It's no secret that the holiday season is the most competitive time to capture consumer attention. It’s also the biggest opportunity for brands to get it right. How do you create a product PR campaign that is authentic, resonates with customers and drives measurable engagement? 

Here are a few proven strategies to help your campaign break through the noise, create impact, and deliver results this season. 

A Foundation for Success 

When determining the best tactics to employ in your holiday product campaign, establish the following first: 

1. Set clear goals. The best holiday campaigns have strong, measurable goals. These act as the north star guiding your communications team in tailoring tactics to suit your company’s needs, as well as in dictating the separation between product-focused and brand-focused PR during the holidays. 
    
2. Know your audience. Identify and analyze the audience personas you want to engage with to understand which activations will best address their needs and make a lasting impact. 

With these elements in mind, your team can begin developing a strategy that harnesses earned, owned and paid media activations for an authentic and holistic campaign.  

Balancing Earned, Owned and Paid Media  

When developing a strategy, it’s best to not put all your eggs in one basket. Investing time and money into only one type of media will limit the amount of engagement you garner and the number of customers you reach. 

Earned, owned and paid media all come with their own unique benefits and limitations, and finding the correct balance between all three will be key to the success of your campaign. 

1. Earned media: The unpaid, third-party endorsement of your product, brand or insight that results from earned media opportunities is invaluable year-round. Around the holidays, this can look like submitting a product for gift guide inclusion, securing reporter product trials and reviews, and pitching evergreen stories that will allow journalists to prepare content in advance of their time off. For earned media to be most effective, have affiliate links and product samples readily available for when media interest strikes. 
     
2. Owned media: This form of media engages audiences by connecting with them in a more personal and casual manner. Create memorable brand moments by highlighting the way your products or services have impacted someone’s life, hosting contests or giveaways, or drafting thoughtful blog and social media content.
   
   
3. Paid media: Consider pursuing non-traditional forms of paid media by submitting your experts for podcast appearances or partnering with social media influencers likely to be on your audience’s radar. Keep in mind that content creators can have their schedules fill up quickly, especially around the holidays – so be sure to pinpoint your targets early and reach out well in advance. 

The lines between earned, owned and paid media are blurring more than ever before, reflecting the importance of a strategy that includes tactics encompassing all these types of content. Paid opportunities are increasingly dominating the industry, expanding further into earned and owned media through options like paid broadcast segments, sponsored listicles and boosted social media posts. 

Avoiding Common Mistakes 

To mitigate issues during the creation and execution of a holiday campaign, follow three main pieces of advice: 

1. Be prepared. Have an eye-catching selection of photo and video materials available before you begin seeding gift guide opportunities and holiday season reviews. It’s also helpful to put an advanced plan in place for after the holidays to guide your team in pivoting their efforts into Q1. 
    
2. Diversify. Do not pigeonhole yourself. Focusing solely on product-related content or zeroing in on gift guide roundups while not exploring opportunities for thought leadership or trend-based content limits the available touchpoints for customers. 
    
3. Start early. The execution of your holiday PR campaign should begin sooner than you think. As we get further into autumn, reporters and editors are already planning their holiday coverage and gift lists, making October a great time to finalize initial details such as influencer targets and concepts for owned content. 

The biggest mistake that a brand can make in this arena? Only investing in public relations, marketing and advertising when the holiday season comes around each year. 

A strategic partner can make all the difference when it comes to developing and executing a holistic communications plan that feels authentic to your brand – fit with clear goals, a well-versed understanding of your audience, and a healthy mix of diverse, engaging content. 

Ready to take your holiday product campaigns and overall communications strategy up a notch? Let’s talk.