Among some of the useful tools PR professionals use to identify media opportunities for clients are services such as ProfNet and Help a Reporter Out (HARO). For those who aren’t familiar with these services, they are online resources that connect reporters quickly and easily with expert sources. Throughout the day they send us alerts on articles that reporters are working on and what type of experts they are looking to speak with. We sift through these to see if there are any opportunities for our clients to gain exposure on a particular topic.
One of Articulate’s trademarks is our ability to think creatively in terms of how to get clients included in articles that may not be directly relevant to their areas of focus, but are still great ways to raise awareness for them. This approach often leads us to some odd requests from reporters that always give us a good laugh.
For the past month, we’ve had an ongoing contest in the office to see who can find the strangest request each week. We’ve decided to share a few of these requests every so often on this blog so our readers can share in the entertainment (and just to note, none of our clients were pitched for these stories!):
• Aug. 3: “A popular youth-oriented male magazine wishes to find out if it would be possible for a human being to survive inside a whale for a significant amount of time. Experts needed.”
• Aug. 5: “A daily New York paper is working on an article about the ongoing saga of Jon and Kate Gosselin, and Jon’s penchant for acquiring new girlfriends with ease. I am writing a piece on how is it that Jon is such a lothario. His demeanor? His looks? This piece is not so much on why, but how he’s a lothario. I would love to speak with psychologists or any other expert who could address this with me.”
• Aug. 20: “A national magazine for luxury-minded pet parents, seeks recipes for dogs from notable chefs around the country – people who usually do not cater to dogs. With each recipe we’d also like a professional-quality, hi-resolution shot of the chef with his or her own dog, a brief chef bio and a one-sentence summary of the recipe.”
By Jonathan Klein