In our last post, we walked you through your pre-launch week and what you need to plan for to have a successful launch, but now it’s launch week and everything must be perfect. The thing is you can’t plan for perfection, but you can plan for success.
In our most recent campaign, our team at K2 laid out our plan for launch week as described in Brittany’s previous blog, and were able to execute successfully because we prepared. We knew we needed to focus on reporter outreach and executing the launch day press release, participating in successful interviews and highlighting them, and building on the momentum created on launch day.
Releases and Reporter Outreach
Our first step to kick-off launch week was releasing the candidate’s announcement bright and early to ensure we reached reporters before their morning planning meeting. We wanted to ensure every reporter was notified and ready to write about our campaign.
We had also begun reaching out to reporters prior to our launch to ensure we would generate news on launch day. We utilized the news of our launch to create relationships with reporters we would want covering our campaign throughout the cycle. The ground we laid during our first week of the campaign, is the foundation we will be able to build on through Election Day.
Interviews and Highlighting
Before any interview, it is key to make sure the candidate is ready for prime-time. Through media prep and pre-interview calls, we work to ensure the candidate is prepared for any questions that he or she may get asked, we remind the candidate to mention their website so viewers can take a look at it, and socials to ensure you have a great interview to highlight afterwards.
Highlighting interviews ensures people are continuing to talk about the candidate and their campaign, and keeps momentum going. When you have a good interview, you should highlight the interview clips on all the candidate’s social media profiles or share posts about the interview from news organizations.
Building on Momentum
The last important step for launch week is keeping the momentum from launch day going. Candidates always want to be gaining momentum, never losing it. Leverage your interviews, interview requests, and socials to gain supporters who will donate or volunteer. Keep your momentum in front of reporters with creative press releases.
Building momentum, also means prepping for post-launch week. Following our most recent Senate launch, we started prepping for the next week. Candidates need to continue to be active, which means their socials and interview schedule needs to be active to continue their momentum.
Stay tuned to hear how K2 continues momentum for our candidates!
– Anika Rickard