02/08/2012
By Louise Findlay-Wilson, Creator Of PrPro And Owner Of Energy PR
Much has quite rightly been made of the Queen’s wonderful role in the Olympics ceremony. However, compared to the transformation of the stadium from ‘green and pleasant land, to industrial revolution’ it was an essentially simple idea, brilliantly executed. The ceremony made the best possible use of her — and she sportingly let them.
Just two months ago the Queen provided us all with a fantastic opportunity to harness her considerable appeal, thanks to the Diamond Jubilee. Unlike the Olympics there were no restrictions on how companies could ride on the Jubilee bandwagon. We could all commercially go mad with the possibilities and hitch our marketing to this wonderful occasion. But what did most smaller businesses do? Nothing! Big brands went to town, modifying their packaging, running special promotions and so forth. But smaller companies just didn’t seem to get it.
I think the challenge for many is they assume ideas cost money — but this just isn’t true. To show you what I mean I want to give you two examples of two companies who did exploit the occasion. The first is our own client Galt Toys. As part of the jubilee celebrations we asked a heap of kids what rules they would bring in if they were Queen. Their responses were fantastically mixed, from the serious like stopping bullying, to the downright daft ("banning orange food" a request of one child who clearly hates their carrots!) These suggestions were worked up into a proclamation which a young girl, dressed as a princess, then read out as an alternative Queen’s speech. This was filmed and hosted on Galt’s site and on You Tube. While asking the kids about their wishes, we also grilled them about their attitudes to royalty, politicians and celebrities to see which people they thought were the most important. The resultant story secured great exposure for Galt in The Daily Telegraph.
None of this was big or complicated either. It was just a bit of fun designed to encourage kids to interact with the brand.
Another Jubilee stunt which caught my eye for its simplicity was by Haribo. They had a fantastic picture of the Queen created using 13,000 Haribo sweets. I saw the picture in the amazing Museum of Brands and loved it so much that I took a quick pic. It’s also on YouTube, was picked up in the Daily Telegraph and ran across regional press. Obviously hiring the specialist food sculptor to create the chewy masterpiece will have incurred a cost, but there’s not much more to this than that. It’s brilliantly eye catching and oh so simple.
That is the genius of PR. It’s all about the idea; it’s rarely about the cost.
Louise Findlay-Wilson has two businesses to help get your PR motoring:
If you are looking for a great PR agency visit www.EnergyPR.co.uk
For more PR training and tools so you can do your own PR visit www.prpro.co.uk
