Our guest this week on Coffee with a Journalist is Kimeko McCoy. Kimeko is a senior marketing reporter for Digiday who covers media buying and ad spending along with marketing strategy. She also covers the DE&I and the future of workspaces from an agency perspective. View the links to follow Kimeko McCoy on Twitter and LinkedIn.
During the episode, Kimeko talks about the importance of an email follow-up, the “in and out mentality” when it comes to cold sources, her pitching pet peeves, and more.
Click below to listen to the full conversation and read below for highlights from the interview:
[00:02:08] BB: Okay. If you're coming by, do that. Okay. Kimeko, I feel like you already want to say a lot about your inbox because you already alluded to it on the other thing. So what's in there? How's it going?
[00:02:20] KM: If I look at it right now, it is a massive flood of everything from do you want to do a book review to here is a really good story about an organic brand on social media. It runs the gamut.
“We [Digiday] run the gamut when it comes to covering all things digital. That's marketing on platforms, marketing on television. We cover up fronts, ad tech, MarTech, all of it. You name it, we cover it but, again, with that in-depth analysis.”
[00:02:34] BB: Do you have – How many pitches a day would you say?
[00:02:38] KM: Oh, man. It's got to be at least 30. It's got – Yeah. I'm looking at about 30 to 50.
“If you're pushing for it, then I know I've got a source. I've got potentially a story, and the lines of communication are more open.”
[00:02:44] BB: Okay. 30 to 50. Okay. Wow. Okay. Do you have some kind of sorting system you do? Or are you a let it ride it person? Or you're a master leader. Everyone's a little bit different.
[00:02:57] KM: Oh, my goodness. My system is actually extremely chaotic. I actually like take notes of the emails that I have to respond to because we've already started correspondence. But otherwise, this is why I say make sure that you follow up with me because sometimes I wait for somebody to email me twice to see how important it is.
[00:03:12] BB: Oh, interesting.
[00:03:14] KM: If you follow up, then I know you mean business.
[00:04:25] BB: So you'll let that be in there. Okay. But like look back at it. That's what I do for my emails, by the way. But the problem with that is then you see stuff you're like, “Hmm, 2016. What was happening then?” You do get a lot, but thank God for a lot of data. So that is good.
Kimeko, you came prepared on our little video interview with your whole sheet of notes on pitch tips. Do you have preferences for the pitches you like to receive?
[00:04:57] KM: The pitches that I like to receive are the ones, and I've tweeted about this several times, I stand 10 toes down on it, are the ones where you can tell that the person is interested in what it is that you do, and they're trying to find synergy, as opposed to trying to like fit a circle into a square with something that neither I nor Digiday has ever reported on or done. If there's a valid attempt to say, “Hey, I know you cover this. I'm going to get you who, what, when, where, why, and how, some time to chat,” you've got my attention.
[00:05:30] BB: Okay. Do you even want to see it spelled out as explicit as that bullet-wise, like what, who, where, what?
“If there's a valid attempt to say, “Hey, I know you cover this. I'm going to get you who, what, when, where, why, and how, some time to chat,” you've got my attention.”
[00:05:37] KM: Yeah. That absolutely works for me. Absolutely, that in and out mentality, I think, is fantastic.
[00:05:44] BB: Yeah. So I take it you don't want the like, “Oh, Kimeko, like how was your summer? And did you have a good break? And did you go to the –” Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:05:53] KM: Absolutely not. After we've built the rapport and I feel like I know you on a first name basis, then like yeah. Now, I'm asking about like how are the kids and the dog But at that initial contact, just tell me what you need, and we can get into that.
[00:08:23] BB: Wow. That must be fun. You also mentioned when we were doing the little video vignettes like profiles. You'd like to have profiles. Who pitches you a profile that you're like, “Oh, I want to do that.”?
[00:08:35] KM: You know, the profiles, I typically have to go hunting for those. I'll get pitches every once in a while. I’m like, “Yeah. It's interesting.” But my favorite ones are the ones that I have to like hunt the source down, where I'm talking to them. I'm talking to their colleagues, people that they used to work with. I think those probably make for the best stories. The most recent one I did is about Tiktok’s Head of Creative Agency Partnerships team, Krystle Watler. She was a fantastic person to talk to. I've got a couple more coming up before the end of the year. So I hope you guys are ready.
“I think I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to pitching. I couldn't do my job without a lot of the communications professional, so I'm incredibly grateful but I’m – So I don't keep a whole lot of pet peeves.”
[00:09:05] BB: Hopefully, hopefully. Okay, good. So profiles. And then since those aren't really pitched to you, you got to hunt those down. Is there anything that you maybe have found a preference for that comes via a pitch? I know you like the short and sweet and just tell you the things, but is there anything that you're getting recently that you're like, “Oh, thank you for doing a good job.”?
[00:09:25] KM: Yeah. On those profiles – So again, if there's like where I can tell that you've read some of the other stuff I've written, I'm a sucker for a good pitch. There's a handful of people in particular, where they'll come in and say, “Hey, I'll tell you how this company is spending their ad dollars, or we can get something on the books about how this person changed this marketing industry from inside out.” I'm like, “Yep, I'm sold. You got me.”
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