How to get press around a viral moment, with the full numbers from a campaign we had nine days to build: 29 silences, 14 bounces, a near-miss with Good Morning America, and one Billboard feature.
Quick answer
To get press around a viral moment, pitch the right desk at each outlet with an angle that fits it, offer interview access and photos you own, and follow up the moment you have proof the story is real. In July 2026, Shakira invited dancer Enola Bedard and dancers from Menina Fortunato’s The Business of Dance to perform at the first halftime show in World Cup final history. We pitched 52 media contacts. Twenty-nine never answered, 14 emails bounced, Good Morning America came close, and Billboard ran the story on July 21. It came from a follow-up, not the first pitch.
Key facts
| Event | The first halftime show in a FIFA World Cup final, July 19, 2026, MetLife Stadium |
| Who we represented | Enola Bedard, dancer and creator, and Menina Fortunato, founder of The Business of Dance |
| How long we had | Nine days, from July 9 to the performance |
| Contacts pitched | 52 |
| Published | 1: Billboard, July 21, 2026, by Jessica Roiz |
| Closest miss | Good Morning America |
| Time from follow-up to yes | About two and a half hours |
| Time from follow-up to story live | About 27 hours |
| Reel views by July 22 | More than 42 million across Enola’s two performance reels |
How do you get press around a viral moment?
- Find the right desk, not just the outlet. The same story is sports at one show and entertainment at another.
- Give each desk an angle that fits it. One story, several doors.
- Offer what journalists actually want. In Muck Rack’s State of Journalism 2026 survey, 70% of journalists said they want clear relevance to their beat, 58% want interview access, and 37% want high-resolution images. Keep it short: 69% prefer pitches under 200 words.
- Verify every address before you send. A stale list wastes your best days.
- Leave out anything you can’t verify. A bigger hook you can’t prove is a liability the moment a booker checks it.
- Follow up with proof. The follow-up is never the main pitch, but it is what gets people published.
How did this campaign start?
Menina Fortunato, a client since 2024, told us about it on July 9 and asked if we could help. Enola Bedard had made a video to Shakira’s World Cup song “Dai Dai” with dancers from Menina’s program. Enola choreographed and directed it and tagged Shakira. Shakira reshared it and invited them to perform at the final.
We had nine days because that’s when we found out. It wasn’t a strategy. The first halftime show in World Cup final history was July 19, and we started work on July 10. The dancers were in New York from July 11, the day rehearsals started, and were flying out the afternoon of July 20. Enola is based in Los Angeles and was available there from July 21.
What made the story hard to pitch?
The dancers were under a strict embargo. Nobody could talk about rehearsals or the performance until after it aired. So every pitch before July 19 was a pitch for an interview that couldn’t happen yet.
We gave each desk an angle that fit it. We worked from six:
| Angle | What it led with | Where it fit |
|---|---|---|
| First window | The first interview anywhere after the performance | Any July 20 slot |
| Discovered by Shakira | A viral video, a superstar sees it, an invitation | Broad morning TV |
| Enola the star | More than 25 million followers, credits with Jennifer Lopez and Usher | National entertainment desks |
| The Latin music moment | Shakira and “Dai Dai” | Telemundo, Univision, People en Español |
| The dancers’ first big stage | Young dancers on the biggest stage in sports | Softer local TV |
| Creator mechanics | How a dance video became a World Cup booking | Podcasts, creator and business media |
The first-window angle was one of these, not the plan. Same story, different door.
Does a World Cup halftime story belong on the sports desk or the entertainment desk?
It depends on the outlet, and you only find out by pitching. We pitched Good Morning America as an entertainment segment. GMA’s producers read it as a World Cup story. Once they did, we leaned on the sports hook for GMA and any other sports-leaning desk: dancers on the field for the first halftime show in the final’s history.
The Latin-culture desks pulled the other way. One wanted the whole ensemble, not a story led by one dancer. Another asked whether Enola had Latin heritage. She’s from Quebec. I pointed to her work with J Balvin, Jennifer Lopez, Sean Paul and Daddy Yankee, and that editor also asked whether we had other clients who would fit their outlet. A Shakira story doesn’t automatically belong on a Latin desk if the person in it isn’t Latin, and it helps to know that before you send.
How was the media list built?
The first list was a World Cup shortlist filtered from our master broadcast and editorial media lists. We sorted it by market, because the dancers had two windows: New York on the morning of July 20, before their flight, and Los Angeles from July 21, with no flight clock.
We also set rules for the list as we went:
- One live thread per show. Once GMA and TODAY responded, we didn’t pitch anyone else at those shows. New shots went to other networks, not to colleagues of people already talking to us.
- A second door, not a second email. At the New York shows that stayed quiet, the next send went to a different producer at the same show, not a nudge to the first one.
- Skip what you can predict is dead. In the print wave we didn’t send to a critic who had left his magazine years ago, to addresses at a publisher’s old domain, or to a personal Gmail.
- No general inboxes. tips@ and info@ addresses went unsent. They’re where pitches go to disappear.
- No wrong beats. Food, health, real estate and business rows came off the Los Angeles list even when the outlet was right.
The Los Angeles market had never been filtered the way New York had. When we caught that, we rebuilt the last wave from our own contact database, deduplicated and run through two email verifiers, Million Verifier and Icypeas. We split it into verified addresses and a catch-all tier where delivery couldn’t be confirmed, and we expected a couple of bounces from the second group.
Who did we pitch?
We went out in waves.
| Date | Wave | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Monday, July 13 | New York morning TV | GMA, TODAY, Good Day New York, New York Live, PIX11, Spectrum News NY1, CBS Mornings, Telemundo 47, Univision and NewsNation |
| Tuesday, July 14 | Second contacts | A different producer at New York Live, PIX11, NY1, CBS Mornings and Univision News |
| Tuesday, July 14 | Los Angeles, wave 1 | In-studio entertainment TV for July 21: Entertainment Tonight, Extra, Good Day LA and The Kelly Clarkson Show |
| Thursday, July 16 | Print and digital | Remezcla, People en Español, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, POPSUGAR, Teen Vogue, E! Online and Us Weekly |
| Friday, July 17 | Cold sends | A second editor at Remezcla, and HipLatina |
| Monday, July 20 | Post-performance follow-up | Every live New York, Spanish-language and magazine contact, with the view counts |
| Wednesday, July 22 | Los Angeles, wave 2 | 13 contacts, including Univision LA, La Opinión, LATV, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, CNN Newsource, Yahoo Entertainment, LA Weekly and Fox News |
The print pitch was the TV pitch adapted: interview access and assets instead of studio time. The first Los Angeles wave dropped the embargo line because the performance would be over, and it offered a first television interview only where that fit the desk. We took that line out for The Kelly Clarkson Show. At each Los Angeles show we sent to one producer and, the same day, to a second name as a backup.
The last Los Angeles wave carried the Billboard link and both reel counts. The Spanish-language desks got a version that referenced Billboard Latin and offered interviews in Spanish.
How do you pitch morning TV on a story that hasn’t happened yet?
You pitch the window, and you’re specific about when the guest can be in the studio. This is the pitch that went to Good Morning America at 8:45 a.m. ET on Monday, July 13, word for word, with the producer’s name, the link and my signature removed.
Subject: Shakira’s World Cup halftime dancers, in NYC Monday morning
Hi [producer],
In 23 World Cups since 1930, the final has never had a halftime show. Sunday’s is the first, Super Bowl-style, in front of the biggest audience in sports, and Shakira is headlining it.
Shakira saw dancer Enola Bedard’s video, reshared it to her own followers, and invited her to perform. Enola has more than 25 million followers and has danced with Jennifer Lopez, Usher, Nicki Minaj, and Daddy Yankee.
She will be in New York Monday morning, July 20, with the dancers she brought to the stage, and available in-studio before an afternoon flight.
One thing that might help: nothing can be shared until after Sunday’s performance.
So a Monday segment is the first time anyone can tell what it was like on that stage, hours after the world watched it. First window anywhere.
A ready-made entertainment segment for GMA the morning after the final.
Would this be of interest?
The opening line is a fact a producer can check in one search. The second paragraph is why this person. The third is the logistics a booker needs to say yes: city, day, time of day, and the hard stop. The embargo line comes last, framed as the reason the segment is worth having rather than a problem.
What did we leave out of the pitch, and why?
Two things, both on purpose.
First, weak proof. We gave bookers two things they could verify: Shakira’s own repost and coverage in La Presse. We left out a low-authority celebrity news write-up because it wouldn’t help with an editor and could hurt.
Second, any promise of exclusivity. GMA was the first serious interest, so we didn’t commit the story to any other show while GMA decided.
What happened to all 52 pitches?
| Outcome | Contacts |
|---|---|
| No response | 29 |
| Bounced | 14 |
| Passed | 4 |
| Replied | 3 |
| Out-of-office only | 1 |
| Published | 1 |
| Total | 52 |
More than half never answered. That’s normal during the most crowded sports news week of the year. Misses are natural, and they’re all on this page. The passes were mostly about fit, not quality: one Latin-culture outlet said it would have to cover every dancer, not one. Telemundo and Rolling Stone passed warmly and left the door open.
Who responded, and how?
- Good Morning America replied to the first pitch within three minutes and took it to two producers. More below.
- TODAY replied the same day, looped in a colleague, and said they’d keep us posted if an opportunity came up. It didn’t, and we left it there.
- Good Day New York sent an out-of-office that pointed us to a senior producer on the show. We pitched that producer.
- Remezcla passed on July 20 because it would have to cover all the dancers, not one. A second editor there asked about Enola’s heritage and whether we had other clients who fit the outlet.
- Telemundo 47 passed on July 20 for the Monday window but called it a possible future opportunity. I offered flexible dates, since Enola was in Los Angeles through July 31, and asked who to talk to on Telemundo’s World Cup desk. No reply.
- Rolling Stone passed on July 23. The pitch went to one editor and a different editor answered: it didn’t fit their coverage plans at the moment, but they’d keep it in mind.
- Billboard said yes to the follow-up and ran the story.
Why did 14 emails bounce?
The contact list was stale. Both of our PIX11 addresses were dead, and so were addresses at NY1, CBS Mornings, POPSUGAR, Teen Vogue, E!, Us Weekly, Billboard (one address), Extra, the New York Times, Yahoo Entertainment and LA Weekly. Every bounce was a scheduled send wasted on an inbox that no longer existed. Partway through the campaign, verifying every address before sending became a hard rule.
It showed up fast. On July 14, three of the five fresh second-wave sends to New York shows hard-bounced. On July 16, six of the 13 print and digital sends bounced, which left POPSUGAR, Teen Vogue, E! Online and Us Weekly unreached. Billboard stayed live only because we had sent to Jessica Roiz as well as an editor whose address was dead.
After the campaign, every contact we touched was written back into our database with its outcome and the date we last contacted them, and every bounced address was marked invalid so it can’t be pitched again.
How close did Good Morning America get?
Close. GMA replied to the first pitch within minutes and took it to two producers, who treated it as a World Cup story rather than entertainment. They couldn’t do live in-studio Monday, so they asked about taping over Zoom on Sunday night, right after the game. We said yes, and asked whether they wanted the stadium or the hotel. They were open to either, whichever had the quieter background.
The Zoom was never confirmed. After the performance, on July 20, I wrote back with the reel view counts and offered the tape again. That afternoon, GMA said they would hold off and would let us know if they planned more coverage. The thread ran to 19 messages. No segment aired, and we don’t count it as one.
We didn’t go around them either. GMA has a Los Angeles office, and we left it alone, because pitching the same show through a second door after a producer has passed looks like going around the producer who said no.
What actually got the yes?
A follow-up. Billboard didn’t answer the first pitch. After the performance, Enola’s reels started taking off, and I sent Jessica Roiz, Billboard’s associate editor for Latin, a short follow-up with the view counts. She said yes about two and a half hours later. The story went live the next day.
Here are both emails, word for word, with the links removed.
The first pitch, July 16, 2026. No reply.
Subject: Shakira’s World Cup halftime dancers, first interviews after Sunday
Hi Jessica,
In 23 World Cups since 1930, the final has never had a halftime show. Sunday’s is the first, Super Bowl-style, in front of the biggest audience in sports, and Shakira is headlining it.
Shakira saw dancer Enola Bedard’s video, reshared it to her own followers, and invited her to perform at the World Cup. Enola has more than 25 million followers and has danced with Jennifer Lopez, Usher, Nicki Minaj, and Daddy Yankee.
One thing that might help: nothing can be shared until after Sunday’s performance. Once it’s done, I can get you Enola and the dancers for interviews, plus photos and footage. First window anywhere.
Would that be of interest?
The follow-up, July 20, 2026. Yes in about two and a half hours.
Hi Jessica,
They performed, (it was amazing!) and it’s also taking off on social. The two reels are already at 11.4M and 14.4M views.
If there’s any interest in covering it, I can get you Enola and the dancers for interviews, plus photos and footage if you’d like.
Totally understand if you’re stacked, just wanted to flag it while it’s hot.
The first email asked her to believe a story that hadn’t happened yet. The second showed her it already had, with numbers she could check herself. Both stayed under 200 words and both offered interview access and photos. The follow-up didn’t restate the pitch. It added one new fact, the views, and linked both reels so she could see them herself.
How fast did Billboard move once it said yes?
About 27 hours from my follow-up to a live story. All times Eastern.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Monday, July 20, 12:13 p.m. | I sent the follow-up with the view counts |
| Monday, July 20, 2:47 p.m. | Billboard said yes and offered to do the interview by email, with a deadline of noon the next day and a request for high-resolution photos with credit |
| Monday, July 20, 3:18 p.m. | The six interview questions went out, with a request for the rehearsal timeline |
| Tuesday, July 21, 11:41 a.m. | I sent Enola’s answers, 19 minutes before deadline. A second dancer’s answers didn’t come back in time |
| Tuesday, July 21, 11:46 a.m. | Billboard said it could run with Enola’s answers alone, but couldn’t use social media or Getty photos. It needed photos Enola had taken herself, with credit |
| Tuesday, July 21, 3:22 p.m. | The story went live |
| Tuesday, July 21, 4:26 p.m. | I sent Enola’s photos, the date rehearsals started (July 11) and the choreographers’ names |
Two things almost cost us the story. One dancer’s answers didn’t make the deadline, so the piece ran with Enola alone. And the photos we had were the wrong kind. Agency and social images were out, so the only usable photos were on Enola’s phone.
What did Billboard run?
On July 21, 2026, Billboard published Jessica Roiz’s interview with Enola Bedard about joining Shakira on the field, under the headline “Viral Dancer Enola Bedard on Joining Shakira at the World Cup Halftime Show: ‘I Manifested It.’” Billboard needed photos Enola had taken herself, not social or agency images, so we pulled those from her phone with credit.
In the piece, Enola said: “It still doesn’t feel real. This was one of the biggest performances in the world, and I got to be part of it, and to dance with Shakira on top of that. It all feels so surreal. I’m incredibly grateful to have been part of such a historic and unforgettable moment.”
Enola reshared the piece to her own audience the same day, with “Thank you so much @billboardlatin.” One of her reshares read: “Still can’t believe my girls and I got to dance with Shakira.” By July 22, her two reels from the performance had passed 42 million combined views, up from about 25 million two days earlier.
The full campaign record is on the Enola Bedard and Menina Fortunato case studies.
What did the campaign produce for Enola Bedard and Menina Fortunato?
For Enola: one editorial feature, in Billboard, in her own words, two days after the final. It is a permanent, linkable record that she performed in the first halftime show in a World Cup final. We also wrote and distributed a press release, which was picked up on news feeds including Business Insider’s Markets Insider. That is press-release syndication, not editorial coverage, and we don’t count it as a placement.
For Menina: a documented moment for The Business of Dance. Dancers from her mentorship program were on the field for the first halftime show in a World Cup final, and the campaign around it is on the record.
Some of the dancers also got local TV through their own pitching. One dancer’s hometown station aired a segment on July 22, and another booked local TV and radio. Those came from the dancers, not from us, and we don’t count them.
What didn’t we get to?
- KTLA. Two producers at KTLA’s morning news were on the Los Angeles list, but we never had verified addresses for them, so they were never pitched.
- Daytime TV. One show we checked had already ended its run. Another’s booking contact sat behind a paid database we hadn’t run yet.
- Podcasts. The big entertainment and creator podcasts book through managers and booking producers, not public email. The better path was Enola’s own podcast relationships, through Menina. We didn’t get to it.
- Access Hollywood. We didn’t cold-pitch it. I went through a mutual contact instead.
- The New York shows after July 20. We stopped following up once the dancers flew home. There was no in-studio hit left to offer.
Nothing landed after July 23.
What would we do differently?
- Verify every address before the first send. Fourteen bounces cost us real slots in a nine-day window.
- Plan the follow-up as carefully as the pitch. The follow-up is never the main pitch, but it is what gets people published. The first email opened the thread. The one with live numbers closed it.
- Line up photo rights before the event. Billboard couldn’t use social or agency images. Having owned photos ready would have saved hours on deadline.
- Filter every market the same way. New York was filtered carefully from the start. Los Angeles wasn’t, and we had to rebuild that list in the middle of the campaign.
- Get every interviewee’s answers in early. On an emailed Q&A, the deadline is the editor’s, and only the answers that arrive in time make the piece.
Can you get press around a viral moment without a famous name attached?
It is harder, and it helps to be honest about what carried this one. Shakira’s reshare and a first-ever halftime show did most of the work. Our job was getting the story to the right desks fast, with the right angle and assets. Without a moment that big, the same method still works, but expect more silence and lean harder on the follow-up.
FAQ
Who danced with Shakira at the 2026 World Cup halftime show?
Shakira invited dancer and creator Enola Bedard and dancers from Menina Fortunato’s The Business of Dance after resharing their video to “Dai Dai.” They performed at the World Cup final halftime show on July 19, 2026.
Was the 2026 World Cup final the first with a halftime show?
Yes. The July 19, 2026 final at MetLife Stadium was the first World Cup final with a halftime show.
How did Enola Bedard end up in Billboard?
Influencer Press pitched Billboard’s Latin desk before the performance and followed up the day after with the view counts from Enola’s reels. Associate editor Jessica Roiz ran the interview on July 21, 2026.
How many outlets ran the story?
One editorial feature came from our pitching: Billboard. Of 52 contacts pitched, 29 never responded, 14 emails bounced, and 4 passed.
How do you pitch a story that’s under embargo?
Pitch the access, not the details. Say plainly that nothing can be shared until a set date, then offer the first interview window after it lifts.
How long did it take Billboard to publish after the follow-up?
About 27 hours. The follow-up went out at 12:13 p.m. ET on July 20, Billboard said yes at 2:47 p.m., and the story was live at 3:22 p.m. ET on July 21.
Should you put view counts in a follow-up pitch?
In this campaign, yes. The first pitch to Billboard got no reply. The follow-up added the two reels and their view counts, 11.4 million and 14.4 million at the time, and got a yes in about two and a half hours. Use the current numbers: by July 22 the same reels were past 42 million combined.
What photos can you send a publication for a feature?
Photos you have the rights to. Billboard couldn’t use social media or Getty images for this story and needed photos Enola had taken herself, credited to her.
Did Good Morning America air a segment on the World Cup halftime dancers?
No. GMA replied within minutes, took the story to two producers and discussed taping over Zoom after the game, then decided on July 20 to hold off.
Why do media list emails bounce?
Because lists go stale. In this campaign, 3 of 5 fresh sends on July 14 and 6 of 13 print sends on July 16 bounced off a list that hadn’t been verified. Run addresses through a verifier before you send.
Work with us
Influencer Press places founders and creators in major publications, on TV, on podcasts, on Times Square billboards and on stages, and makes sure what search engines and AI say about them is accurate. If you want help with any of it, you can apply to work with Influencer Press.
About the author
Ulyses Osuna founded Influencer Press at 19 and has run it for nearly a decade, placing founders and creators in major outlets, on TV, on podcasts and on Times Square billboards. He has appeared on The Dr. Phil Podcast, been a panelist on Nasdaq TradeTalks, and spoke at Harvard Kennedy School in 2026. More: about, methodology, transparency.
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