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Otion Press Kits

Filed Under: Business Musings


We have spent the last few months preparing to do a local media blitz with Otion press kits. My sister in law, Cheriss, worked for Deutch LA for the last few years. She has a degree in Marketing, is creative and saavy with press. She was quite generous to help out with our press kit blitz.


Each of the press kits contains a letter from the founder, an Otion FAQ sheet, 1 bar of soap, and a full color/full bleed 8 page glossy about Otion. The special feature with the glossy is a perfume vials on each page. The vials are filled to the brim with our best or most unique fragrance oils. Shew Design did the initial design work for the glossy insert, including the genius idea of including the fragrance vials.


All the labels for the soap were done on full-sheet labels. The labels were cut out by hand and painstakingly peeled apart (thanks Cheriss!)

The final kits shipped out yesterday. Next week, I will focus on calling each of the 24 news outlets and ask if they received the press kit. When they respond enthusiastically (fingers crossed), I’ll explore story ideas with them. For example, a family vacation publication would be interested in our soapmaking bar but a magazine focusing primarily on singles would want to focus on fun, exciting date nights. And really, what’s more fun and exciting than making soap?

As the founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK says, the way to get press is just to pick up the phone. The magic phrase, according to Brian Scudamore, is “Hey! I’ve got a great story for you!”

The phrase has been instrumental in getting 1-800-GOT-JUNK lots of free press. Let’s hope that it’s magic for Otion too.

The best soap supplies on the internet are found at Bramble Berry. Click here to browse Bramble Berry.

 

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12 Comments

  1. I love that Michelle and Carrie Gigi totally are helping each other and educating the entire readership of The Soap Queen!

    Thanks ladies! You are both being very good entrepreneur mentors.

    Anne-Marie

  2. Thanks again carrie~gigi. I don’t think your hogging, just helping. All the advice is very much appreciated 🙂

    I picked up the Purple Cow tonight. I can’t wait to read it.

  3. Anne-Marie-Sorry, I don’t mean to “hog” this chat…one more note.

    Michelle~ I am sure you may already have figured this out but…you’d replace “college” lingo for your company, i.e. course title/company name, etc… I am thinking about making one page out of the cover page/contents in package. And think, & rethink PRESENTATION! As Anne-Marie mentioned the “hook”…it is critical in a press release & the press kit.

    Okay-101 Marketing class done. Class dismissed!

  4. Great information for me, thank you both so much. I’ll try and find his book Anne-Marie today when I stop at the book store. Thank you carrie~gigi, that list is very helpful, I’ve copied it for reference 🙂

  5. Just for fun: Back in college here was an assingment: Press Kit- We had to include the following:

    COVER SHEET. Include your name, course title, and date.

    TABLE OF CONTENTS. Include a one-page list of the documents in your folder and the order in which they appear.

    FACT SHEET. Provide facts about e announcement.

    BACKGROUNDER. This can be anything that provides additional relevant but ancillary information that a reporter would find useful.

    PRESS RELEASE. Write one standard news release on the announcement. (300-500 words)

    FEATURE ARTICLE. Write a feature article related to the announcement. (800-1,000 words).

    Anne-Marie~ I like that an “extra” feature was added to your kit.

  6. “Purple Cow” is the one I started with. His books are a super fast read so that makes his wisdom easy to read in a long weekend. He did popularize the idea of permission marketing though I will admit that I’ve not read his treatise on the subject! =)

  7. Thank you carrie~gigi and Anne-Marie for the advice!!
    I just looked up Seth Godin, is the book “permission marketing?”

  8. Press releases can be as simple as an easy fax announcing news or they can be something as complex as you writing the story for the newspaper, letting them do a slight edit and then publish under their byline.

    According to the experts (Seth Godin is one I follow), it’s all about the hook – getting the reporter to really fall in love with your story and pitch it to the editor of their publication.

    Our intro letters gave several story ideas based on the type of publication they were. Hopefully we came up with some good story ideas for them.

    =)

  9. To Michelle~ I am a recent Communication major with an emphasis on Journalism…so I have “dabbled” a bit in the releases & press kit info. The best advice is to say what’s important first, speak in layman’s terms, & just get the word out! And never forget to add your contact information correctly.

    My worst enemy is- I am my own worst editor, & I usually type too darn fast…kind of liking coloring outside the lines I “type-outside the lines…”

    Best to you!

  10. I have so much more to learn about “press releases.” I read about it for the first time in CTD. Good luck with yours, sounds great!!

  11. Hi Anne-Marie~ Thank you for sharing your Press Kit details. It looks great, & I know you will get some “takers”. I recently put out a “Press Release”, actually just yesterday. I am hoping that at least the local papers will be interested in “One great story!” The soap angles are endless, which makes it a large audience to capture…Best to you.