The Situation: CB&A’s client partnered with an international news organization to offer new higher education courses, and looked to gain visibility for the launch of its endeavor. The client’s goal was to attract media attention, especially in higher education trade outlets, and create an opportunity for future earned media placements.
The Results: Through formidable relationships with the media, CB&A sparked strong interest in its client’s new endeavor. Meticulous pre-planning enabled the CB&A team to deploy its media relations strategy quickly and secure same-day coverage, in addition to longer-form feature coverage throughout the following weeks.
Strategy & Media Outreach:
Maintaining strong rapport with writers at education publications was important to CB&A’s approach. Communication with key reporters and editors began long before the launch of this particular campaign, with some professional relationships being years in the making. Longstanding familiarity is integral when conducting high-profile, high-stakes media relations outreach.
To maximize opportunities for immediate coverage of the news, CB&A established a media relations schedule comprised of exclusive and “sneak peek” pitches. Due to the prominence of organizations involved with the initiative, the typical two- to three-day window for advance media pitching was condensed to less than 30 minutes on the day the news broke. CB&A mobilized its media relations plan swiftly, pitching top targets successfully via phone, email and social media. In less than an hour, CB&A began scheduling media interviews with all of the client’s most sought-after media outlets.
National education trade placements included:
- The Chronicle of Higher Education
- EdSurge
- Education Dive
- Education Week’s Marketplace K-12
- Inside Higher Ed
- University Business
Outcomes:
The campaign netted more than 30 article placements in a wide range of U.S. news outlets. Earned media coverage produced more than 12 million impressions and reached over 5.5 million people. Throughout the campaign, CB&A relied on its strong network to reach client visibility goals. In cases of a sensitive time crunch, these tactics proved to be beneficial for the client and the CB&A team.