A Step by Step Guide to Building the Perfect Media Kit in 2021
What is a Media Kit and
why do you need one?
A media kit, also known as a press kit, is a shareable folder containing assets for journalists and publishers. It is meant to be a quick and easy way for the press to get a hold of your brand's assets, facts, press releases, mission statement, founder information etc to learn about your brand. It is a snapshot of who you are with the access to assets to enrich any article written about your business.
More often than not, the media kit is one of the first media introductions to your brand besides the website or a perfectly-crafted PR pitch.
The media kit is sent to any press contacts that are writing about your brand. I also put a link to the media kit at the end of every pitch I write and recommend that my clients create an easy-to-find link on their website to the press kit so journalists can easily get a hold of assets they may need in a pinch.
This allows journalists to access any high-res images of your product so that they can write an article about you at any time. Sometimes journalists are on a quick upcoming deadline and need to get an article out quickly – the media kit allows them to meet the founders through their headshots and bios, it gives them high-res images to enrich their articles and facts to help them understand the brand.
The first thing I do with any client is build out their media kit.
Media kits today are dynamic and live in a shared folder. I recommend using a shared Google Drive Folder (which connects to your Google account) or Dropbox. You’ll want to keep your Media Kit updated with any new assets your brand creates or any new logos/updates. What the media finds in your media kit is what they will share with their readers – so make sure your hard work getting that article gets rewarded with the most recent assets.
What should I have in my media kit?
Every media kit should have:
High-res founder headshots
Founder biographies
High-res product photos
Logos
A company one-pager
Press releases
Video (if you have assets and it’s relevant)
I’m going to share with you everything we have in LastObject’s Media Kit. They’re one of my favorite clients from Denmark. A zero-waste company on a mission to reduce our reliance on single-use products.
As you can see, each of the asset subjects live in their own folder within the media kit folder.
Founder Photos
High-Res founder photos are important in introducing the leader of your business that you want to showcase most to your potential customers. It is important to include headshots. You can also include high-res lifestyle shots with more personality from the founder. These shots will be used to accompany any founder interview, so make sure that they are well-done and a strong reflection of your brand.
Founder Biographies
Keep the founder bio short and sweet. You need no more than 200 words describing the founder’s experience getting them to the point of where the brand is today. Keeping it short gives our media friends a quick understanding of your founder and ideas of questions to use in an interview.
I’ve also found that when filling out interview questionnaires for podcasts or media interviews they almost always ask for a bio that is less than 200 words.
Here you can see Isabel’s bio. We’ve listed her name, age, where she studied, her mission and reasons why she started LastObject, a little bit about the products and a personal fact at the end. I like adding a bit of personal information in a bio to make the founder more approachable and human.
Isabel Aagaard, 30, is a Co-founder and Designer at LastObject. Isabel graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Architecture, Design, and Conservation in 2016.
Her mission is to create durable and well-designed products that are reusable. When she and her team discovered the harmful effects of single-use cotton swabs on the environment, they started working on a solution to fix it. In April 2019, they launched LastSwap, the first sanitary, reusable alternative to cotton swabs.
LastSwab was followed by LastTissue, which aims to bring the handkerchief back and stop the waste caused by single-use tissues, and most recently by LastRound, a set of six reusable, washable make-up pads. One by one, Isabel is tackling the single-use items that have become an unfortunate part of our daily routine.
Isabel lives in Copenhagen, Denmark with her husband and their baby boy.
Product Photos
You don’t need too many - only put in what you want to have shared by your media contacts in articles they write.
Combo of lifestyle photos and stock photos
Press Releases
Place any and all press releases with company updates here.
Logos
Brand logo and product logos
Company One-Pager
A company one-pager is meant to be a high-level description of your brand and products. Include photos and descriptions of the products you want highlighted.
Press Releases
Video
To create a sharable link for your Media Kit go to the drop down menu and click “get link” and make sure your link is set to “anyone can view”. You want the press to be able to see or download assets in your Media Kit but you do not want anyone to be able to change it. This is the power of “view only” in your Google Drive.
Again, the media kit is the foundation to good PR and publicity. The photography in the media kit is what will be shared in Forbes, Vogue, Refinery29, Thingtesting… or any other press outlet that write about your brand.
As a recap to the media kit checklist, you’ll want to make sure that your media kit is complete with the following:
High-res founder headshot(s)
Founder biographies (no longer than a few paragraphs)
High-res product photos
Logos
Company one-pager
Video (if you have assets and it’s relevant)
Company press release
Notice that every time I mention photographs or images that they are HIGH-RES – this is SO important – press folks will not be able to use anything other high-resolution images. This means at least 300 pixels per inch.