MediaKit
Media Kit Assignment
Intro For this assignment, you will create a short media kit for a lifestyle brand of your choice. A lifestyle brand can be connected to fashion, beauty, fragrance, accessories, home, wellness, or design. You have to choose an existing brand. Your media kit must be built around a specific piece of news: something that has recently happened, is about to happen, or could plausibly happen. Examples include a store opening, a product launch, a collaboration, an anniversary, a pop-up event, a sustainability initiative, a founder story, a campaign, or a cultural partnership. You may base your assignment on a recent brand development, or you may create a realistic fictional announcement for an existing or imagined lifestyle brand. If you invent the news, it must still feel plausible, timely, and appropriate for the brand. Your goal is not to create fantasy marketing, but to practice how public relations professionals turn a brand development into a press-ready story. The key question is: Why would a journalist or content creator care about this now? Your final submission should read like a professional press package. It should provide journalists with the information, story angle, visuals, and contact details they need to decide whether to cover the brand. Components Submit one PDF, approximately 4–5 pages total, including: 1. Cover / Brand Snapshot Brand name, logo if available, tagline or short positioning statement, website/socials, and media contact. 2. Brand Story (1 pag) Give some history and a concise explanation of what the brand is, what it stands for, and what makes it distinct (positioning) 3. Fact Sheet (1 pag) Key facts, proof points, dates, founder information, product details, partnerships, milestones, or credible sustainability claims if relevant. 4. Press Release A professional press release of 300–500 words announcing the news.
5. Visual / Lookbook Page 4–8 images with short captions. These may include product images, campaign visuals, store/event images, or mood images, as long as they support the story. 6. One Targeted Media Pitch A pitch email of 200–300 words to one specific journalist, editor, newsletter writer, blogger, or content creator. The pitch must show that you understand that person’s work, audience, or platform. Rubric (100 points) 1. Brand Story& Fact Sheet (30 pts) Strong submissions explain the brand clearly and specifically. The brand should have a distinct identity, not just generic language about “quality,” “style,” or “innovation.” The fact sheet should include useful, credible information that a journalist could actually use. Pro-tip: Read brand stories in the digital newsroom of existing brands. Excellent: Specific, coherent, distinctive brand identity with strong proof points. Good: Clear brand story, though some parts may be generic or underdeveloped. Needs work: Mostly descriptive, vague, or lacking differentiation. 2. Press Release Structure & News Logic (30 pts) The press release should follow professional conventions: a headline, a dateline, a strong lead, an inverted-pyramid structure, a quote, a boilerplate, and a media contact. The most important news should appear immediately. Background information should come later. The release should clearly answer the question: What happened? Why does it matter? Why now? The writing should sound like public relations writing for journalists, not consumer advertising. The press release must be written in third person, except inside a quote. Avoid hype, exaggeration, empty claims, and overly promotional adjectives. Excellent: Clear, newsworthy, easy to scan, professionally structured. Good: Mostly correct structure, but could be sharper or better organized. Needs work: Reads more like an advertisement, lacks clear news, or misses major press release conventions.
4. Visual / Lookbook Page (10 pts) The visual page should support the brand story and news angle. Images should be clean, cohesive, and useful for the press. Captions should add information, not simply repeat what is visible. Excellent: Cohesive, well-captioned, press-usable visual selection. Good: Solid visuals with minor layout or caption issues. Needs work: Cluttered, low-quality, poorly connected to the story, or missing. 5. Targeted Media Pitch (20 pts) The pitch should be written to one specific journalist, editor, blogger, newsletter writer, or content creator. It should include a strong subject line, a concise hook, a clear connection to the recipient’s work, and a specific ask. The pitch should show evidence that you have researched this person: a recent article, a recurring topic, an audience, a beat, a platform style, or a type of coverage. Excellent: Highly targeted, concise, persuasive, with a clear ask and strong fit. Good: Relevant target and angle, but the pitch could be more tailored or tighter. Needs work: Generic, too long, unclear ask, or weak evidence of research. 6. Overall Format, Completeness & Professional Presentation (10 pts) The final PDF should feel like one coherent media package. It should be clean, organized, proofread, and easy to navigate. Excellent: Complete, polished, professional, and visually clear. Good: Complete but could be cleaner or more refined. Needs work: Missing components, inconsistent formatting, distracting errors, or unclear organization.