Pitch Perfect

I’m not going to link to it here, because it’s firewalled. But if you’re inclined, look up a story in The Wall Street Journal titled, What Can Conquer the Superweeds? Bayer and Others Turn to AI (07/17/2024). I’m going to discuss it as an example of successfully pitching a proactive innovation story.

Almost exactly one year passed between my initial pitch to WSJ reporter Patrick Thomas and the day the story ran. It also took the following:

1.       Multiple emails from me, written with the help of multiple experts, explaining the technology, its relevance, and the company’s bet on its future financial impact.

2.       My boss’s boss making a plea to the Communications team of Bayer CEO Bill Anderson for a quote.

3.       A video interview with Patrick and the head of R&D, flanked by me representing the Global Communications team (from which this R&D-based pitch was sanctioned), plus a Communications colleague from the U.S. Regional Communications team, representing their interests in the interview (I guess because it was conducted in the U.S.?).

4.       Three phone calls between Patrick and a scientist involved (two off the record to avoid another No. 3 situation).

5.       Endless hounding by me.  

Here’s my point: Agriculture is full of exciting advancements like using AI to develop better, more regenerative and safer farmer tools. That’s good news for everyone! The things that are happening with data science and biologicals, for example, promise to really transform the way we grow crops for farmers, investors and consumers. That’s great news!

But often we pitch these stories with a pithy paragraph emailed to a big list of ‘media’ we don’t know and have never met. We’re handed these lists by agencies who may or may not know our technologies or our audiences, and we sit back and wait for the stories to roll in. They seldom do. Patrick received that mass email from Bayer, and did nothing with it.

The perfect pitch, in my view, is just a good story connected successfully to the right reporter, in whatever way works best. You’ve got to dig in and get to know the reporters at your top targets and what they care about, how the current news environment is impacting them and their beats. Be a resource for them. They won’t post a story on your company’s great new innovation unless they understand for themselves why it’s relevant, not just why you love the story.

In other words, we Corporate Communicators are well advised to stop thinking just about ourselves and start considering the people we’re pitching. I’m sorry to say, this is not our strong suit.

Think about others. Now there’s an unusual piece of PR counsel.