Top 10 PR and marketing stunts and campaigns of May 2014
By Rich Leigh on Monday, June 2, 2014
Well, that was the month of May. And it felt quiet. Are you ready, though, for the bout of tenuous brand piggybacking we’ll soon be subjected to and, in the most part, responsible for? Who says cheese doesn’t relate to football? NO-ONE. Can your client that manufactures drill bits be a part of the World Cup conversation? OF COURSE THEY CAN.
Well, I wish you and your client tweets that’ve been in planning for the last three months the best of luck. Be sure to send me anything you think might be good for the site by tweeting me @RichLeighPR or emailing me rich[at]PRexamples[dot]com.
Here, in reverse order and based solely on the number of unique views each post received, are the top ten PR and marketing campaigns throughout May 2014:
10. Rugby World Cup 2015 transform City Hall into a giant rugby ball – to highlight the fact there are 500 days to go until England hosts the Rugby (Union) World Cup, a London landmark was transformed into a MASSIVE rugby ball. Living in Gloucester as I do – our local stadium Kingsholm has been chosen to host group matches – I’m naturally very excited by all this. Post by Synergy’s Lewis Davey.
9. Lastminute.com recruit Nigel Farage… sort of – holiday website lastminute.com has created a video using a collection of clips of the UKIP leader’s public comments and edited them together to make a list of reasons to enjoy various European countries. Nice. Post by PR consultant Will Hoyles.
8. Premier Inn lends a hand to England ‘World Cup Seven’ – ex-client Premier Inn has reserved seven suites in their Heathrow airport hotel until June 2” (the last date in which replacements can link up with the final squad) for the seven players that made the England ‘standby list’. Post by Synergy Sponsorship’s Lewis Davey
7. First ever billboard set to appear on the moon – Japanese drinks firm Otsuka will place a 1kg titanium version of their sports drink, Pocari Sweat, on the moon’s surface next year. Post by WAA’s Alex Mansell
6. California Cops Are Pulling People Over For The Best Reason Ever – as part of an ongoing ‘Goodbye Serious’ campaign by Wall’s Ice Cream, Californian police pulled people over – to give them free ice cream! The post also includes another cool campaign by Wall’s, turning a normal bench into a see-saw at the touch of a button. Post by Twelve Thirty Eight’s Inderdeep Gill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M_nvQht7-c
5. Austravel connect Londoners to Bondi Beach with tunnel ‘to the other side of the world’ – Antipodean travel specialists Austravel created a tunnel ‘to the other side of the world’, using real-time footage from Down Under. Post by PR graduate Anastasia Yates.
Austravel show off their PR stunt.
4. Amazing Street Hack is Latest Viral PR Prank – to promote upcoming video game Watch_Dogs, members of the public (read: possibly actors) were given the ability to ‘hack’ streetlights, open locked cars and more using their mobile phones. Nice idea. Post by Warwick Uni student and PR aspirant Ciaran McCormick
3. Birds Eye open doors to world’s first pay-by-Instagram restaurant – customers at a pop-up restaurant called ‘The Picture House’ were able to pay by taking photos of their food in this smart campaign to promote Birds Eye’s new Inspirations range.
2. Professor Stephen Hawking unveils just how England can win the World Cup in Paddy Power stunt – with a few more days, this would no doubt have been the best-read campaign of the month. Bookies Paddy Power tasked scientific genius and British treasure Professor Stephen Hawking to work out just ‘how’ England can win the World Cup; the findings of which he presented to a room of journalists last week.
1. Morrisons project giant baguette onto Angel of the North – creator not best pleased – for no discernible reason; supermarket chain Morrisons projected a massive baguette onto the Angel of the North – a giant sculpture in the north of England. The campaign, whilst certainly not the ‘PR fail’ people made it out to be, received a mixed reception. You might also enjoy the unexpected mini-interview I gave in the comments section to a disgruntled reader.
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