Are Exclusives Worth It?

When a PR professional grants a journalist or publication an exclusive, they become the first to publish it before any other publication. This gives the journalist and their platform a ton of attention, but it also works brilliantly in favour of the PR (or rather, the travel brand they represent).

Exclusives are mutually beneficial. But the story has to be worth it.

The story or news must be so good to warrant even being an exclusive. It must be a groundbreaking new hotel opening, or a story that a PR just knows every journalist will want to feature. It’s got to be appealing to a journalist or publication, and there has to be a reason to be the first to write about it.

So, what warrants an exclusive?

A journalist or publication will only consider a story worthy of being an exclusive if it really is groundbreaking. We’ve mentioned that it could be a new hotel opening, but new hotels open all the time – so your hotel opening will need to be particularly exciting, shocking or especially positive and impactful within its destination.

Put yourself in the journalist's shoes. And the reader's shoes, for that matter.

What kind of story would make you think “wow!”, and push you to buy a newspaper – just to read that story? Or to drop what you’re doing to spend ten minutes reading the article online?

Exclusives need to be big news.

Besides a revolutionary or significant hotel opening, anything that would have a major impact on the travel industry can have exclusive-worthy status, too. Other ideas include rare opportunities to interview someone of importance within the travel space – someone who has never been open to interview opportunities before, and is now ready to speak out on an important topic or news.

Despite them seeming like a picky bunch, journalists really like exclusives. But why? What’s in it for them?

Being the first to report on an exciting story wins the publication an influx of traffic and readers. They’ll get a jump on their competitors. And it benefits their brand, too; readers will consider the publication as a leader, with an ear on the ground – always the first to know things. This builds credibility, trust and audience loyalty.

Publications love an exclusive more than you might realise. The Times, for example, loves having exclusive access to a story. They make quite a big thing about it and encourage PRs to offer exclusives. In return, there’s a better chance of their client being featured.

Of course, The Times is highly selective with what they consider to be a story worthy of an exclusive, so it would have to really be very special indeed for it to be important to them.

And what about the PR? And the travel brand? What’s in it for us on the other side of the fence?

Offering a publication an exclusive can make the story you’re sharing seem even bigger and more exciting than it already is. This generates more buzz for the story, which will work in the travel brand’s favour.

The travel brand gets guaranteed coverage, and the coverage is usually significant. For a PR to grant an exclusive, the coverage on offer needs to be great.

The journalist knows that the PR will choose the publication which offers the best and most extensive coverage, so publications will usually make an offer that the PR can’t refuse. Otherwise, they know they’ll lose the exclusive; the PR will grant it to another publication, leaving them playing catch up.

This means an increased chance of landing the prime position within a publication – possibly even the front page!

An added benefit of offering exclusives is that the PR will build a good relationship with one particular journalist or media outlet. And PR is all about relationships.

After being granted an exclusive, the journalist is more likely to trust and value the PR and the news they’re sharing, which is great in the long-term for the PR and their other clients.

So – has Lemongrass worked with the media on any exclusives recently? We’re glad you asked!

We created a fun campaign for Discover Africa, listing the most unusual guest requests they’ve ever received. American TV network, CNBC, wanted to run the story as an exclusive. But there was an element of risk…

We had to wait a few weeks because they were slow to confirm whether they were definitely going to run the feature. But we didn’t want to lose the opportunity by pitching the story elsewhere.

We decided to put all our eggs in one basket, and wait it out… And it paid off. The story appeared in a TV segment with CNBC, which was then also published online – and later, it was syndicated by ten regional NBC publications. The total reach, including the TV coverage and online articles, was more than 75.6 million.

Worth the wait!

The opening of Hotel Valldemossa in Mallorca was reviewed online at Condé Nast Traveller as part of a “first in” feature. This is similar to an exclusive, without the “all our eggs in one basket” situation. Instead, it’s agreed the journalist is the very first UK journalist to be booked in to visit the new hotel, so it is ultimately up to that journalist how quickly they get their article written and published.

If they do it in a timely manner, they technically have the exclusive, but it’s plugged as a “first in”. This seems to be an increasingly popular alternative to an exclusive.

So what’s the catch? There must be a downside, surely?

Definitely. There are actually several cons to offering publications an exclusive…

Apart from the “first in” format, exclusives put all your eggs in one basket.

You’ve taken the publication’s word that they’ll feature the client’s story, and in a big way. But there isn’t anything to guarantee this. It’s purely trust between the PR and the journalist.

If for some reason the publication or journalist decides they don’t want to run the feature anymore, there’s nothing that can really be done about it – and you’ve limited coverage opportunities as a result.

Coverage opportunities are generally restricted. Other publications can’t feature the story or news until the exclusive has been published, so all other results have to wait. And some journalists and outlets won’t like this.

They might prefer not to feature at all, and can feel snubbed because they weren’t granted the exclusive in the first place.

An exclusive might give you one big story in a desirable publication, but is this necessarily any more effective than several stories spread over a variety of publications? In some ways, you’re limiting yourself to one audience rather than several different audiences. And that’s not always a good thing, especially if your goals are rooted in growth.

Another factor to consider is social media, and the impact it has had on exclusive stories.