Your goals
Your publicity goals should be closely linked to your business goals.
Publicity is just a tool at your disposal... many businesses forget this and do publicity either for the sake of it, or for vanity reasons.
But it works better (and it's more fun to do) when you can watch your business benefit from the free publicity.
If your business goal is open a new shop this year, by driving sales from your existing shop up 20%, your publicity should aim to get people into your existing store. If the goal is to increase sales from your website, your publicity shold aim to drive web traffic.
Remember that the media will not publish commercial messages. They won't write Andy's Cars are the most reliable taxis in town this New Year's Eve. But they will write Andy's Cars are rewarding everyone working in bars this New Year's Eve, by giving them free rides home.