I love gathering good PR case histories to use in my training and workshops. This year, I’ve chosen some of my favourite PR examples to reflect the variety of ways in which PR can be integrated with other communications.
Favourite PR stunt, Lego Oscars
Lego is no newcomer to executing PR stunts and one of my favourite is the #LegoOscar trophies which were made and presented to stars during the awards and at an after party to publicise the song track to the Lego Movie which was nominated but failed to win an award. With so many other brands vying for Hollywood’s attention, Lego stole the show as can be seen from Oprah Winfrey’s reaction. Fans took to social media to share the pictures and watch the video of how to make their own lego Oscar and this quickly spurred a host of other instructional videos.
Favourite social experiment, Guns with History
How do you deter US citizens who are considering buying a gun for personal safety reasons not to? You set up a fake shop where every gun has a secret history.
States United to Prevent Gun Violence ran a social experiement with its fake shop in New York where customers were unknowingly filmed as they browsed the guns on sale. As they handle the guns and read about their features, they soon realise that every gun in the shop has been involved in a mass killing or accidental shooting. Their reactions were filmed then broadcast as a public service advertisement and supported with media relations and social media. A genius idea to get people to reconsider the dangers of owning a gun.
Favourite Christmas campaign, John Lewis
With a full moon falling on Christmas Day and a British astronaut going into space in December – outer space was always going to be high on the agenda. But the Age UK link up and the cohesive integration of the communications is what sets John Lewis’ ‘Man on the Moon’ Christmas campaign from others.
For me, the fact that John Lewis has drawn attention to elderly people who are lonely is commendable and it will be interesting to see what effect this has had in encouraging people to help the elderly at Christmas.
Pre-launch media relations and social ensured plenty of buzz, online shoppers were emailed on the morning of launch and then the ‘blipvert’ teaser shown that evening during ITV’s Xfactor programme. Other techniques included a clever advent calendar App with moon facts to keep people engaged with the brand up to Christmas Day, in-store displays and merchandising.
Favourite use of partnerships, #Missingtype
Keeping an awareness week fresh can be challenging, yet the #Missingtype campaign for NHS Blood and Transplant’s National Blood Week in June succeeded with a simple idea and message that others found compelling.
Partner organisations such as Downing Street, Daily Mirror and Metro removed the letters A, B and O from their brand names to disrupt and raise awareness of the shortage of these blood groups. Waterstones’ Trafalgar Square shop lost its A and O, Odeon dimmed the Os at its flagship cinema in Leicester Square and Green & Blacks Organic also removed the As, Os and Bs from the Blood Orange chocolate bar. This was supported with PR and media relations, digital and social who used the simple creative of removing letters from their content to grab attention and get people talking. Hundreds of organisations jumped on the bandwagon and joined in (including Google, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Nandos, Arsenal FC, British Airways, 02, Spotify, Women’s Institute and The Church of England).
To make it easier for people to book appointments, a new digital system was put in place and a new App developed which were used by over 700,000 people. Within the first ten days of activity, a record new 30,000 donors registered. A great campaign.
Favourite low cost example, Consent is everything
I love the simplicity of this cartoon film which aims to tackle the difficult issue of educating people about what consitutes sexual consent to help prevent rape.
By cleverly comparing forcing someone to have sex to forcing someone to have a cup of tea when they don’t want it or have changed their mind, Thames Valley Police’s film tackles an important and often confusing issue with humour and clear instructions. The 3-minute film is highly sharable and it centres around something we do almost every day – asking someone/gaining acceptance to serve them a cup of tea.
What were your favourite PR examples from 2015? Please get in touch with me to share them.
And if you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then you might want to check out my favourite PR examples from 2014 or take a look at the PR training courses that I run.
