Public Relations with Fexingo: PR, Media Outreach, and Earned Media Strategy

Lucas and Luna break down how a midwestern manufacturing company turned a routine quarterly report into front-page coverage. The key? A single pie chart that revealed a surprising competitor dynamic. They walk through the pitch process, the journalist's response, and why data visualization beats press release prose every time. Plus: a natural sidebar about listener support keeping the show indepen...

In Episode 56 of Public Relations with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the power of customized pitches by examining how a small tech startup landed a feature in The Verge. The company built an entire email referencing a journalist's recent article, showing genuine engagement rather than mass outreach. They discuss the specific techniques used: quoting the journalist's past work, connecting it to t...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down how a PR team for a mid-size B2B logistics firm secured a feature in The Wall Street Journal's CFO Journal by building an entire pitch around one statistic: that 78% of supply chain disruptions in 2025 came from a single, overlooked factor. They walk through the research process, the one-page pitch, and why specificity beat broad storytelling. If you've e...

Episode 54 of Public Relations with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna break down how a regional craft brewery, Bend Brewing Co., earned national press coverage by pitching a story about their water conservation system — not a new beer. The brewery spent $12,000 on a closed-loop water recycling rig that saved 4 million gallons annually. Lucas explains how the PR team framed the story around industry-wide wat...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna examine a specific PR strategy: the follow-up email that actually works. They break down a real case where a PR team sent an initial pitch to 50 journalists, got zero replies, then sent a carefully crafted follow-up 48 hours later that landed five placement. They discuss the timing, the subject line change, and the one-sentence addition that made the difference. The...

In episode 52, Lucas and Luna dive into the story of how a small PR team at a mid-sized logistics company turned a boring dataset—supply chain wait times at the Port of Los Angeles—into a striking data visualization that landed them coverage in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and three trade publications. They break down the exact approach: finding a counterintuitive data point, building a sim...

In this episode of Public Relations with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how a mid-sized B2B software company turned a mundane product update into a front-page Wall Street Journal story. They break down the pitch that worked: leading with a single surprising data point about wasted developer hours, not the feature list. The hosts discuss why journalists ignore 97% of press releases, how to find th...

Lucas and Luna dissect the 2025 Peloton advertising backlash that forced the company to completely overhaul its brand messaging and marketing strategy after a single ad campaign triggered widespread consumer outrage. They break down the specific missteps, the speed of the social media firestorm, and the PR playbook Peloton used to recover — including pulling ads within 48 hours, issuing a non-apol...

Lucas and Luna dive into the case of a mid-sized B2B software company that sent a press release containing one specific, surprising data point about their industry — and got 40 journalists to respond within 24 hours. They break down the strategy behind choosing the data, crafting the subject line, and timing the release. Plus, they discuss why most PR teams bury their most interesting numbers on p...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dissect the story of a mid-range luggage brand that got more media coverage from a single product placement in a Netflix series than from its entire paid ad campaign. They walk through how the brand's PR team identified the opportunity, pitched the prop master with a simple one-pager, and then leveraged the on-screen moment into press mentions across travel, lifesty...

Timing is everything in PR, but most pitches fail because they land in a journalist’s inbox at the wrong moment. In this episode, Lucas and Luna examine a case where a PR team tracked a reporter’s beat change and sent a pitch within hours of the announcement, securing coverage in a major outlet. They break down the specific signals to watch for — journalist moves, beat shifts, and editorial calend...

Lucas and Luna dive into the surprisingly effective PR tactic of handwritten notes in an age of email overload. They break down a real case from 2025 where a fintech startup sent 200 handwritten cards to journalists and got a 23% response rate, compared to a 2% rate on their email pitches. They discuss why physical mail stands out, the cost vs. ROI, and when this tactic actually works versus when...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dissect a case where a B2B software company embedded a single surprising statistic in a press release and got replies from 40 journalists. They walk through how the data point was chosen, how it was positioned, and why specificity beats hype in earned media. The conversation draws on a real example from a marketing analytics firm that lifted its open rate from near-...

Lucas and Luna break down why most press releases fail and how a single-page, narrative-driven release can land coverage. They examine a real case: a small fintech startup that got featured in TechCrunch by cutting their press release from three pages to one. Lucas explains the inverted pyramid structure, the power of a strong lede, and how to avoid jargon. Luna pushes back on the idea that shorte...

Lucas and Luna break down the fascinating PR campaign that landed a small regional museum on the cover of a national magazine. They analyze the specific media list, the narrative framing, and the single image that sold the story. Along the way, they discuss why journalists crave stories with a physical place at the center, how to find the 'one weird detail' that makes a pitch irresistible, and why...

Lucas and Luna break down how a regional coffee chain with 17 locations turned its customer loyalty data into a story that got covered by national business press. They walk through the exact pitch: the chain analyzed purchase patterns across neighborhoods and found that morning commuters in one zip code spent 34 percent more on weekdays than any other segment. The PR team packaged that finding int...

Lucas and Luna break down the remarkable PR turnaround of Johnson & Johnson's 1982 Tylenol recall — still the gold standard in crisis communications. They examine how the company's decision to pull all Tylenol capsules from shelves, at an estimated cost of $100 million, and introduce tamper-evident packaging restored consumer confidence and set a precedent for product safety. The hosts compare tha...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into the anatomy of a failed PR pitch: a detailed case study of a B2B software company that sent 100 personalized emails to journalists and received zero replies. They break down the six common mistakes—wrong timing, weak subject lines, lack of research, irrelevant hooks, missing data, and no follow-up—and share actionable fixes. Lucas introduces the 'journalis...

In this episode of Public Relations with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dissect a common PR nightmare: the pitch that goes absolutely nowhere. They walk through a real case from early 2026, where a fintech startup sent 100 customised pitches to journalists covering banking and payments—and got zero replies. Lucas breaks down the three structural reasons why it failed: the journalists' inbox overload, the...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how PR teams use journalist tracking databases like Muck Rack and Cision to monitor reporter moves and tailor pitches. They examine a real-world case: how a tech startup secured TechCrunch coverage by noticing a journalist had just switched beats. The hosts discuss the shift from mass email blasts to targeted outreach, the ethics of monitoring, and why a jou...

In this episode of Public Relations with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the power of crisis simulations for PR teams. They explore a case study from a mid-sized tech company that ran a tabletop exercise simulating a data breach. The simulation exposed critical gaps in their media response protocol—like a 45-minute delay in getting executive approval for a press statement. Lucas explains how the...

In this episode of Public Relations with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the story of a direct-to-consumer mattress brand that turned its email subscriber list into a PR asset. By inviting 200 loyal customers to test a new product before launch and share their unfiltered opinions on social media, the company generated 47 media mentions in the first week — including a segment on a major morning s...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into the nuts and bolts of media monitoring—specifically, how one mid-size PR agency uses a simple but powerful spreadsheet to track journalist job changes, beat shifts, and contact updates. They walk through a real example: when the lead tech reporter at The Wall Street Journal moved to The New York Times, the agency had a 24-hour window to update their outreac...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dissect how a single CEO apology video turned a brewing PR disaster into a brand loyalty win. They look at the exact structure of the apology that worked: the first 15 seconds, the moment the CEO named the mistake, and the specific commitment to change. They discuss why most corporate apologies fail (too vague, too slow, too legal) and why this one succeeded — inclu...

When a major oil company announced a net-zero emissions pledge in 2020, most journalists treated it as greenwashing. But Shell's 'Sky Scenario' — a detailed, third-party-verified roadmap showing how the company could reduce emissions across its entire product life cycle — changed the conversation. This episode breaks down how Shell's PR team used transparent data, independent verification, and a m...