I don’t Pitch my Art Seasonally (why might surprise you).
Something that I see pop up SO often in my Art Licensing Facebook group is “how do you pitch seasonally,” or “when should I be pitching for holiday,” or “what kind of art should I be pitching right now,” or a hundred other variations of a similar nature. But, that is probably not surprising to you.
What might surprise you is my answer to these questions, which is simply… I don’t pitch seasonally. Yep, when I do pitch my art to a company or brand, I do not pitch based on what season I think that they might be currently looking for. Or what one of the many “pitch planning” calendars you might see out there suggest.
So, why don’t I pitch seasonally? There are a few reasons… let me explain.
First and foremost I don’t pitch seasonally because I don’t want to. I find that its an extra layer of thought and planning that has to be done before sending a pitch. And if I have learned anything so far, it’s that we gotta make pitching as low-friction as possible, in the hope that we can do it more often and more frequently.
I don’t think that it really makes a difference. I have never been a “seasonal pitcher” and thus far I don’t think that I have suffered any negative impact from that decision. If a client is interested in my art and are looking for a particular season, they will simply ask to see that art. In my experience, they are either going to love your art or not, and it being the correct season is not going to change that. So, I decided that I didn’t really see a point in doing it.
Every brand and company has a different timeline. Some companies are working 18 months out for holidays. Others 24 months. But then I have also had big clients come to me asking about seasonal art that was in stores 4 months later. There is such a HUGE range of what timelines look like that I sort of feel like you are spinning your wheels trying to nail down what season a company might be sourcing art for at any given time.
Now, there are a few exceptions to this, and I want talk about those as well.
Exception 1: If I am following up on a pitch to a company, sometimes sharing seasonal art can be great reason to be reaching out. “Hey, just following up, and I wanted to share some new Christmas art that I just released,” or something like that.
Exception 2: If I have some inside knowledge that a company is searching for a particular season of art. This could be from my agent telling me, a call-for-art that they released, or sometimes simply an art director reaching out asking if I have any specific art for a theme or season.
I want to also be clear that there is NOTHING wrong with pitching seasonally, and I can absolutely see the the benefits in doing so. And I will also note that I am very aware that my agents are definitely pitching art seasonally on my behalf, so that is also something to keep in mind. However, this theory applies to my experiences even before I had agents, and I still feel that pitching seasonally was not at all necessary. I am sharing this with you guys because in my opinion, it’s one less thing that I think you need to worrying about. And anytime we can remove one extra step, one less thing that you need to think about, I consider that a win! Those of you who are in my courses know that I am all about doing the absolute simplest and easiest approach, whenever possible.
That’s it! I just wanted to share that with you guys as it popped into my head this morning. Please let me know if you have thoughts on this topic! Send me an email krissy@krissymast.com or slide into my DM’s on Instagram!
