The Bad Pitch Blog has an excellent post on holiday tie-ins and what does and doesn’t work.  In this post, they showcase examples of the good, the bad and the ugly. One that stands out as great is PNC, a financial services group. For the past 26 years they provided the PNC Christmas Price Index. Using the classic song The 12 Days of Christmas, in a fun and lively way, they showcase the how prices have increased or fallen over the past year.

They “own” this area of Christmas and this year’s website is great. It is an educational tool. It was made to explain some things, while being entertaining—and it’s well done.

When we are working to generate media and blogger attention, we often look at the time of year and what traditional holidays or events happen that we can tie into. Events, holidays and other seasonal traditions can provide strong opportunities for PR, if it’s done right.

A couple other great campaigns this year include Elf Yourself, and I would be remiss if I didn’t include some of the video news releases AHA has done for a very special client, the REAL Santa. The REAL Santa is at Richmond Centre in Richmond B.C. and we have been pitching him to media and bloggers throughout the Lower Mainland with some excellent response.

The world of how we pitch (whether during the holiday season or other times) is different now. And as important as media are (they are still very important), there is now an opportunity to also get information out directly to the community our clients want to connect with. How that is done, when and why is very important.

People want businesses to either (respectfully) join the conversation they are already having or they want an opportunity to have a transparent, mutually beneficial conversation with people that represent that organization. They want authenticity and a real person who is going to be straight with them.

The use of video and online websites that engage, entertain and inform are only going to grow in the future. As consumers, we want to see who you are, see the real person, and connect in a very personal way. It’s going to be an interesting 2010.