A glimpse inside a marketing campaign

As we get things ready for the big Super Librarian comic book launch on May 5 I thought I’d share some steps as we go along. This week we are creating the pieces for the press packets. Because this is a statewide event and has many stories that we want to pitch to the press, our packet will be bit larger than those you might be doing. The general guideline is that your packet should contain the information that will interest your editor or reports and provide enough information to begin the story with the contact information and links that will help to finish it.

I’m a huge advocate of including your marketing team on the creation committees anytime you put together a big event because that way the entire project can be tweaked as it develops and will usually give a program that is more appealing to your audience and places you in a better position to obtain media coverage.

This project is a perfect example of that. Since this is a marketing campaign we were able to look at our media markets and develop two of the main programs based where were thought we might be able to attract different major media outlets- one out of Philadelphia and one out of New York. We also have 200 programs statewide that we want to promote and hook into other major media- radio, TV or newspapers.

We met for a brainstorming session where “every idea was worth listening to” to get the ideas out on the table. Looking over our participants we all agree that we have a strong showing and decide on several “spins” so we’ll create a main press release that gives an overview of the campaign while generating excitement and then will include other sheets to talk about the other spins.

In all, we have decided on the following to include in the packet:
1. Main release- overview and excitement generator
2. Bios about the creators, which include two librarians as authors, a teen who wrote the back-story and a graphic designer who works for the ad agency that developed the original idea. We decide on the spin for each creator and play out different interactions that a reporter might take to make for a feature.
3. Photo- op requests for the main events – three, one for each event. (We’ll also include a blank template in our packet to the individual libraries so they can send it out to their local press.)
4. A backgrounder that will tell the story of the campaign’s beginning.
5. A buzz sheet with quotes from disinterested parties extolling the role libraries play in supporting communities in meeting teen needs and how fantastic the comic book is for kids, etc…

We then talked about how we w the packets to look. Then I designed templates for all the pieces so that they’ll look attractive and polished for the folder. Each piece will have a specific color border labeled with the heading on the top and the pieces will fit in layers so the reporters will be able to see each topics at a quick glance. The way we’ll do that is by creating a line on the bottom of each piece in half inch increments and then cut accordingly.
In addition, this campaign had some really great graphics so I pumped them up and used the oversized images for an incredible look. We’l just use plain white two pocket folders from Staples but will attach the comics to the outside, again to generate interest and give an appealing look.

We’ll make up the packets and mail them out, then follow up with phone calls to specific reporters that we’ve decided could give us good coverage. We will also take them on our visits to editors and reporters and will have them on hand the day of the event. Next, Ill talk about how we prepare to visit the TV stations.