Content We Love: A “Dino-mite” Release

It’s not every day that a release about a dinosaur skull lands in your inbox, and it made me sit up (and make bad dinosaur puns, apologies for the title). The release is about the auction of a 65-million-year-old fossilized Triceratops skull named Lung Wong (or “The Dragon King”), the first of its kind to be sold in Asia.

Granted, not every release can feature the magnificence of The Dragon King, but there are successful elements within the release that are applicable to any piece of content:

1.       Hook them in with the right headline

Your headline is the first impression your release makes so make it short and sweet. Oftentimes, journalists only see the headline as the subject in their inbox, and they have a split second to decide whether or not they want to click – don’t let them skim past yours!

There are a few things that the headline, “World’s Largest Most Complete Dinosaur Skull for Sale In Hong Kong, Valued at USD1.8m”, does right.

• Length: The ideal range for headlines is from 80 to 120 characters. This title has 85 characters, which also means it’s easily shared on social media with additional space for hashtags and pictures. Another tip to improve your SEO is that the most important keywords are within the first 65 characters, in this case “world’s largest” and “dinosaur skull”. This is due to search engines only displaying the first 65-70 characters of your headline so stick them in the front.
• Numbers: Research shows that headlines with numbers outperform those without. Knowing that the dinosaur skull is worth USD1.8m adds value and facts to the story, cementing another reason why we should care about the article.  

2.       Have arresting multimedia

We’ve said it multiple times before, but let us hammer it home: images and multimedia are crucial for media pick up for a variety of reasons. In this digital age, audiences are more likely to click on articles with images and it keeps them there for longer, thus journalists are required to produce more content with multimedia. Lastly if you save reporters the time providing great multimedia ready to use, then they are more likely to use your release.

Needless to say, this release has really outdone itself in how they have photographed and arranged the dinosaur skull, aptly named The Dragon King, as the focal star of the image. These dramatic images win eyeballs.  The only way this could get better is with a video.

3.       Local content is king

Localize your press release so it’s relevant for your target market and don’t spray and pray. Understand the cultural norms and journalistic practices. Lastly, make your release available in local languages.

For example, our case study makes their release not only relevant for Asia, but to Hong Kong and China through the symbolism in the name of the fossil as well as knowledge of traditional practices such as feng shui. This opens new avenues and ideas for journalists to pursue for story ideas, for example the wider context of fossil collecting in the Greater China region. The more relevant your press release is to local journalists, the more traction it will gain.

Celine Wu is the Audience Development Executive for PR Newswire.