The Black Friday number we prepared in September

The Black Friday number we prepared in September

The scene: a retail-analytics client, and a calendar everyone in PR ignores until it's too late. The setup was that every brand pitches Black Friday data in late November, when reporters are buried. The angle was to be early and exclusive, prepping a returns-fraud dataset in September and offering it under embargo six weeks before the rush.

The pitch traded on scarcity of timing: 'Black Friday returns fraud cost retailers $24B last year. Here's this season's forecast, embargoed until the 28th, yours exclusively if you want the lead.'

The result: two major outlets took exclusives for different regions, then 21 more picked it up post-embargo, 19 with links. Because we were first in the inbox, our forecast became the number other outlets cited, even ones we never pitched. The data page drew 16,000 sessions across the holiday window.

A retail reporter said, 'You pitched me in October. Everyone else pitched me the morning of, when I'd already filed.'

Lesson: Seasonal stories are won in the off-season. The brand that pitches six weeks early becomes the source everyone else quotes.