HAVE you ever heard the saying ‘another bite of the cherry’?
The idiom – as explained by the Cambridge Dictionary – means another opportunity to do something. In PR terms, that means finding many ways to tell your story (is there an awareness day that you can ‘hook’ your story on or something making headlines that you can relate to?).
It also means encouraging clients to maximise coverage for their news by sharing across social media platforms, ensuring that they get not one but multiple bites of the cherry.
This week is World Autism Acceptance Week. In fact, the whole month is dedicated to raising awareness of autism and promoting inclusiveness.
And one of our most successful campaigns of 2024 has been sharing the news of young inventor Max Palfrey; an 11-year-old schoolboy who has created a t-shirt to help others who, like him, have sensory issues.
Max is autistic with Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He also has issues with sensory processing and hypermobility.
Max and his dad, Matt, first came to Penguin PR HQ last year to share their story. The timing wasn’t quite right, though; the UK and European patent for the ‘Fidget-T’ was still pending and the company – Comfa – didn’t have a fully functional website.
It was a great story, but we had to ensure that everything was in hand and, if there was a surge in demand for the ‘Fidget-T’, that the budding entrepreneur could cope.
We waited and made sure that Max and Matt were fully briefed, that the press release was approved, and we had pictures to submit along with the press release. We would run the initial story once the website was ‘live’ and, once the patent was approved, there would be another chance to share their incredible tale.
Their story attracted lots of media attention both locally and nationally.
An appearance on the Huff Post website – together with a much-valued backlink – saw an increase in visitors to the Comfa website, with several orders placed. Result.
There was the opportunity, again, once the UK and European patent for the ‘Fidget-T’ was finally approved and we REALLY maximised this by booking Max and Matt to appear on ITV’s flagship programme This Morning where host Paddy McGuinness agreed to purchase t-shirts for his children.
We took pictures of the TV presenter modelling the ‘Fidget-T’ and maxed this story by sharing it across our social media channels. Again, this resulted in more media attention locally and nationally with Max also featuring in leading children’s news newspaper, First News.
A successful PR campaign is always a two-way process, and getting the client to also share coverage on their social media platforms is essential. If a story is worth telling, then it’s important to find more interesting ways to tell it and to get creative with the use of pictures, videos and words.
World Autism Acceptance Week – created to highlight the discrimination and barriers that autistic people face across all sectors of society – is, for Max, the perfect time to share his story again.
This week we’ll be thinking how to make the story work far beyond the traditional media by repurposing words on social media like LinkedIn, X and Facebook, in our monthly email newsletter to clients and in this blog…
If your business, charity or organisation could use this kind of valuable exposure, get in touch!
This blog was written and shared by Kerry Ganly. Do you want to find out more about how a blog can help your business? Find out how we can help by getting in touch.
