Public Relations Primer
Making Your Invitation Stand Out
You may greatly increase your chances of enticing visiting media by packaging with nearby localities, attractions, accommodations, etc., to create a tour that offers a variety of options. Writers and broadcasters, especially the best ones, receive many tour invitations. One international journalist who visited Virginia recently received 300 invitations in one year. The more interesting your pitch and the more it meets the needs of the journalist's audience, the more likely it will be accepted. Consider working together to create a unique tour that will stand out from all those other invitations.
Some publications, such as Southern Living, produce multiple articles from one media tour. For example, it may appear to readers that the writer made a special visit to the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, then returned for George Washington's Birthnight Ball at Gadsby's Tavern. In reality, the writer probably spent two or three days in the Alexandria area, explored several attractions, ate at several restaurants, perhaps took in an annual event or two. Then a single attraction, event, hotel, and/or restaurant can be featured in a different article over the course of several months. An article about a special event might appear a year after the writer attended the event as part of a two- or three-day tour.