7 ways Hotels.com gets more mileage out of press releases

Learn from the headlines the press uses. Watch trends in social media. Include video. Here are some smart ways to get noticed.

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Ragan Insider Content

As pro football’s AFC championship approached in January 2014, Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning kept mixing the word “Omaha” into his audible play calls at the line of scrimmage.

Searches for the word “Omaha” went up on Hotels.com, presumably from people wondering where the heck that was, says Taylor L. Cole, who heads up public relations and social media programs for Hotels.com.

The travel site cranked out a press release saying it would offer a coupon to anyone heading to the Nebraska city if the Denver quarterback said the word 50 times in one game, leading to an AP story and jokes by funnyman Stephen Colbert.

“Football has nothing to do with hotel rooms, but we just found a way to tie it in,” Cole says. “It was a lot of fun.”

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