What you need before you start PR

When hiring a publicist, they will need a few materials and things from you to get started and do their job representing you and securing editorial placements.

Photo credit: Photo by Efe Kurnaz on Unsplash

Yes, part of publicity can be about creating something to talk about... but to be able to place a story, a PR often needs to know something interesting to talk about and take notice of! Every PR needs things from their client or boss.

Something new to talk about

“You have to plan for PR months in advance before coverage magically appears within the media."

When engaging a PR, you need something new to talk about, whether it's a new book, song, App, business, or anything really. If your film launched a year ago, then the time has passed for PR promotion.

You want to hire a publicist before you launch!! They need to be part of the strategizing and building up things in the shadows before they come to light on TV, online, in print, and many other places.

It is best to think about PR too early than too late in your business plan!

Photos

You will need photos for your PR campaign!! The better the photos, the more it increases the favorability of getting the image featured in media... possibly many times.

You don't necessarily need these available before hiring a PR person, as the PR can help you by recommending photographers, managing photoshoots, and providing guidance and direction. They can even help you find hair and make-up artists and stylists. Just make sure you allow an additional few weeks to a month (or more) before starting the PR campaign, as your PR person WILL need images for the media to use.

Other images your PR person will need are approved stills from films, music clips, product images, and book cover images. Essentially, anything you want to promote needs a selection of images!

A PR has an abundance of contacts in various industries, so they may be able to help you find the person you need to connect with to create imagery in many forms. Think all things creative and in the public eye... many PRs are behind the many things you see.

Biography

“Allow plenty of time to prepare materials for the media."

Again, while you don't need a final version of your biography, it would be good to at least have dot points about yourself and what makes you and your project/business unique. If writing isn't your thing, that's ok as the PR person can write your biography, about, company descriptions, and any copy that needs to be written. Writing is a BIG part of what a PR person does. However, to do this, the client must first provide the PR information or point them in a direction to find (for example, IMDb, articles, personal websites, synopsis, loglines, descriptions, etc).

The biography is important as it helps the media prepare for their interview, extract information to include in their article, as well as demonstrate how you are interesting and unique.

A link to something to watch, listen to, read

When people approach me about their project, I need to be able to experience it myself. It's part of the creative PR storytelling process and is vital. So make sure that the trailer, film, book, song, etc, is ready. The PR is representing your creative work or company. The more we know and understand you, the better we can represent you.