Keeping your product launch on the media timeline

published 2002

Media exposure for a new product just doesn’t happen, it requires considerable planning and a deep understanding of just what each of the various media need and when they need it.

The Media Timeline chart below is a blueprint in planning media activities to help you gain the best coverage possible.  Your job is to make it as easy as possible for the media to give you exposure. 

Media timeline chart

The more you respect their deadlines, the more likely you are to gain coverage.

Magazines

We all know that magazines can have long deadlines, especially for products that may fall into a ‘seasonal’ feature.   That’s why you may need to do considerable research into not just which magazines will best reach your target market, but which of these magazines might be planning a feature that could suit your particular product and its launch date.

You will need to place stories with your selected magazines up to three-four months prior to your launch date.  This may require dummy packaging be produced for any photographs you wish to send with your release.

Television

Does your product suit placement in one of the many lifestyle programs on television?  If so, then you’ll have to be contacting the producers of these programs two to three months in advance to negotiate any coverage.

Where print media is quite descriptive, television is very demonstrable, so think about how your product can be best demonstrated, and by whom.

Newspapers

Whilst most newspapers are daily, many of their regular feature inserts and supplements are weekly or colour supplements.  If your new product falls into a feature category, you should be pitching for inclusion around one-two months in advance.

Apart from linking your product to the food, fashion, IT or lifestyle inserts, consider linking it to a current issue.  Again, this requires time to pitch to the applicable editors or journalists.

Radio

Radio stations are well versed at running promotions for new products.  But it’s a very competitive area - with far more products wanting promotions than the available airtime.  Therefore, start your negotiations anything up to 1 month before your launch day.

Also, because of radio’s immediacy, you may also try to have something happening live on the day that will bring excitement to your launch.  This too takes time to organise with radio stations.

Web Site

There is a growing number of web sites around today that could well be useful for your product launch.  Pitch to have stories placed on them or, at the very least, try to have your new product listed on them.

Specialist areas for suitable web sites include health, food, hospitality, gender and lifestyle.

Note: The author of this article - Grant Common - is a Sydney-based independent advisor who works with PR Managers to help them get the best out of their PR Department and/or PR agency. Grant also blogs regularly on PR topics.