PR isn’t really about PR. It’s about being gossip-worthy enough that someone else tells your story for free.
You can torch five grand on an advert in a glossy magazine and what happens? Three phone calls. Two from other magazines flogging adverts, one from a recruiter who's desperately trying to get you to hire their cousin.
The stuff that lands is story-shaped. A founder half-frozen in a shed, midnight graft, clutter everywhere like a fresher’s kitchen after a week of cheap beer (or champagne if you went to Kings).
Journalists don’t want catalogues, they want characters. Behaviourally it’s called narrative transportation, people get sucked in when there’s a tale.
And small isn’t a weakness, it’s scarcity. “Only one of these exists.” Which may be true only because you never made a second after nipping to Greggs, but scarcity sounds luxurious nonetheless.
Authentic mess helps too. Nobody trusts a pristine workspace. A photo of chaos, dust, scraps, and a human in the middle of it is worth more credibility than any polished press pack.
The masterstroke to it all though is spoon-feeding. Journalists are drowning in boring emails. Hand them a line they can drop straight into copy and you’ve made their day. Journalistic laziness may just be your secret weapon.
Forget Vogue. Local papers, lifestyle magazines, tiny blogs with 500 obsessives are where you'll find gold. Those pieces get clipped, shared, and recycled upwards and national newspapers harvest them for content.
Collaboration is also important. A few small names pitched together suddenly look like a movement. Like penguins huddling for warmth. If one penguin happens to know someone at The Telegraph, you all bask in the glow.
PR isn’t money. It’s quotable lines, scruffy photos, and being the answer when someone shouts “we need a story by deadline.”
Just don’t write “I strive to be unique.” That’s general anaesthetic.
Write, “Every piece gets finished while the dog snores under the bench.” That gets printed.
Or at the very least, remembered.
And if it doesn’t, there’s always bribery, caviar tends to work well for this!
