Pitches that worked and why

One of the things we do quite often on this blog is call out PR pros who send us dodgy press releases or daft pitches.

So today I thought it might be interesting to take a different tack, and look at a pitch I received that was successful. This was a cold pitch from a PR contact, which led to this story in the Guardian. The story was also covered by the BBC, the Telegraph and Independent.

It helps that it was a fantastic story, but there are several things this PR got right when she pitched:

• She pitched a story not a press release
• It includes a weblink for the client, not reams of background
• There's a brief overview of why this is different to what’s out there
• The PR included the detail as bullet points, which are easy to scan

Hi Sally,

The smallest economy in the world, comprising of three tropical coral atolls in the South Pacific Ocean, Tokelau has few physical links with the wider world. There is no airport, no port, no roads and it takes more than two days and two nights to travel to its neighbour, Samoa.  Yet this country is being transformed by web 2.0, and choosing to partner with Dot TK (www.dot.tk).   

Dot TK, the only company that offers free domain names to users of social networks, weblogs and auction sites is an example of the altruistic spirit that web 2.0 enables.  For every registration, Dot TK provides revenue to the islands of Tokelau who own the .TK extension.  The royalty fees already represent >10% GDP of Tokelau and is radically changing their lives. There are currently more than 1.6 million active users registering with Dot TK, and the number of UK users is climbing every month.   

Dot TK would like to invite you to a lunch briefing where you will:

• Meet with the ministers of Tokelau to understand how Dot TK has revolutionised the lives of the islanders, including bringing them access to computers and the internet for the first time

Learn how: 

• UK citizens can transform the lives of those in Tokelau at no cost to themselves
• Long complicated web addresses can be renamed to a short meaningful .TK name of their choice, making sites easier to find and ensuring links work when distributed in small form factors such as blackberries or phones
• Advertisers and developers can use new value-added web 2.0 applications