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- Adult, wellness and nightlife brand teams
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- BrandAfterdark
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- Pitching
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- · 7 min read
How to pitch the media for an adult brand
Reporters answer a small share of the pitches they receive, and adult brands start with extra suspicion. A pitch that gets a reply is short, specific, sent to one person, and honest about what it is.
The odds, honestly
Most pitches go unanswered. The PR Pitch Response Rate Study 2026, from EPR Research and 5W, pulled together the main datasets on how journalists handle pitches. In behavioral data from Propel covering about 400,000 pitches, reporters opened roughly 46% and replied to 3.43%, about one in thirty. The same review found short pitches drew about four times the response of long ones.
An adult brand starts further back, because reporters expect a sales pitch. The answer is not louder email. It is a pitch so specific and useful that the category stops mattering.
Write the subject line last
The subject line is the pitch in one line. Write it after the email, from the single most interesting fact inside it. Good subject lines carry a number, a place or a change: "Survey: 1 in 3 US daters now verify matches before meeting". Weak ones announce the brand: "Exciting news from our company".
Keep anything explicit out of the subject line entirely. It can trip spam filters, and it tells the reporter the rest of the email will not be usable.
Keep it short, send it early
Guidance collected in the same 2026 review points the same way: pitch one person by email, keep it under 300 words and ideally much shorter, send it before noon in the reporter's time zone, and, where you can, on a Tuesday. In Muck Rack's 2026 survey, most journalists said they prefer pitches under 200 words.
Short does not mean vague. The facts, the person who can speak and the one question you are asking should all fit on a phone screen.
Exclusives and embargoes
- An exclusive gives one outlet the story first and alone. Offer it to the reporter whose readers it suits best, and say plainly that it is exclusive.
- An embargo shares the story with several reporters ahead of time, on the understanding that nobody publishes before an agreed date and time.
Neither is binding unless the reporter agrees before seeing the details. Ask "Can I offer you this under embargo until Tuesday 9 a.m. Eastern?" and wait for a yes.
One follow-up, with something new
Follow-up tolerance is low. According to the same review, Cision's 2025 survey found 62% of journalists say only one follow-up is appropriate, and among US reporters 24% said never follow up at all. Wait a few days, then send one short note that adds something: a new data point, a photo, a time the spokesperson is free. Then stop.
After the answer
If a reporter says yes, make their job easy: fast replies, accurate facts, and a spokesperson who turns up prepared, as covered in expert commentary. If they say no, thank them and leave it. Keep a record of who covered what, so the next pitch lands with someone who already knows you.
An annotated example of a full pitch is on our media outreach page, and choosing the story in the first place is covered in story angles.
On the record: questions
Put the key facts in the email and link to the release on your site. Some reporters are wary of attachments from unknown senders.
An exclusive offers one outlet the story first and alone. An embargo shares the story with several reporters in advance, on the understanding that nobody publishes before an agreed time. Both only work if they are agreed before you send the details.
Thank them and ask nothing further. A polite no today is often the start of a yes on a better story later.