Pitch the content—not newness—of a blog

PR firm builds a “new blog” PR campaign around an Elvis video and clever content, not the launch itself

No pitch may generate more of a yawn these days than, “We’ve got a new blog!” Maybe that was hot news in 2004, but this year, it’s news if you don’t have a blog. Does this mean you should reel in the pitches when your organization is in blog-launch mode?

The successful tactic is to pitch the content and not the newness of the blog, according to Primum Marketing Communications in Milwaukee. Mark Treichel, PR specialist at Primum, was charged late last year with getting the word about new blogs from Manpower Inc., the major staffing company, also based in Milwaukee. Here’s how Primum made the media listen to the blog news.

Background: As part of a thought-leadership initiative, Manpower developed a microsite for its popular annual 10 Hardest Jobs to Fill survey, along with a microsite about the company’s advice and counsel on managing an aging work force. The next step was to create blogs that would build on the good buzz around the microsites.