PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad & The Viral

‘Tis the season to be jolly  (fah la la la la, la la la la) and our round up of PR Campaigns for December are well and truly in the festive spirit from giant, controversial advent calendars, to sandwiches that give back, endless Christmas dinners and most importantly at this time of year; those companies that are doing some good.

Beery Christmas Countdown

Popular beer brand, Bank’s Beer, has turned an old disused building into a giant advent calendar as part of its Christmas campaign. The building has 25 windows, each with a unique graffiti image and statement on Christmas – stating things we all think but wouldn’t dare to say!

Examples of the controversial window messages include, an image of a Christmas light covered house stating, “Sod global warming, its Christmas”, a snowman with yellow snow and my favourite – an image of a present with the caption “Half price next week”. The beer brand have created a talking point and proved themselves to be cutting edge and not afraid of putting themselves out there – a stance many appreciate in this corporate world of ‘safe’ messaging.

Although fun and a bit different this campaign hasn’t actually achieved any coverage for Bank's Beer apart from a few pieces of trade and one regional – still a fun way to start the festive season.

Winner, Winner, Christmas Dinner

This campaign comes from the king of roast chains, Toby Carvery, who is gleefully trotting down the ‘job of a lifetime’ PR Campaign route that we see so often.

The UK restaurant chain has launched a new job, where one ‘lucky’ candidate can become a Christmas dinner taste tester. We don’t know about you, but we usually eat around 2-3 roast dinners over the festive season and halfway through the third we never want to see a sprout again so we’re not convinced this ‘job’ will have that many applicants. Although getting applicants isn’t the point here is it…getting coverage is.

The job ad appeared on LinkedIn (nice and cost effective whilst also seeming genuine) and states that the employee will be traveling up and down the country tasting ‘different’ Toby Carvery’s Christmas dinners, passing judgement and getting them all for free.

The job used the hashtag #HireMeToby, where candidates would apply using it, submitting a 25-word piece on how they’re perfect for the job. The ad has created quite a buzz, being covered on Metro, Cosmopolitan and many more smaller titles. Good news for Toby, this quick, cheap and simple campaign has worked (although we won’t be applying).

 Care in A Manger

Out of all the festive campaigns we’ve seen so far, we’re most impressed with Pret-a-Manger, the brand is shunning traditional Christmas marketing tactics and will instead dedicate its marketing channels and digital media budget to the five charities it works with via the Pret Foundation Trust.

The foundation, which raises money to help the homeless, supports charities including Glasgow City Mission, The Choir with No Name, The Clock Tower Sanctuary in Brighton, Cardboard Citizens in Whitechapel, and The 999 Club in Deptford.

Pret’s digital media budget will be donated to charity content, including sponsored posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to promote videos, blog posts and news from the charities. On Instagram a portrait photography series will tell the stories of the people they work with through the different charities and Pret’s Apprenticeship Scheme for the homeless and ex-offenders.

Mark Palmer, group director of marketing at Pret said, “We’re delighted to donate our marketing channels and media, both physical and digital, to the Pret Foundation Trust and the charities we work with. It’s our way of saying ‘a little thank you’”.

PR support will also be given to each of the charities to help tell their stories to key media over the winter months.

Yesterday the company kicked off its Christmas menu where 50p from every sandwich and baguette sold from the range will be donated to the Pret Foundation Trust.

This campaign didn’t achieve consumer coverage (but we think it is more authentic for not having done so seeing as they didn’t have any marketing budget) it was however covered in the trade titles.

One of UK's Busiest Train Stations to Become a Homeless Shelter this Christmas

On Monday December 25, 200 homeless guests have been invited to Euston train station in London for a festive feast.

For the first time, Network Rail has teamed up with homelessness charities Streets Kitchen and St Mungo's to welcome those in need onto the concourse at Euston Station, which will be decorated with trees and garlands.

Around 30 volunteers from Network Rail are joining teams from Streets Kitchen and St Mungo's to serve a full Christmas dinner. Sandwich shops Pret (yep, they are king of the do-gooders this year) and Leon have also promised to lay on extra food. "The Pret Foundation Trust will be donating snacks and sweet treats," Pret told Mirror Online.

Steve Naybour, head of transformation in Network Rail’s track team, is running the event: "Using a station to give homeless people a Christmas dinner and some festive cheer is a great thing to do.

"Working on Christmas Day is pretty much par for the course for many of us who work for Network Rail, but this year, because I wasn’t scheduled to work, myself and a handful of colleagues came up with this plan to feed some of London’s homeless instead.

"St Mungo’s and Streets Kitchen have been fantastic. And I’m proud to say we’ve had lots of interest from Network Rail colleagues to volunteer to come along on the day to help out."

Street Kitchen's Jon Glackin said the event is a "shining example" of businesses working with community groups to bring a little solidarity in making a difference in the world.

He said those involved hope and suggest that it "could be replicated anywhere and everywhere."

This campaign is such a lovely, organic idea thought up by staff and supported by their employers – we love it – proper Christmas spirit!

Forget Hotels and Air BnB – This Festive Season You Could be Sleeping Inside the Coca-Cola Truck!

Nothing says 'Christmas' quite like the Coca-Cola Christmas Truck, but this year the brand is upping its game; one pair of lucky fans won't just get to see the truck during its UK tour – they will get to spend a night in it!

Coca-Cola has teamed up with LateRooms.com for the special competition, which offers two people a once-in-a-lifetime stay inside the truck in London on Friday 15th December 2017. It's the first time ever that Coca-Cola is opening its doors to the iconic red truck for the ultimate Christmas sleepover.

There will also be a dedicated concierge in case guests need any extra comforts and of course, the lucky winners will be able to tuck into a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings.

If people wanted to be in with the chance of winning they simply had to head to the Coca-Cola Christmas Truck listing on LateRooms.com and explain why they were the ultimate Christmas fan. Christmas fans had until midday on Friday 8th December to enter the competition.

This festive PR campaign was featured in multiple online national titles including The Mirror, The Sun, Metro and The Evening Standard.

PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad & The Viral

The festive season is well and truly upon us, but that doesn’t mean we’re winding down at Sunny Bird PR. As we wrap up against the incoming cold spell, we thought we’d wrap up the best and worst PR campaigns we’ve come across this month.

This month’s round up of thought-provoking campaigns include putting coats on statues, a savvy survey which reached 33 million readers, a virtual look into homelessness at Christmas and an election campaign which embarrassingly backfired.

Charity Wraps Up Iconic London Statues

As #snowwatch begins to trend on Twitter and Londoners breaking out in a panic bread-buying frenzy it seems apt to highlight a campaign that pegs itself on the cold London streets.

Iconic statues in London have been covered up in red coats to encourage Londoners to donate their old coats to those in need in this year’s Wrap up London campaign. Wrap Up London is a campaign run by the registered charity Hands On London.

The charity commandeered three London statues in high traffic areas – Sherlock Holmes at Baker Street station, Amy Winehouse at Camden Market, and Kinder Transport at Liverpool Street station and dressed them in bright red coats to raise awareness for the cause.

The campaign, which is now in its seventh year, asks Londoners to send any old, unwanted or unloved coats to the charity to support vulnerable people this winter. Wrap Up London will then send the coats to charities across the capital.

Last year’s campaign saw an impressive 23,000 coats donated, but the number of people living in crisis in the city is rising, particularly those who are young and homeless, so the need is even greater.

This campaign is not only for a great cause but it’s also effective and simplistic – two key components for any successful PR campaign. The proof here is in the pudding with coverage in Metro Online, City A.M, Kensington Chelsea & Westminster Today, East London Advertiser along with a host of other London-centric titles.

Survey finds half of all professionals are bored, tired or angry

Job site CV-Library recently conducted a survey on 1,200 employees across the UK to find out if they are happy at work. The results showed that a large portion of the respondents were in fact unhappy, with boredom, fatigue and anger cited as reasons.

Furthermore, the study found that marketing, legal, hospitality, accounting and computing offered the lowest job satisfaction. CV-Library’s Managing Director commented on the results, saying “We spend too much time at work to not enjoy what we do”.

The underlying message is clear: If your job is making you miserable, you should do something about it and look for a new one. This goes hand in hand with CV-Library’s aim to get more people signing up to the site and start applying for new positions.

Not only did the feature make it to Yahoo News UK and Evening Standard Online, potentially reaching an astonishing 33 MILLION readers. Thanks to its focus on a range of popular professions, it also made it to several trade websites, including ComputerWeekly (IT), economia (Accounting), Onrec (Recruitment) and HR News (HR).

Considering the only assets required for the story were a survey and an expert comment sourced from within the company, CV-Library has shown that you don’t need to spend a bomb to see your story go far and wide!

Retailer highlights homelessness at Christmas

High street retail giant Marks and Spencer gave commuters an insight into the stark reality of Christmas for thousands of Britons, far removed from the happy smiles and mouth-watering food featured on the shop’s TV adverts.

Partnering up with the national homelessness charity Shelter, M&S hosted a virtual reality Christmas pop-up in the country’s busiest railway station- London Waterloo.

‘Diners’ entering the retailer’s pop-up were immersed in three very different Christmas Days scenarios by way of a VR experience of real people in real houses.

The first two videos commuters watched were positive, featuring cheerful families opening presents and tucking into a festive feast.

In contrast, the third showed a homeless family crammed into one room of a hostel devoid of any Christmas cheer without a tree or decoration in sight.

The campaign message is clear: all this family wants for Christmas is a home.

The busy day was documented by Shelter which shared images and videos of the pop-up on its twitter alongside emotive clips related to the campaign.

M&S also shared the day’s events on its social media channels and, in partnership with the charity, created Christmas collection which donates 5% of sales to Shelter.

The PR campaign cleverly harnessed interactive technology to show customers ‘how the other half live’ by virtually putting them in another family’s shoes.

It is a brilliant example of how a brand can raise awareness of a charity and create positive brand associations at a time of year when the general public is arguably at its most generous.

Stunt Mocking Estate Agency ‘May & Co’ Backfires

A Liberal Democrat election stunt dramatically backfired this year after it emerged the party's spoof 'May and Co’ estate agency already exists.

As part of its campaign against Conservative social care plans – dubbed as ‘dementia tax’ – the Liberal Democrats created a spoof called ‘May & Co’ estate agents.

However, the real May and Co has been operating in Chelsea since 1920 and its owner John Yianni was quick to notify the party of its mistake.

Yianni revealed that he was alerted to the firm’s fake name when he began receiving ‘off’ phone calls and the company’s Twitter started to gain more traction.

The owner said he had received an apology from the organiser of the campaign stunt and as a result, the Lib Dems renamed its fake firm to ‘Theresa May & Co’ and altered the address of the spoof website.

Despite the organiser apologising for the mistake, the Lib Dems insisted that its campaign against Tory social care plans would be continuing under the name ‘Theresa May & Co.’

News of this campaign was covered in national titles including The Telegraph, BBC News and Sky News.

PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad & The Viral

Another month has flown by in the Sunny Bird PR office. As we dust off our winter scarves and enjoy mugs of hot chocolate by the gallon, we take a look back at some of our favourite campaigns that we came across last month. From a travelling tote bag, to utilising a famous celebrity face, here are our campaign choices, so grab a cuppa and settle in…

Totes Go Travelling

Estate Agents have been battling their fat pinstripe, wide boy, wheeler dealer stereotype since the eighties. Reading some positive press on West Hampstead’s Paramount agency in The Guardian this month made for a refreshing change.

The agency hired a new and dynamic marketing manager, Carla Bradman, who saw the benefit in communicating with the community through social media. Bradman, knowing the local residents well, tapped into their love of West Hampstead, travelling and sharing these loves via social media.

The agency teamed up with a local artist, Rachel Day, who designed an illustrated map of West Hampstead which was printed onto canvas tote bags. The bags were given away from the agency offices as well as from local bookshops encouraging them to be taken on travels and pictured around the world with the hashtag #WhampPlanet. Photos posted with the hashtag were automatically entered into a monthly competition which was judged by a local blogger, Jonathan Turton, and each month a winner was awarded vouchers for local shops.

These unique and funky totes were pictured in all four corners of the globe ranging from the Gobi desert in Mongolia, the Super Bowl final, the Galápagos Islands and the Glowworm Caves in New Zealand. The totes also made an appearance at three of the Seven Wonders of the World: the Great Wall of China, the Kukulkan pyramid in Chichen Itza, Mexico and Machu Picchu.

Tapping into local trends and community spirit are all good PR, says Mark Greig, founder and CEO: “We wanted to separate ourselves from the other 10 agents on the high street.” As a result of the competition, the business has become part of an engaged online community, its Twitter following has reached 5,228. “Social media goes hand-in-hand with the customer”, says Greig. He explained that, as with the travel industry, review sites influence estate agents’ reputation making them vital for business.

We admire the simplicity of this PR social media campaign and how at all stages, it links back to the community. After all, who else is going to be buying, selling, and renting property other than the locals? The bag was designed by a local artist, the illustration was of the local neighbourhood, the photos were judged by a local blogger and it really worked. Paramount undoubtedly stands out now amongst its competitors as a company that cares about and invests in the local community.

Gold PR Heated Up CoolSculpting’s Campaign

Non-surgical, fat-reduction treatment CoolSculpting, has received consistent consumer news coverage since its initial launch in 2010 through product announcements. With competitive brands launching and expanding, the brand was seeking a way to support its current market, lift its brand profile and gain more media interest.

It’s PR company Gold PR, recommended a celebrity partnership. With the importance of marketing products and keeping relevant to the target audience and budget, Molly Sims was identified as an ideal CoolSculpting brand ambassador. Molly Sims is a 43 year old actress, model, author and mother of three who experienced amazing results using CoolSculpting after giving birth.

Gold PR and CoolSculpting announced the partnership to press. This included lining up a national TV exclusive with an evening entertainment show, a Satellite Media Tour and staging media tours in New York City. She shared honest dialogue and tips that helped her get back to her old self in her own way, which happened to include CoolSculpting. Her style was relatable and inspired so many women.

Following the media tour, Gold PR also arranged on-going top-tier print, online and radio interviews to tell Sims’ story. “Many of the beauty reporters and influencers we were targeting during this campaign were familiar with CoolSculpting, and/or had covered the treatment previously. With the Molly Sims campaign, we were able to present these outlets with new and different angles for covering the CoolSculpting story via Molly’s personal experience,” Gold PR explains.

Gold PR helped CoolSculpting create assets to help tell the story of the campaign. These included press releases announcing the campaign, Molly Sims’ biography as well as photos and videos. With these assets, Gold PR secured an exclusive interview with “E! News” prior to first media day.

This particular campaign achieved 22 TV and radio segments, 70 articles in magazines and newspapers (including Elle, AOL, Yahoo Beauty, InStyle.com and Vanity Fair) and the company saw a 40 per cent increase in new users on social media, compared to the previous month.

Rockstar Riders

Food delivery company Deliveroo offered rock fans the chance to snack like their favourite stars. The campaign was timed around Glastonbury and they used key headliners as a way to grab column inches. Deliveroo compiled an official list of the food items requested by certain stars. These food requests are often referred to as ‘riders’.

Deliveroo then gave the general public the opportunity to order their favourite rockstar ‘rider’ during the week of Glastonbury. This simple, yet effective PR campaign enabled the food delivery company to jump on the back of the media train that follows this major festival each year.

The most popular rockstar riders were said to be Ed Sheeran’s and Katy Perry’s. Ed’s favourite item of Robinson’s squash went down well with fans, as did Katy’s bottle of pinot grigio and dried fruit selection. Deliveroo managed to capitalise on the public interest that goes along with these celebrities. It was an interesting angle that inquisitive people enjoyed reading.

By hosting the celeb riders online they created the perfect call-to-action for the reader and the Deliveroo homepage link was included in the majority of coverage.

The story enjoyed blanket coverage and was covered by Sky News, Metro, Daily Mail, The Sun, The Guardian, OK Magazine and the Express.

Ikea Created The Ultimate House Party

Earlier this month, IKEA opened the doors to an ambitious, week-long exhibition in a central London townhouse to celebrate 30 years of trading in the UK. Spanning over four floors, the public was invited to view a quintessential British living room that took inspiration from the Eighties, Nineties and Noughties as well as a top-floor installation showing the living room of the future.

In the evenings, the exhibition was transformed into the “ultimate house party”, where partygoers could step back in time and enjoy DJ sets, drinks and canapés from each era. While the daytime activities were free for all, the evening antics were reserved for ticket holders. Anyone could buy a ticket, but they sold out quickly due to high demand.

This campaign goes hand in hand with Ikea’s tagline of celebrating “The wonderful everyday”, offering both a nostalgic insight to life through the ages and cementing Ikea as an integral part of British life. It did a brilliant job in showcasing Ikea’s ethos as well as its furniture, while creating a fun and exciting event that went much further than just “look at our amazing products”.

The fact that the campaign encompassed both interior design and an event meant it was covered not only in national press such as The Daily Mail, Evening Standard Homes & Property, and House Beautiful, but also in local London events titles including Secret London, London on the Inside and Time Out.

PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad & The Viral

This month’s roundup of PR campaigns feature three brilliant examples from Walkers, who fed Londoners using an interactive bus stop, Nisim’s scientific approach to hair care and a simple yet successful campaign from Vision Express.

#TWEETTOEAT

Although a few years old now, we really like this campaign from Walkers in 2014: The nation’s favourite crisp brand transformed three London bus stops into tweet-activated vending machines as part of its 'Do us a Flavour' campaign.

With Walkers already renowned for its quirky and talked about campaigns, this one was no different. Passers-by of the novel vending machine bus stops in Clapham and Oxford Street were encouraged to tweet @Walkers_busstop, triggering the vending machine to deliver a free packet of crisps to the tweeter.

"Walkers loves bringing fun to the nation and we are extremely excited to launch the first ever Twitter vending machine on the streets of London" said Walkers marketing manager Lee-Teng Chung at the time.

The 2014 'Do us a Flavour' campaign championed six ‘finalist’ flavours which included: Sizzling Steak Fajita, Chip Shop Chicken Curry, Pulled Pork in a Sticky BBQ Sauce, Ranch Raccoon, Cheesy Beans on Toast and Hot Dog with Tomato Ketchup. The vending machines were stocked with one of the six finalist flavours and dispensed 260 packets of crisps daily. The public were also encouraged to vote for their favourite flavour online, taking it from an interactive campaign to a social media campaign.

Not only was this campaign a success on social media, but it also made the consumer media with articles on big hitters such as the Mail Online (2,302,409) and a number of features in trade press too. All in all, another campaign packed full of flavour from the big, crispy giant of crisps.

LAUNCH OF NEW HAIR GROWTH SHAMPOO GETS THE TEST OF TIME

Anyone who has ever regretted a haircut knows it can seem like an age before the upsetting trim grows out. So is there a way to grow out hair quicker? Hair care brand Nisim claims there is, with the launch of its ‘F.A.S.T’ (Fortified Amino Scalp Therapy) shampoo and conditioner which promises to make your hair grow up to 99% faster in one month.

Before being stocked in major retailers, the product was clinically trailed on over 1,000 men and women. On average, test subjects found that after 12 weeks of massaging this product into their hair with every shower, their hair grew around 30% faster than usual. One subject even experienced an astonishing 99% boost in hair length!

Nisim also sent free samples of F.A.S.T to a range of journalists and bloggers for them to try and testament to its effectiveness, resulting in a number of reviews online and in print. Most prominently, a Daily Mail journalist trialled it for four weeks and wrote a review, analysing her hair length at the end of each week. Within the feature, two trichologists (that’s hair and scalp specialists to you and me) also commented on the results and explained that it may not have been the ingredients in the treatment that made her hair grow, but that it was more likely due to the fact that she was massaging her scalp 14 times a week and conditioning her hair every day.

Despite the words of doubt from the trichologists, Nisim achieved three Mail Online (2,302,409) features and over 50 pieces of coverage over the course of two years. This included reviews from bloggers and journalists, product roundups and launch features.

VISION EXPRESS TELLS US WHY WE NEED REGULAR HEALTH CHECKS

Vision Express created the last campaign in this month’s line-up. On the back of National Eye Health Week which took place last week, the visionary company compiled a feature that was as simple as it was effective.

The article starts with an unsettling quote by Vision Express optician Omar Hassan, emphasising the importance of regular eye checks and encouraging us to continue reading. He says: "With many conditions, 40% of vision could be lost without the patient noticing anything is wrong… I see patients with sight problems that could have been prevented if it had been diagnosed earlier."

This statement is followed by a list of which risk factors to look out for as well as what to expect of your eyes through different ages. The article covers eye health among kids and teens, people in their 20’s and 30’s, 40’s and 50’s and those who are 60+.

The beauty of this feature is its simplicity: From our perspective, it looks like the only asset required was some research on people’s eye health habits as well as an in-house expert to advice on eye health through the ages and provide further commentary within the article.  

In short, it appears that Vision Express used assets it already had to create a topical and relevant feature. It was published on the Mirror Online (895,503) and shared further to the Mirror’s 952,000 Twitter followers, proving that a great PR campaign doesn’t have to be eye-wateringly expensive!

PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad & The Viral

This month’s round-up of weird and wonderful PR campaigns include a hotly debated cosmetic surgery campaign, a travel company causing an actual brawl in Derby, hipster weddings, a fudge Mayan temple and the current topic of Instagram and promoting body positivity.

COSMETIC SURGERY FIRM PUTS BLOGGERS FRONT AND CENTRE

Cosmetic Surgery brand Transform channelled the power of bloggers to help tell personal stories to promote a number of procedures.

The bloggers used included; Sarah Ashcroft (That Pommie Girl) who discussed her breast enlargement, Monikh Dale (Tres Monikh) discussing her lip enhancement, Lydia Millen discussing her laser hair removal and Scarlet Dixon (Scarlett London) discussing her rhinoplasty.

The Instagram and YouTube accounts of the bloggers were used to drive the campaign, looking to position the brand as the best for cosmetic alterations among young women, but also explaining their back stories and their experience with Transform.

The campaign launched in Spring 2016 and ran for a year, with a total spend of £770,000. The material contained no call to action, with Transform hoping to attract fans of each blogger in a more organic way.

The campaign was a hit with the blogger’s followers, gaining support through likes, comments and shares. However national press such as The Guardian and the Mail Online debated whether this was a positive campaign for Transform. A particular video of Sarah Ashcroft was used as a TV advert explaining the process of her boob job and after a week of being aired the video was banned due to it being seen as 'exploiting' young women's insecurities. Online press agreed that the video painted a negative brand image, claiming that it encouraged younger women to get a breast enlargement to gain confidence.

The Blogger stories represented a marketing shift for the company, moving from prioritising TV and print and instead leaning towards digital and social media platforms. This proved to be a popular campaign with the bloggers and their followers; however the general public did find criticism.

JET2HOLIDAYS CAUSES MASSIVE BRAWL

Next, we are looking back at a travel PR stunt gone wrong. Travel company Jet2holidays inadvertently caused a mass brawl as they offered the general public the opportunity to win free flights to a selection of European destinations.

The invitation was put out across their social media channels and people turned up in their droves to the chosen areas in Derby, Nottingham and Leicestershire. Upon arriving in Derby, Jet2holidays had collected a group of young, staff members dressed in red morph suits and the general public were instructed to track them down across the city and tap them for the chance to win free flights. Unfortunately, members of the public rugby-tackled, barged and fought their way to the free flights, with a number of people getting hurt in the process.

The disastrous stunt was covered by BBC News, Mail Online, The Telegraph, The Mirror and The Huffington Post. Additionally, members of the general public took to twitter to express their unhappiness with the company.

I SHORE DO

It’s official. The hipster craze has reached its crescendo. They’ve commandeered the man buns, lumberjack shirts, funny coffee choices, vegan food, tattoos, pretend glasses, handlebar moustaches and beard accessories and now they have their own hipster weddings.

Hipster (hɪpstə): A person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream.

Andaz, a hotel in London’s hipster origin Shoreditch, launched the ‘Get Shore-hitched’ wedding package, carefully crafted with all the hipster needs in mind. The package features handcrafted graffiti invitations created by local street artists and complimentary tattoos. Newlyweds can feast on canapés and a wedding breakfast menu created by Shoreditch street food vendors after the ceremony, which will take place in the hotel’s Masonic Temple, a secret room hidden in the depths of the hotel. The hipster wedding fun doesn’t stop there, post-wedding, a local Shoreditch designer will recycle wedding dresses into an outfit that can be used over and again.

We might be seeing the light at the end of the hipster trend, but this is a good way for the East London hotel to highlight and strengthen its relationships with local suppliers and come out on top of this niche market. Coverage-wise, this was picked up by a good number of titles including; The Independent, Good Housekeeping, the Metro and the Evening Standard achieving some hip PR for the hotel too.

We wonder how long it’ll be until we see the hipster divorce?

SUGAR HIT!

We’re looking way back to 2013 at a very successful PR campaign by British heritage brand Tate & Lyle. To celebrate a range of golden and brown cane sugars, the leading sugar brand lured unsuspecting journalists to the world’s first ‘edible hotel’. Very Hansel and Gretel of them – albeit without the witch.

According to the Mail Online, “Lucky residents munched their way through vanilla sponge cushions, windows and walls clad with 2,000 macaroons, a rug made from 1,081 meringues and 20 kilos of marshmallows.”

The Soho-based guest house took a team of 14 cake makers more than 2,000 hours to bake and 900 hours to decorate, and was created using more than 600 kilos of sugar. In addition, there were themed rooms including a Golden Syrup room and a Mayan-inspired room which included a fudge Mayan Temple.

The main objective was to inspire consumers to ‘get creative in the kitchen’. We think they did a rather tasty job as the stunt was covered numerous times by leading media outlets – surely that has to be the icing on the cake, no?

MYPROTEIN JUMPS ON THE BODY POSITIVITY BANDWAGON

Sports nutrition supplement MyProtein wants to show the world that gaining weight through a high protein diet does not only make you feel better, but makes you look better too. To prove this, they challenged 12 women to gain weight healthily through a MyProtein diet and exercise regime. The women then posted their before and after photos along with their before and after weights on Instagram with the hashtags #gainingweightiscool and #screwthescale. Some of them gained as much as three stone and we believe most people would agree that they look better in their fuller, more toned after-photos.

With this, MyProtein has done two great things. First of all, they have created an incredibly visual fitness campaign that stands out in that it doesn’t tell you that you need to lose weight to look fit and healthy, but rather that gaining weight may be a better option. Secondly, it jumps on a very current trend which is a brilliant way to get noticed; the hashtags used in the campaign have been popular among fitness practitioners and body positivity campaigners for some time and have been used on Instagram thousands of times. By using these hashtags, MyProtein did a great job in appealing to a community that aligns with their core messages of promoting health and fitness. Although whether telling women gaining weight will make them hotter really screams ‘body positivity’ is still a topic that’s up for debate.

The campaign gained worldwide coverage, from Daily Mail and Daily Star in the UK, to People and Insider in the US, as well as outlets in Poland and Germany – showing that people love a positive health message all across the world.

PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad & The Viral

This month's PR Campaigns chosen by the Sunny Bird PR team include colourful street art in cities across the country, a seagull in Weymouth teaching us some environmental lessons, a project in the US rewarding people for recycling and a war against the Best Before date.

Dulux paints the town…colourful

Dulux’s relationship with its consumer was typically conducted through a giant, shaggy dog until the brand’s colour campaigns came along. There have been a series of these ranging from partnerships with Olympians to injecting colour back into the prohibition era. Our favourite colour campaign from Dulux is this one; an outdoor PR and experiential campaign that saw illustrators paint city murals across the UK to demonstrate how colour can transform surroundings.

The campaign, called 'Colour Britain' comprised of eight giant murals and artworks hand painted onto canvases in town squares around the country.

The sites were designed by illustrators to celebrate stories of history, heritage, colour and culture from cities across Britain.  Dulux wanted the canvas murals to create a positive atmosphere in high streets and town squares with their bright hues. The public chose local stories to inspire the artworks, with Liverpool’s featuring The Beatles, Birmingham’s celebrating the modern British curry and London’s highlighting the iconic black cab.

The eights murals were painted at a location chosen by the public using #colourbritain and the illustrators included Anna Kilpelainen, Adrian Johnson and Emily Forgot. Interviews with the artists and time-lapse videography of the installations were also designed which formed the basis of social media content for the brand.

"We believe that life is a story that deserves a colourful backdrop and as such this initiative champions use of vibrant colour in unusual locations to truly brighten people's daily lives," said Johnny Corbett, Dulux Marketing Manager.

Getting the public involved in this experiential campaign from the start meant that when the murals were going up the locals were invested and interested. This natural pride in #lovewhereyoulive would have encouraged a steady flow of social media posts allowing the Dulux campaign to be shared outside of those eight cities.

Fun, regional campaign gains national interest 

Isn’t it a pain when a seagull sneakily steals a chip out of your hands?! A recent regional PR campaign has gained traction within the national media by using some fun, cheeky seagulls to spread an important environmental message.

Litter Free Coast & Sea is a community campaign that aims to reduce marine and beach litter and improve bathing water quality in Devon and Dorset. The latest campaign, cleverly named ‘don’t feed the locals’, aims to highlight the problem that litter can cause when it comes to greedy gulls. Rubbish left on beaches encourages seagulls to frequent the area and not only can seagulls be a pain when they decide to harass and steal food; they also contaminate our beaches and sea with their poo.

Litter Free Coast & Sea hosted two events along Weymouth seafront during half term, to get the message out to visitors and locals about not feeding the seagulls. Two people in giant seagull costumes visited the seafront and posed for some well-timed, humorous photographs. Their cheeky nature created lots of laughs and helped spread the message and the story was picked up by both The Metro and The London Evening Standard.

This is a great example of a regional PR campaign that has gained national exposure due to its simple and fun photography.

Rinse, recycle, repeat your bathroom empties

Rinse, Recycle, Repeat is a national recycling program in the U.S for beauty and personal care products that motivates the next generation to make an impact on the planet by recycling their empty beauty products.

Garnier, TerraCycle and DoSomething.org launched a ‘Rinse, Recycle, Repeat’ national campaign and college competition with YouTube personality Remi Cruz, with the aim to educate and raise awareness about the next generation to responsibly recycle their beauty empties. The aim is to divert 10 million beauty and personal care empties from landfills by the end of 2017.

National Campaign

People who wanted to participate in the national campaign had to sign up online at DoSomething.org/rinse, decorate a bathroom recycling bin and share a picture with DoSomething.org on the "Prove It" page online or by texting RINSE to 38383 to be entered to be in with the chance of winning a $5,000 scholarship.

Once the bin was filled with 4.5kg of empty bottles, participants could print a free shipping label to send their empties to TerraCycle to be responsibly recycled.

College Competition

As well as the national campaign, on April 1st, a college competition kicked off on 50 college campuses in America to collect the most empty bottles. The college team that collected the most were rewarded with a garden for their community, furnished by Garnier and TerraCycle. The winning college will also receive a $2,000 scholarship to thank them for their commitment to keeping empty beauty bottles out of landfills.

As this campaign is on-going, results are yet to be finalised. To watch the video on how to transform your bathroom, click here.

It’s bananas! How confusing food labels make us throw away perfectly fine food

Confusing food labels may be in for a makeover as The Food Standards Agency, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the not-for-profit Waste & Resources Action Programme are revising the current standards for “best before” type food labelling in an effort to reduce waste across the UK.

To bring attention to the matter, they have compiled a number of tips on how households can reduce their food waste and food bills by smartening up to labels, proper food storage and buying reduced items. The message is strengthened by statistics on how much food we waste in the UK, we were shocked to discover that every day we throw away six million potatoes, three million apples and one million bananas! The campaign also includes an interview with a woman from East Sussex, who explains how she cut her family’s food bill by £500 per year by shopping at stores offering products close to or past their best before-date.

The message behind the campaign is that we need to rethink food labels and reduce waste for the sake of sustainability, but also that doing so is a win-win for everyone; we can use less resources and save some money along the way! It’s a great message as it is one that everyone can get on board with as most of us have found ourselves inspecting our potatoes to see if they are still good, or Googling what on earth “best before” actually means.

This feature was initially spotted in The Mail on Sunday (1,236,839) and has since been picked up online by the Telegraph (146,748,200), The Sun (68,678,330) and the Metro (47,081,468), making it a huge success both on and off line Let’s hope the message gets across and we waste less food as a nation – we’re all being much more careful now after reading it!

PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad & The Viral

This month's PR campaigns include an experiential from our favourite tonic, an equality message from an ice-cream giant and the best salescreature in the Czech Republic...

Escape Fever

As an avid team of gin fans (Conker all the way obviously), we love Fever-Tree but after hearing about this experiential stunt from the premium tonic brand we think we might love them a little bit more now.

To launch its new range of dark spirit mixers, Fever-Tree hooked into the latest hipster craze of escape rooms. This refreshing PR stunt was first showcased at the Imbibe trade show earlier in the year, immersing visitors in the brand’s history as they played against the clock to ‘escape’. Having been to many trade shows, we’re very sure that Fever-Tree would have provided some much needed entertainment and respite as well as reaching out to potential buyers and stockists in a fun and engaging way.

The game is set to be launched to the public in a London location during London Cocktail Week in October. A series of smell and taste tests will be completed before a final puzzle that lets participants ‘escape’ the room. The game can be completed in pairs and the pair with the fastest time wins a mystery grand prize.

We love this experiential PR stunt; it’s on brand, of the moment, engaging, fun and effective. Seems like a good excuse to check out London Cocktail Week if you ask me…

#Say I Dough

Famous for speaking out on hot issues from the arctic to cow welfare to democracy, Ben & Jerry's is now campaigning for marriage equality in Australia.

The American ice-cream giant has banned two scoops of the same flavour in its 26 Australian stores as part of a push for marriage equality Down Under. "It is time to stand up for fair and equal rights for all by letting our leaders know that we demand Marriage Equality!"

"Imagine heading down to your local Scoop Shop to order your favourite two scoops of Cookie Dough in a waffle cone," the company wrote in a statement. 

"But you find out you are not allowed – Ben & Jerry’s has banned two scoops of the same flavour.

According to polls, around two thirds of Australians support same-sex marriage as do the majority of MPs and Aussie stars Kylie Minogue and Sia have shown support at music awards. So Ben & Jerry’s know they have the weight of the public behind them ensuring a popular campaign – ice move.

Ben & Jerry's has joined more than 1,200 companies and organisations calling for marriage equality in Australia. We love this campaign for its simplicity, strong messaging and good ethics.

Is Carl the Parrot the Best at Sales in the Czech Republic?

Most pet owners will tell you that their pet is the best in the world. Everyone thinks their pet is the smartest, cutest, or most loyal but not many can boast that their pet is the best at sales.

In a recent campaign for Ceska Pojistovna, the largest insurance company in the Czech Republic, Carl – an African Grey parrot – was trained to sell pet insurance with help from a specialist animal trainer. Carl’s trainer has a great track record having already trained animals for blockbusters like Bourne Supremacy, The Illusionist and Wanted.

Over three months, Carl was taught to say “pet insurance” and after daily practice, the clever bird was ready to show off his new talents. The insurance company took him to stores around the country, Carl’s office was a cage with a tablet so customers hearing Carl’s cry of “pet insurance” could buy their pet insurance direct from Carl’s ‘office’.

After a week Carl had outsold all of his human colleagues – what a result for the insurance company. More importantly, he insisted on being paid peanuts!

PR Campaigns - The Good, The Bad and The Viral

It’s that time of the month again where the team talk about their favourite PR campaigns. Each week the Sunny Bird PR team research PR campaigns that have made their way into the media and choose one to share that demonstrates effectiveness, reach, simplicity, message and in some cases the opposite – how not to execute a PR campaign. Every month the team chooses their personal favourites we deliver them here – The Good, The Bad and The Viral from the PR Campaign world.

This month we present a beer brand bringing people together despite their differences, a charity asking for people to walk, run or cycle an outline of a ‘ballsy’ shape to raise money and awareness, and a well-known craft beer company sets up a crowd funding page for a spectacular opening in Columbus Ohio – or so it says...

Heineken’s #OpenYourWorld Campaign Encourages Consumers to Have a Debate Over a Beer

With global unrest and elections tearing people in different directions, Heineken has taken a new PR approach that aims to highlight people’s similarities and the common ground that can exist between two strangers with differing opinions.

A video has been created that shows two strangers meeting in a warehouse. Neither party knows the reason behind the experiment, however short clips of each person are shown to the viewer. It becomes clear that the two strangers have been partnered together as they have strong conflicting opinions on a particular subject (climate change, feminism, transgender equality etc.). At the end of the experiment the strangers are shown the video clips which highlight their conflicting beliefs and they are then asked to make a decision on whether they wish to leave the building or discuss over a beer. The #OpenYourWorld video sees the beer giant try to convince people that although their fundamental beliefs might mean, on the face of it, they can’t enjoy a drink and a chat together, it doesn’t have to be the case.

A nice feel-good message that is very relevant and relatable to a UK audience. The video has been viewed over 13 million times and achieved coverage in multiple titles including The Guardian and The Huffington Post.

New Zealand Charity Gets Ballsy

With so many charities clamouring to be heard in a crowded market to secure much needed funds and awareness, the team liked this ballsy approach by Testicular Cancer New Zealand. The charity teamed up with a New Zealand advertising agency to kick off a social campaign called #GoBallsOut for Testicular Cancer Awareness Month.

The campaign asked men to walk, run, cycle, skip, kayak the outline of a “Cock & Balls” by using fitness Apps such as Strava, MapMyWalk, Runtastic etc. So not only did this campaign get people thinking about one of the most common forms of cancer in men, but it also got people moving, double win – and it was funny!

The campaign gained coverage online and on social media, which sent traffic to www.goballsout.org.nz  where men could view a gallery of user generated Cock & Balls, find a route near them and view an engaging, step by step instructional video on how to check their testicles.

Within 24 hours of launching, the campaign was trending on Mashable and the BBC, it secured over 400 editorial mentions internationally, 86% of men 15-39 in NZ were reached across the campaign period, 71% increase in awareness that exercise helps prevent testicular cancer, and the video got viewed over four million times. Hundreds of Cock & Balls were created and shared.

This PR campaign was simple, very effective and most importantly took a campaign and truly made it creative, fun and engaging. No cock-ups here… well quite a few actually.

BrewDog Announces World First Craft Beer Hotel!

Ever imagined a hotel that has beer-filled hot tubs? Well, it’s time to stop dreaming because it could soon be a reality.

Due to open in 2018, Brewdog has announced that it will be building the world’s first craft beer hotel in Columbus Ohio. Guests can look forward to fully-stocked mini bars, beer on tap in rooms, beer-themed toiletries and spa treatments and brewing tank hot tubs, which can of course be filled with beer.

The project has already passed its funding target, thanks to crowd funding and will be built alongside its brand new state of the art, 100,000 square foot brewery, which founders James Watt and Martin Dickie say will help them explore amazing new flavours and brewing techniques.

This campaign may have been to help raise money and awareness of the hotel but something tells us that the money raised will be put into the state of the art brewery. Brewdog created a video and photoshopped imagery to show people what the hotel will look like, but this may never exist. The hotel may or may not get built, but it’s a good visual ploy to grab people’s attention and raise funds. Ellen Scott, a journalist from Metro, also doesn’t believe the hotel will become a reality.

This particular campaign has already been covered in national online titles such as The Mail Online, The Independent, The Telegraph, Metro and high traffic website – The Lad Bible.