Get media attention for your adventure travel business/destination
With the Adventure Travel World Summit arriving in Anchorage on Sept. 19, Thompson & Co. has been gearing up alongside several of our clients. Here are just a few ways we’ve helped them earn media attention recently.
Always lead with what’s new. This may seem like a no brainer, but it’s one we can’t stress enough. Give the headline first (i.e. what’s new) and then tell a journalist what your company is all about.Thompson & Co. pitched luxury travel operator Ker & Downey’s new custom Cuba itineraries to media in a short email with a press release included for details. There’s no space for talking about the company’s history and all the other places they send travelers. Short-and-to-the-point pitches told media that Ker & Downey was offering travelers a new way to experience Cuba – private, non-group trips. Our pitches landed Ker & Downey several stories in publications like TravelWeekly, Departures.com, Bloomberg Pursuits and The Peak Hong Kong. On only a small project budget, Ker & Downey earned more than $30,000 in ad-equivalency media value and reached more than 108 million people.
Ask about partnerships. When we set up an editor briefing for our client Bicycle Adventures with an editor at SELF, we went in armed with story ideas for her. The idea of giving away one of Bicycle Adventures’ vacations to readers came up briefly at the end, but we are certainly glad we pursued it! The magazine promoted the trip giveaway in its print edition, on its website, in weekly emails and on social media for a full month. Bicycle Adventures’ trip not only reached nearly 4 million readers, but the company also received all entrants’ emails = thousands of new prospective clients.
It’s all about the relationships. Our New York VP met a young travel editor nearly eight years ago. The editor bounced between a few magazines and eventually went freelance, but we’ve kept in touch through it all and pitched her every tourism client on our roster that seemed like a match. It’s not hard to make friends with a journalist if you share the same passion — and journalists trust their friends! No matter who this journalist has been writing for — Afar, Departures, The Knot — we’ve had a story idea for her, and our clients have benefitted. Now multiply this by hundreds of editors and writers, and you’ve got the key to PR success.
