We’ll get lucky.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, we then use that lucky hit to justify the future use of the tactic…<\/p>\n
That’s exactly what happened last week with Log Cabin’s announcement that it was replacing high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) with sugar in its syrup line. The outreach was a fairly generic one-line email<\/a> with an attached press release. Pretty unremarkable, and most bloggers who got it probably read and deleted the email pretty quickly.<\/p>\n But they got lucky.<\/p>\n Against all odds, the release caught Mom-101’s attention<\/a>. Did they know she’d written about HFCS in January? Possibly, but it wasn’t mentioned in the pitch. Was the list targeted? Possibly, but other high-profile moms who had also written about HFCS didn’t get the pitch.<\/p>\n With this result — a great post in a top parent blog — the folks over at Log Cabin may not realize that they just got lucky<\/em>. The release was relevant and Mom-101 was paying attention. As she noted in her post, she had just warned a group of marketers that HFCS was going to be the next big issue for the consumer product companies.<\/p>\n I don’t want to pick on Log Cabin. I think that removing HFCS from their products is a very good thing, although I have to admit a preference for actual maple syrup as opposed to maple tasting syrup. I just wish they had done a better job in positioning the issue for parents in their pitch, rather than relying on the bloggers to make the connection. <\/em>To find the relevance.<\/p>\n A great hit obscures the core problem with mass, generic outreach. It doesn’t foster long-term relationships. It’s like the guy lookin’ for love at the local pick-up bar. Eventually someone will say yes.<\/p>\n He’ll get lucky.<\/p>\n Doesn’t mean a thing.<\/p>\n As I’ve said before, one person’s spam is another’s breakfast.<\/em> But… it’s still spam. <\/strong><\/p>\n —<\/strong><\/p>\n Now I promised you some good pitches. I’ve got two for you today.<\/p>\n First a pitch for Netflix from Edelman Digital<\/a>. This pitch works because:<\/p>\n Second, this St. Patrick’s Day pitch from Coinstar<\/a>. I usually don’t like holiday pitches. They generally don’t work. This is the rare exception. Why?<\/p>\n The only thing I would have done differently? The Twitter account<\/a> has gone a bit silent, and I would have liked to see it continue to follow, and respond, to people that followed it on Saint Paddy’s Day. It now seems to be doing some sort of promo with the HARO Report, a good thing, but still, more engagement with the community would be good.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n\n
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