Patagonia is in business to save our home planet. Founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1973, Patagonia is an outdoor apparel company based in Ventura, California. A Certified B Corporation, the company is recognized internationally for its commitment to product quality and environmental activism—and its contributions of more than $100 million in grants and in-kind donations to date.

Here at Patagonia, we’ve found we’re more likely to get a response or begin working on a story with a journalist when we can connect with them on their hobbies outside of work. For example, we’re more likely to work on a story about repairing wetsuits with a journalist who actually surfs, rather than someone who doesn’t have that personal connection. 

With other platforms we’ve used, it's hard to narrow down journalists by niche or interest. 

Muck Rack is an exceptional tool for finding journalists based on location, outlet and topic of interest beyond their job title or beat. We like that we can easily dig into a journalist’s social media platforms to look at what they've covered, along with what’s of personal interest to them. 

We also love using Muck Rack to find relevant journalists to share regional stories in locations we don’t regularly pitch.

For example, this summer we promoted our East Coast Surf Tour where we visited various surf towns. We used Muck Rack to search for local news outlets and journalists, especially in smaller destinations. We often work with reporters in New York City, but for this particular campaign, we needed to find relevant journalists in Montauk, New York -- an area we don’t typically work with press. Using Muck Rack, we were able to identify journalists who might be interested in the tour. 

With Muck Rack, we can search for journalists who have covered Patagonia before, even getting down to as granular as those who have shared stories about us on Twitter through Muck Rack’s platform. That's helpful to know that they're interested and helps make searching more efficient and our pitching more targeted.

1. What made you decide to use Muck Rack?

When I came to Patagonia, I really pushed to start using Muck Rack because I liked that the platform takes a holistic look at a journalist. When you search for a journalist on Muck Rack, you see their outlet and beat, but also get a glimpse of their interests through the integration with their Twitter profile and tweets. 

For example, we launched a new video and curated a list of journalists who mentioned on Twitter they were interested in fishing, though that’s not necessarily their beat or what they write about. Muck Rack ties these elements together.

2. How would you describe Muck Rack in three words?

Useful, informative, easy

3. What would your job be like if you didn’t have Muck Rack?

My job depends on reaching out to the press, so it’s important for me and my team to have access to Muck Rack. Without it, we’d spend way more time looking for information about journalists. Muck Rack has helped us to streamline some of our processes.

4. In addition to results, what other benefits have you experienced from Muck Rack?

Muck Rack has saved the Patagonia team time and frustration when it comes to finding a journalist’s information. It’s also allowed us to be more creative in the way we seek out new reporter contacts -- this alternative approach has been even more important than the time saving.

5. What has your experience been like working with Muck Rack’s customer success team?

Muck Rack has amazingly quick customer service. If we can’t find a journalist’s email address and we reach out to Muck Rack, within 10 minutes, it’s added. We really appreciate our partnership with Muck Rack’s team.

We’ve also been impressed by how much Muck Rack has worked with us to add publications and journalists important to our brand. At Patagonia, we focus on an interesting niche media that many brands wouldn’t think to include on a media list, but they’re really important in our world.