I get a lot of pitch letters from public relations practitioners. In the email, they ask me to try out their product for a review on one of my blogs. Recently, I got a pitch from a company. Here is the pitch:
Millennials are the largest living generation in the world and also the most fitness-focused. According to a recent article, more than 76% exercise at least once a week and are a huge driving force behind the fitness boom we’re currently experiencing. And the sector that’s seeing the biggest uptick? Home fitness.
Due to the inclusivity, flexibility, and accessibility to workout on-demand, at-home workouts are exploding in popularity. Long gone are the days of Jane Fonda and jazzercise – fitness companies, such as X smart stimulation devices, are driving technology that allows anyone to get a killer workout and an advanced recovery, all from the comfort of their living room.
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Okay, I was intrigued. I asked if I could check out a sample to check it out. The PR person wrote back and told me they were out of stock with their samples. (By the way, this has happened a few times as of late.)
Two weeks go by and I get the same or similar pitch. I tell the PR person that I requested a sample are there more available?
She replied, “no, there are none available at this time but if you want to be an ambassador and write about the product you can potentially get 5% from each product you sell.” I laughed.
I would never recommend a product to this community or to the ATriathletesDiary.com community that I haven’t tried first.
It just was surprising how they handled this. At my firm, we would have never done that! If the client didn’t want to release products, I would have insisted that we send a product sample to the blogger, especially after pitching twice! What do you think?
