It’s Wednesday! Welcome to this week’s curated PR and brand marketing head-turners.

In this edition:​
🎸 Rockstar-worthy headlines
🖁 Heineken makes phones now?!
🤣 "I don't think so, pal!"

(4 min read)

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🙂‍↔️ Headturning headlines

“Hone your storytelling skills” ➡️ Heard that one?

This is bad advice because it's so vague; storytelling is an aggregate of many skills that take time and attention to hone, not a magic wand you wave over an article.

Now, in pursuit of saying something actually helpful today, we’re going to chat about improving one specific aspect of your storytelling — your headline.

​Louder:​

What makes this a headturner? 😵‍💫

In true rockstar fashion, this headline breaks some classic rules:
❌ It’s too long, basically a mini paragraph
❌ It doesn’t offer any tangible benefit to the reader

… and yet, it’s a click magnet! 🧲

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Compare it to this boring headline:

Why is the former so much more effective? Because at the end of the day, content is king. Now, we're not saying throw good practice out the window, but when it comes down to it, choose the scenic route and prioritize memorable content.

Continuing the Slash theme, here’s another winning example from Guitar World:​

💡 PR TIP: When pitching your story, imagine it as a movie. What’s the cliffhanger, the “money shot” you’re putting in the previews? Visualize that and write it out; that’s your headline!

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💡 Stay relevant

Dumbphone = smart stunt?

Whether for nostalgia or digital detox, dumbphones are back! ↩️

And the marketing folks at HMD (AKA Human Mobile Devices), a company known for turning a profit on Nokia phones, are smart to capitalize on this trend to...

✨Stay relevant ✨

Introducing their Heineken-branded phone, aptly named “The Boring Phone”:

Only 5,000 Heineken phones will be released, further adding to the hype around this stunt. 10 years from now, “Remember when Heineken made a phone?” will be a GREAT video essay idea.

🤔 But even if they don’t make a cent, this is still a massive win from a PR angle 🤔

I mean, How often does a beer company hijack the tech news cycle?

WIRED. The Verge. CNET. GSMArena.com. TechRadar. They’ve all covered this stunt.

Compared to the cost of traditional media buying (where they likely would have been rejected for being unorthodox) the proposition of making 5,000 phones is pretty cheap in comparison (And they will sell. We live in a world where Supreme-branded bricks sell for $800).

💡PR TIP: Say the weird thing. Better yet, do the weird thing. People are craving realness and eating it up!

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🕵️ In profile

Brother from another mother, sister from another mister

Today’s profile is a tad different. We usually talk about a featured person in a profile and how they came to be noticed by the price.

Our profile’s feature is not a person, but a ritual — one that Rhaina Cohen covered in a book on the forging of sibling relationships beyond that of biology. The "soul sisters" from this article did this ritual almost 40 years ago.

The story was a home run, sparking a series called “The Science of Siblings,” which explores this bond on a mental and physical level with wholesome stories.

Sometimes, you pitch an outlet to share your story, unknowingly bringing a wave of compelling stories to the outlet.

To repurpose Kennedy’s quote as a piece of PR wisdom: Ask not what a media outlet can do for you, but rather what your story can do for a media outlet. In this case, an unorthodox feature became a winning series. Keep that in mind the next time you’re pitching a story, you might unlock some gains for them too!

➡️ Learn more about the rituals cementing siblinghoods deeper than blood​

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😆 Just for laughs

A moment from a 2016 pro wrestling promo turned out to be the perfect way to express a defiant cry for an entire generation:

“I don’t think so, PAL! That’s not how this works!”

A TikToker with the moniker @relatablebro69 (we’re not making this up 😂) was the first to spark this meme wave in response to chores:

But very soon, it got tied into grown-up themes like getting off work and waiting in line at the bank:

And like any good meme, it fits into any current event:

What pal earned YOUR disagreement today?

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🚀 Ready for your turn in the spotlight?

1. Hire Triple Take: We've landed clients mainstream news features, prestigious industry mentions, and top podcast interviews. Let's talk, no strings attached.​

2. Get free PR + marketing tips: Share your referral link for exclusive access to actual pitches, winning subject line formulas, and promos.

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