Public Relations is a vital part of the marketing mix. Used effectively, it can influence consumers, change perceptions and ultimately impact sales. Home and interiors PR is particularly impactful. Product endorsements in lifestyle media raise a company’s profile, build brand image, promote specific product lines and ultimately, drive sales.

Compared to the relatively high costs of advertising, interiors public relations can be a cost-effective method of promoting specific products to the consumer. For example, Lighting Web, one of The White Room’s clients, has stopped advertising as the PR campaign is so effective at driving sales. Instead, the company selects key trends and showcases new products via product placement in high end lifestyle media. This is the only external communication the company is currently undertaking and sales continue to rise, along with the company’s profile.

Recently, Managing Director, Ben Smith, said: I am so pleased with the results achieved by our lifestyle PR campaign that I have stopped all classified advertising. As soon as our product is featured in high end interiors publications such as Elle Decoration, Sunday Times Style and Stella Magazine, we see a direct response almost immediately. In fact, we can hardly keep up with the demand for our Hurley Floor Lamps since the product was featured in the Sunday Times Style Magazine.”

Why is lifestyle PR so effective?

The reason interiors PR works so well is that a trusted third party (i.e. the magazine or newspaper) is endorsing a company / range of products to consumers, thereby giving the brand credibility. It’s a proven fact that a positive write-up or product endorsement will have a greater impact on readers than an advertisement including the same messages and photography.

Public Relations agencies specialising in interiors PR have a strong market understanding. Having chosen to concentrate in this field, home and lifestyle PR consultants live and breathe the media, market and trends, and know how to present these to journalists in a media-friendly way.

Home improvement websites B&Q and Homebase have done a particularly good job of presenting their ‘décor’ products to consumers in an appealing way, making many affordable items appear high end and luxurious.

Many magazines like www.homesandgardens.com and www.allaboutyou.com now have interactive websites, which are heavily promoted through their magazines. IPC publishing house has also launched an interactive home decorating website, www.housetohome.co.uk, featuring sections on room inspiration, expert advice and a product finder.

Securing visibility in the industry can provide excellent opportunities for partnerships and can sometimes lead to industry analyst coverage, which creates more integrity for the product or service being offered. In addition, interiors PR can help search engine optimisation, allowing consumers to discover the company.

In short, good PR begets good PR: the more visible you are, the more media you will attract. A successful interiors PR campaign builds brand awareness in the media and shapes consumers’ perception, therefore offering much more than sales leads.

There are 10 simple steps to help give your product or brand the best chance at securing coverage:

1. Planning – Using time effectively is crucial when releasing interiors stories to the media. Securing coverage in the right publications at the right time can be hugely important. Be aware of the seasons when planning product launches. A story about garden lighting will not get picked up in January but will probably get coverage in the summer months. Remember that monthly titles work around three months in advance and plan your schedule accordingly.
2. Client relationships – Ensuring that you have a close working relationship with your client can be hugely beneficial in helping you understand what your campaign needs to deliver within the time frame in which you are working.
3. Be targeted – By being very focused about which publications you approach, you can pick off titles you know your audience will read and shape the story and content to reflect their editorial requirements.
4. Tailor your message, to ensure your story is relevant. For example, a story about the range of tiles available at high street retailer, Topps Tiles, is unlikely to get coverage in high end title, Living Etc. However, a story about a new trend of using floor tiles on bedroom walls just might.
5. Prioritise the media – If there was only one place you’d want your story or product to appear, where would it be? Choose your top media in each media category, e.g. monthly glossy, specialist home interest, national supplement etc, as sometimes journalists can be sensitive about competitive media running the same story.
6. Wider media targeting – Before you issue the release, consider whether your product or story might be relevant to a wider media audience. For example, if your client is launching a new range of children’s wallpaper, you could extend your media targeting beyond home and lifestyle media to incorporate women’s and parenting press.
7. Photography – It is imperative the product is shot well. Journalists like a choice of lifestyle and cut-out images but these must be contemporary and relevant. Straight product shots work well on ‘how to get the look’ pages but journalists increasingly prefer room setting photography that looks like it’s from someone’s home. Often the picture editor will reject photography that doesn’t fit the house style of the magazine.
8. Presentation – Press releases should be short and to the point, with information relating specifically to the product or company. Sometimes it is helpful to reference trends but journalists are more interested in what will look good on their pages rather than a heavily news-related story, so try to make it easy for them to lift information. HTML emails work well for this and prevent large attachments from going into spam filters.
9. Timing – Maintain a close relationship with the feature editors to get a better understanding about themes and colours and make a note of their deadlines. Whilst a blanket press release to all your interiors contacts at the same time is occasionally appropriate, well thought-out campaigns usually have a more strategic approach.
10. Extend coverage – Once coverage has appeared in target media, it is advisable to extend its life beyond the monthly or daily in which it has appeared. Collating regular coverage and sending it on to internal staff is often a really helpful sales tool for them to use when talking to customers or using in store. It can also be highly motivating to staff to see their product or company written about in interiors media. References to coverage can also be used in customer brochures or online, e.g. ‘as seen in Homes and Gardens’.

Following these simple rules helps ensure regular and sustained coverage in target home and interiors media.

Top 10 advantages of interiors PR

1. It is a highly cost-effective method of promoting specific products to the consumer. Lighting Web, one of The White Room’s clients, has stopped advertising as the PR campaign is so effective at driving sales.
2. A trusted third party is endorsing your company / range of products to your consumer, thereby giving your interiors brand credibility.
3. Interiors PR can help search engine optimisation and can help your company to be discovered by consumers.
4. A positive write-up or product endorsement will have a greater impact on readers than an advertisement including the same messages and photography.
5. Used well, it ensures you have regular and sustained coverage in your target media, ensuring you remain front of mind to your consumers, without necessarily having to advertise.
6. A successful interiors PR campaign builds brand awareness in the media, therefore offering much more than sales leads.
7. Depending on the media outlet, the coverage may well be picked up by other publications and used more widely.
8. Securing visibility in the industry can provide excellent opportunities for partnerships and can sometimes lead to industry analyst coverage which creates more integrity for the product or service being offered.
9. Good PR should never be underestimated when it comes to attracting a new workforce or retaining your existing staff. Employees want to feel proud of the company they work for and positive press coverage endorses the decision they’ve made about where they work
10. Good PR begets good PR: The more visible you are, the more media you will attract

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