Over the past couple of years, I’ve come across an amazingly generous phenomena in the PR world.

Several prospects who have contacted us around the holidays were not looking for a public relations campaign for themselves, but to give a PR campaign to authors they cared for.

A public relations campaign as a holiday gift?

I’ve had my company for over 25 years and this was new for me.  I’ve had people call to research our company and services for someone else, but not to actually have us launch a PR campaign as a gift.

And these calls I’m referring to were not from spouses or parents, or family members, these calls were from friends, from people who wanted to give a unique, special gift and help writers reach their goals.

When I asked one of these unique gift-givers what prompted them to offer a public relations campaign as a holiday gift to his friend, he paused and then explained that he knew how important his friend’s writing and her new book was to her and that he wanted to do something to help her achieve her dream.

He went on to explain, “It’s not a tangible gift that you can unwrap and I realize it’s not a gift that comes with guarantees, but if I can help her get the word out about her and take her career to the next level, that would be the best gift I could possibly give.  I don’t think she’d invest in herself this way, so I decided I’d invest for her.”

So the holiday spirit burns brightly this year and gift givers are getting more creative and thoughtful.

His response also got me thinking.  What are some other unique gifts we could give to others and to ourselves?

What could you give to friend that they wouldn’t give themselves?

Conversely, what truly important gift would you happily give to a friend, but not to yourself?

Maybe this example of holiday giving can lead us all to start considering.

Maybe it could be a New Year’s resolution –

In the coming year, we’ll look for unique ways to give to others and to invest in ourselves.

It could make for one heck of New Year!