Pitching

Work today was kind of quiet at first, but come noon, things started to really pick up. We're working on pitching a client right now to a variety of media outlets. The client is Life Technologies and they do biomedical research including personalized medicine and gene therapy. We are working on pitching two stories. The first offering a meeting with the VP of communications or the CEO of the company. This would feature what is happening currently with Life Technologies and the announcements they are voicing in the next couple weeks. The other is a meeting with their VP of marketing who was named businesswoman of the year in 2009. This would be a feature focusing on the VP and her accomplishments as a woman in the workplace and being involved in the expansion of Life Technologies. Anyways, they put me on using Vocus to look up potential reporters, editors and producers we could pitch to. It's harder than it looks, but apparently I have a good eye for it.

For all of you future PR professionals, media pitching isn't as easy as it seems. You frequently get hung up on and cussed at by reporters for bothering them at the most inconvenient times. Don't get down about it, someone out there will want to talk to you, trust me. Just keep trying!

In the midst of all this joy, I was asked to write a press release. Kill me. I botched it up the yin yang. I didn't know what I was saying, but I think she just appreciated the fact that I put a lot of effort into drafting it for her - in a half hour, mind you. Thank you all my professors for teaching me how to write well! Even though it wasn't that great...