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Your Holiday Gift Guide Pitching Playbook

Ashton Mathai

By Nicole Brief

Refreshed September 2024

We all know how stressful the holiday gift-giving season is. It’s hard to find that perfect gift for those special people in your life. As consumers, holiday gift guides make it simple to identify the best products for your parents, kids, siblings, or even co-workers. 

For many consumer brands, this core sales moment makes or breaks their annual numbers and will set the foundation for the following year’s focus. And it creeps up FAST. 

This means holiday gift guide pitching season is even more important for PR pros.

Right after we complete the rush that is Amazon Prime Day in the summer, we immediately execute Back-to-School shopping programs and before that’s even finished, the 2024 gift guide season is upon us. 

PRO TIP: Plan your holiday campaigns EARLY! Media begin sourcing for gift guides as soon as July, so it’s ideal to align on product priorities before then. If you haven’t started yet, don’t worry, there’s still time! 

Last year, we kicked off planning early – and it paid off. We crushed it for our clients, which span from toys to consumer electronics, smart homes, bicycles, and more. Our combined 2023 holiday results? 

  • 2,500+ placements 

  • 50 billion impressions 

  • An average CSS score of 8 out of 11 – indicating high-quality coverage alongside the massive quantity

Hopefully, that gives you all you need to keep on reading. Because we’re revealing *almost* all our insider tips to help you craft a winning holiday gift guide playbook.

5 Steps for Holiday Gift Guide Pitching That Will Secure Coverage This Year

Step 1: Identify the Best Product for Each Media Type and Beat. 

Think about what your hero products are for the season. Beyond the top priorities for your sales team, consider what will be most appealing for the press and what product will work best for each medium. 

For example, just because a product is important for your brand, doesn’t mean it is the best product to put forward for a TV opportunity. 

The products that are most intriguing to broadcast media are simple to explain, quick and fun to demonstrate, and have a pop of color to really stand out on the screen. You want the show hosts to go bananas over your product during the segment so it really shines — as we witnessed in this LIVE! with Kelly segment featuring Jason Derulo.

Step 2: Organize Your Information so it’s Easily Accessible at All Times. 

Once you’ve figured out your top three-to-five hero products, create a document to house all the details you’ll need when engaging with the media. 

Include everything from the product names and descriptions to hi-res image assets and purchase links. This document will be your best friend throughout the season. Your bible. Bookmark it and keep it open 24/7 because you’ll be living and breathing it until the next season rolls around. 

PRO TIP: Speaking of hi-res image assets, it’s helpful to create a Google Drive or Dropbox folder that includes media-friendly, approved photos of both the product on a clean background and some lifestyle or action shots. Make sure you name the files with the brand name and product name so it’s easily searchable when reporters look for them in their inboxes! 

Bonus points if you have B-roll. This raw video footage with no sound or graphic overlay is especially helpful for broadcast segments.

Holiday Gift Guide Examples

Step 3: Research the Right Reporters, Beyond their Title. 

This is one of the most critical components of a publicist’s job. It’s not enough to pull a list of commerce writers and blindly reach out via email. Take a look at each individual reporter on your list and understand how they operate so you can appropriately cultivate a relationship.

There’s no official “rule” around who becomes a holiday gift guide reporter. It’s more about keeping an eye on the reporter’s coverage, channels like social media feeds or newsletters, and other conversations to see if they’re sourcing gift guides for the season. 

Do some manual searching for the right contact at each publication, and focus on that one person rather than reaching out to multiple contacts at the same outlet. This will earn their respect and keep you focused on achieving success across your target publications. Read through the reporter’s coverage to understand what they choose to write about, their past headlines and product coverage, their personal interests, and so on.

PRO TIP: If you’re not sure if they’d be a good fit, reach out and see if they have 15-20 minutes available for a virtual coffee to get to know each other better and see how you can best pitch them, work with them, and be a helpful resource to them. Even if they aren’t a fit now, they may be later down the line (and vice versa). This goes a long way in building relationships and being the most effective PR pro you can be!

Don’t get caught up on the person’s title. There is a broad range of writers who compile or contribute to holiday gift guides – including commerce writers and editors, staff reporters assigned the beat for the season, freelance writers who submit pieces for multiple publications, to market editors.

To help get you started, here are our top 15 go-to reporters for holiday gift guides:

Step 4: Write and Personalize Your Pitches to Develop Connections. 

Odds are you have multiple products or even brands that you want to share for consideration. 

You’ll set yourself up for success by combining all these options into one concise email. This way, you’re sharing all your product considerations at once and don’t need to worry about reaching out to the reporter multiple times or adding in products after they’ve engaged with you.

The more you personalize your messages, the better. Maybe you see that the reporter is an avid traveler and you have a product marketed toward travel enthusiasts, so note that in the opening paragraph. 

It goes a long way to make these types of connections. Beyond helping you get the reporter’s attention and consideration, it shows that you did your homework and aren’t just sending a mass email.

PRO TIP: By the way, never send a mass email. It will be ignored or deleted very quickly. Not only do they lack personalization and relevancy, but they deteriorate relationships. In fact, according to a Muck Rack survey, 92% of journalists prefer one-to-one email pitches and will ignore or delete mass ones right off the bat.

Also, don’t be afraid to tweak your pitch after you’ve started your outreach. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve reworked pitches five times over within ten minutes. 

Sometimes I write something, think it’s golden, press send, and immediately think of how I could have positioned it better. So I adjust in the next pitch, and then the next one. After the first couple of edits, I find the real golden positioning.

Step 5: Patient Persistence is the Key to Success. 

This might sound like an oxymoron, but stick with me.

The media are FLOODED during this time of year. Think of all the companies out there pushing their hero product featured as the #1 gift item — the competition is strong. And while you feel busy sending out 100 pitches a day, do the math on how many the reporter is receiving. 

This is why it’s important to be both patient and persistent.

Patience comes with the recognition that it might take them a while to see your email. Perhaps they like the pitch but aren’t focused on an article where your product fits right now. They likely dropped your email into a labeled folder, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised when they write you back in a month or two.

Persistence comes with the recognition that they might just never see your email. Or forget that they did. After all, the holiday gift guide season is a long five-ish months. Staying on top of your follow-ups should be a number one priority. 

PRO TIP: When sending follow-up notes, make sure to offer a new piece of information, or at least restate what you’re reaching out about if there’s nothing more to add. I’ve learned from reporters over the years that one of their top pet peeves is getting a follow-up note that says “did you see my last email” or “circling back here.” They may not have seen your email or remember what it was about, so you need to jog their memory and treat the follow-up as a fresh opportunity to get the placement.

When it comes down to it, the holiday and stocking stuffer gift guide season can be daunting, but if you prepare yourself with the right playbook and keep your chin up, it can actually be a lot of fun. Let us know how these tips help you get a boatload of coverage this season!