Jump for the Cause: Rising Above
EVENT:
160 amazing women skydivers from around the world teamed up with members of the Perris Valley Skydiving Center to raise money for breast cancer research.
WHEN: Sept. 26-Oct. 1, 2005
WHERE: PERRIS, CALIFORNIA
CHALLENGES:
- Hurricane Katrina hit 8-29
- L.A. Power Outage 9-12
- John Roberts Hearings 9-12
- EMMYS 9-18
- New TV season just starting
- Hurricane Rita 9-20, causing up to 15 participants to be delayed
- 9-28 MTV music award nominations
- Area fires event week — Porter Ranch, Burbank, and Inland Empire, the Jump site
- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay indicted
- The World Skydiving Championships had just been held
- The media was saturated with breast cancer stories
In short, the media was extremely occupied with huge stories, talk shows were consumed with celebrities for Emmys and new season.
SOLUTIONS:
After sending out on PR Newswire and pitching all conventional media including radio, TV, talk shows, newspaper and wires with press kits, DVDs and Lambchop sockpuppets, I had ok results with pre-event features in three major newspapers and radio, but that was short of what the client and I wanted. I partnered with another publicist who had just handled the world skydiving championships to tap into his skydiving contacts. We double-teamed. I made sure to get the record skydive photo to AP, and to have it run, then notified major newsweeklies that it would be running. My partner then called specific editors to alert them as well.
RESULTS:
Newspaper: LA Times Outdoor page, Desert Sun full page spread and follow up coverage,
Daily News column by Dennis McCarthy and follow-up, Detroit Free Press story
and follow-up
Wire: AP photo ran on wire, picked up by international publications in China and Europe.
Radio: Three radio interviews – including The David Lawrence Show
TV: KTLA, KABC, FOX, The Insider, HDTV News, Tyra Banks Show
Magazine: TIME Magazine – Numbers column