Public relations is easy when you have something to say: the first, the only, the biggest, the best, the unusual, etc. But after a client gets through that initial announcement, what news do you have left to tell? Sometimes very little, and in a competitive market, that can be a scary ailment.
Our team faced a similar predicament this year with the 69th season of the Del Mar Racetrack in San Diego. While there’s always a lot going on with the track, we didn’t have a compelling answer when media asked, “What’s new?” Instead of letting that hinder our ability to garner news, we used a few PR tools to keep the community buzzing about Del Mar.
Here are my two favorite from this year’s meet:
1) Build your reputation with the blogging community– While this should always complement your PR campaigns, use slow news periods to expand your online conversations into new (and still relevant) categories and dig deeper into the blogger list. Not only will you see instantaneous results, but these results will continue to work for you through the long term.
With Del Mar, our team continually communicated with family, mom or dad, travel and “scene” bloggers. This year we expanded our list, spoke with them more often and extended free tickets to the track.
Not only did we earn coverage from this, but we even developed strong sponsorships with editorial-for-link exchanges.


2) Look back– Measuring impact and comparing “then to now” often make great pieces for media, but writers may not know enough about your product or service to put it together themselves. Lucky for us, Del Mar compiles economic impact figures every year, and we get to use them. Instead of pitching local media on “look at what Del Mar is doing this year,” our team pitched “look at what they’ve done.” We discovered that many writers didn’t know this, and we got to help several of them “discover” the facts.
Here’s an abstract from a Rancho Santa Fe Review article:

A strong public relations team should look at your product or service and see it from every angle possible. It is this creative thinking approach that will maximize your coverage in media, especially through the news droughts.
What creative angles have you used to garner media?