Cover: For the one I love
Inside: Each time I see you, hold you, think of you, here's what I do…I fall more deeply, madly, happily in love with you. Happy Valentine's Day
Hallmark is very good at this. They don’t just tell you about something, they also show you. While I am not crazy about this card (personally) it was a best seller at Hallmark last year. Did you get one?
By releasing internal research showing that an aspect of love (most people choose to express themselves similarly), Hallmark captured the interest of one Associated Press writer and got the coverage it wanted on one of the most important days for the company.
Valentine's Day is the biggest day for greeting cards after Christmas, and not surprisingly, the greeting card giant doesn’t take any chances. Its PR department leveraged the research that the company must do to stay competitive to deliver its message through the media. And if you notice, the research isn't even recent, it is from LAST year's sales
If you don’t know it already, the media love good research, especially if it ties into a trend or a special coverage day, such as Valentine’s Day. With this research story, the media can cover Valentine’s Day (required) and still feel they have delivered useful information (research results).
To show you how effective this technique is, I did a quick Google News search for Hallmark and drilled down on these results.
This is an excellent pickup rate of an article written and distributed by the Associated Press. I didn’t have time to do a complete content analysis, but it seems some pretty helpful key messages about Hallmark were picked up in these articles, namely:
- We create our cards with care (using research) to suit your personalized need to express yourself. Our cards are created through a painstaking process (implying their motto, “for those who want to give the very best.”)
- While we were surprised by the research, it seems love is universal, and this card (V330-5) was the most purchased in most major cities; however, we still have lots of cards with a message that will suit YOUR taste
So, in the spirit of Hallmark:
Thank you for reading this one voice in the crowded blogosphere. Keep coming back and adding your voice, I can’t wait to see what you have to say!
