Updated: March 23

COVID-19 has infected and severely impacted the economy. Many struggling companies are facing bankruptcy. But there are also winners emerging from the crisis—businesses that are benefiting from the rapid digital transformation thanks to their business models. After months of negative reporting, editors are now looking for success stories and drivers of innovation. Our examples show how to get noticed and win over journalists during these times.

Crisis helpers — journalists are looking for solutions.

A whole country was in lockdown. Daycare centers and schools were closed. Millions of students suddenly had to catch up on their schoolwork at the kitchen table at home — and do it digitally. The problem: Germany was lagging behind when it came to the digitalization of education. The government couldn’t tackle such a massive challenge alone. The press understood this too, which meant that start-ups offering solutions had a relatively easy time getting media coverage.

One example is Sofatutor. The online platform is now the market leader. Around 5,000 schools across Germany use Sofatutor, with 80,000 teachers accessing the platform. Founder Stephan Bayer wanted to help the education sector get through the crisis, so one million students and teachers were given free Sofatutor licenses. We were able to place Stephan as an expert on several TV programs, including a live appearance on rbb. Even Czech Television reached out to Sofatutor. Business Insider also spoke with Stephan about the multimillion-euro e-learning business.

And the lesson? Start-ups should try to position themselves in their communications as the solution to an acute problem — ideally one related to COVID-19. It doesn’t necessarily matter whether the problem itself is already being discussed in the media. However, make sure the connection to COVID-19 is logical and doesn’t feel forced. After all, plenty of companies are currently trying to jump on the dominant topic of the moment.

Finally, some good news — success stories are in demand.

Even now, thanks to COVID-19, negative stories continue to dominate the headlines. And while negativity is an important news value, journalists also long for positive stories from time to time. This effect is amplified by the fact that it is perceived as surprising and unusual when a company succeeds — and even grows — in the middle of a crisis.

One example is the start-up Actyx. The Munich-based software start-up specializes in digitizing factories. To do this, founders Oliver Stollmann, Maximilian Fischer, and Dr. Roland Kuhn developed a software platform in 2016 that enables apps for machines and end devices to be developed at unprecedented speed. This significantly simplifies collaboration between humans and machines. Companies like the business model so much that despite COVID-19 — and the resulting constraints on customers’ financial resources — Actyx was able to win new customers and significantly expand existing partnerships.

Among other things, we were able to secure coverage for Actyx based on these good-news stories in Handelsblatt and WELT. What can we learn from this? During times of crisis, success stories are more sought after than ever. This is even more true when your industry has been particularly hard hit. However, don’t approach the press with success stories right at the beginning of a crisis. At that point, everything is still new, newsrooms are under pressure, and “disaster stories” dominate the daily news cycle. Once the initial shock has subsided, however, your time has come.

Experts wanted — knowledge is (PR) power.

Don’t have a solution to a problem or any good news to share? No problem! You can always contribute your expertise to current topics. Journalists know a lot about many different subject areas — but rarely in depth. That’s why they are constantly looking for experts who can assess the current situation for them, whether in interviews, guest articles, or written quotes.

This is exactly the strategy we used to successfully get Studitemps into the media. The company connects businesses with student workers. During the COVID-19 period, business was booming for the Cologne-based company, as many regular employees had to stay home because of daycare and school closures and needed to be replaced by students.

In addition to success stories, the start-up was also in demand as an expert on the topic of “How students can get through the crisis.” For example, the FAZ wrote about the “flexible generation,” drawing on insights from Studitemps CEO Eckhard Köhn. In this Tagesspiegel article, data from Studitemps was the main focus.

The takeaway is clear: If you have valuable knowledge to contribute, share it! Don’t be afraid to position yourself as an expert. Journalists are particularly interested in data in all its forms. It can therefore be worthwhile to invest a little money in conducting a survey and then taking the results to the press. Pro tip: Create a landing page for the data — and you may even pick up an extra link here and there.

Wishing you every success with your PR,

Christian from getpress

‍