your event to an interesting story about someone in your community. A local angle is generally most effective if it is a community event unless there is a well-known person who the media will be excited about.
Effective and creative angles to consider include:
- A tie-in with local or national news
- A large number of people attending an event
- Raising money for a good cause or assisting people in your community
- A human interest story about someone on your staff or in your community
- The launch of a new product, ministry or department
Remember to ask: What makes my story unique? And then capitalize on that unusual angle.
The stories in the first paragraph were featured on television and made headlines in their local newspapers, because they had creative approaches to their ordinary topics. The ministry that distributed Christmas gifts to needy families let the media know that thousands of families and their children would be lined up almost all day waiting to receive gifts. The San Diego newspaper and television stations came early to interview these families, because it was a touching feature story for their audiences.
Right before the youth concert took place in Florida, the White House released a statement about cleaning up entertainment. The publicity team used this current news story to show their concert as a clean entertainment alternative, and it quickly became a major local news story. And the local pastor who simply moved in? He and his church received a human interest feature because of the teamwork the church members used to help he and his large family move in and adjust to a new community.