The smarter pitch

How do you shortlist just nine projects from over 70 deserving candidates? How do you compare a multinational corporation’s million-dollar scheme to the passion project of a two-strong DMC? Such were the dilemmas the week before the bank holiday when I and four other journalists gathered in Somerset’s The Newt hotel as judges for the PURE travel show awards.

You’re right: nice gig. The overnighter was an opportunity to experience a much-storied hotel as much as hang out with a hugely experienced group of fellow travel journalists. Cumulatively we’d been in this game for around a century. Certainly, longer than most of us cared to tot up. For me, what made the experience interesting, however, were our discussions during the judging process. While some entries had instant consensus, others prompted lively debate. You’ll be pleased to hear that deliberations were serious and carefully considered.

I’m telling you all this because it crossed my mind that each entry was fundamentally a story pitch. Whether large tour operator or rainforest eco resort, applicants had to convey their stories – aims, processes, results – in three succinct paragraphs. And like pitches, some landed, some didn’t. Let’s have a look at why.

The first thing to say is no spoilers: I’m not going to reveal who we shortlisted. (Also, apologies to the PURE PRs for any stabs of panic on reading the previous sentence.) In any case, the wider PURE family has the final say on who gets the gongs. What I can say is our group was pretty forensic about entries. Journalists tend to raise a cynical eyebrow at grand claims. In travel those claims tend to be about conservation or sustainability. To take just one example, sustainable power sources and bans on single-use plastics are not USPs for eco hotels. They’re part of the definition.

The projects which resonated either backed up claims or showed genuinely innovative thinking. These were the entries that provided hard statistical data to support talk of community or environmental benefits. They were the ones which sought to reframe destinations through unique access and clever ideas – one went so far as to reimagine what guests sought from travel. Suffice to say I’ve squirrelled away a few entries as potential story leads.

What’s the takeaway from this? As we tire of hype without substance, it takes more than a sprinkling of adjectives to stand up ideas. Pitch factual. And if you can’t pitch factual, pitch smart.