It’s Time to Pitch Father’s Day Gift Guides

If you have a product fit for the coolest dad around, then now is the time to share it with national magazine editors who are currently pulling together Father’s Day gift guides.

The key to landing a placement in a guide is to get products in front of editors now! No need for flowery prose in your pitch. Keep it short and get to the point quickly. In short, you would like for them to consider your submission for their Father’s Day Gift Guide. Include in the email a low-res image (product against and all white background), the retail price of the product and the date it will be first available. Editors also need to know where their readers will be able to  purchase it online once available. And be sure to include the image of the product in the email itself as editors are not likely to open an attachment they aren’t anticipating.

(HOT TIP: finding the correct market editors to pitch gift guides is easy when you use our 2020 Media List !)

Most every magazine and online publication will be running some sort of ultimate gift guide for dads. Esquire magazine, InStyle, Oprah magazine, Real Simple and Refinery 29 are among our perennial favorites. Don’t be fooled into thinking there is just one opportunity with each publication.  Last year Esquire published three separate gift guide roundups leading up to the day and the article angles ranged from “first Father’s Day” gift suggestions to gifts for the “health nut” papa to those for “sporty dads”. Products don’t always have to be brand new to be considered, but by all means mention if it is a new issue. And anticipate that they will be looking for gifts under $50 and under $25, so be sure to call that out if yours fits in this price range.

The New York Times annually shares insights on what to buy dad in their online guides. Their picks range from out-of-the-box gift ideas to suggestions that make you say “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that!”

Note: Their gift guides also range in cost, your product can cost $15 or $500 and still find its spotlight on the Times’ list.

Here are links to The New York Times’ last three Father’s Day Gift Guides.

• 2019’s Gift Guide please note, this year was done in collaboration with the NYT-owned reviews online-publication Wirecutter.
• 2018’s Gift Guide
• 2017’s Gift Guide

Trust us. Editors everywhere are looking for new products for their gift guides and want to see new products. Your job is to put it in front  in such a way (see Point 1 above) that allows them to consider your pitch. Ready to pitch? Start.by identifying the top five places you would like to see your product featured, review past gift guides online if you can, identify the editor then pitch! And consider our Media List (an up-to-date list of over 1000 regional and national editors, market editors, and freelance writers plus their social media contact and email address) to help you even more quickly implement your plan and to find other contacts to broaden your pitch efforts!

Reminder that you can find Editor’s at these publications (as well as other’s that you can pitch to!) in our 2020 Media List, available now.