Publicity Heaven | 2007 May

Archive for May, 2007

The vegetarians beat Mars

Sunday, May 20th, 2007

Mars has announced today that its changed its mind on replacing vegetarian ingredients in its products with animal products.

The company seems to have been swayed by a publicity and action campaign by the Vegetarian Society.

From a publicity point of view, Mars has done the right thing listening to the excessive feedback and responding quickly. This publicity crisis should go away now.

The Vegetarian Society is also a winner. It’s gained huge awareness from this story; demonstrated its power; and the story also coincides with National Vegetarian Week starting tomorrow – publicity gold!

Tags: Mars
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Cashing in on Harry Potter

Friday, May 11th, 2007

This Wall Street Journal article is about the way book publishers are cashing in on the last Harry Potter book.

It’s a great reminder to ensure your business piggybacks the biggest book event of the year.

The media will be looking for anything different when HP and the Deadly Hallows comes out on 21st July. The key is the word “different”.

For the last few book launches, we’ve had midnight book store openings, adults dressed as characters, owls in-store, etc. What can your business do?

A cafe could rebrand its kids food as “wizard food” – and only kids that pass a special test to check they are not muggles are allowed to eat it.

Could you make all of your staff wear Hagrid beards that day?

Could you hold a special midnight feast for your staff and customers and give them free copies of the book?

Flip it round – could you make your business a “Harry Potter-free zone”, where you ban staff from discussing it in case someone accidentally gives the ending away?

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Something old, something new

Wednesday, May 9th, 2007

Couple of publicity examples have caught my eye over the weekend.

First off, Currys announced they are going to stop selling audio cassette players. The company pulled off a similar publicity trick when they announced they were stopping selling VHS videos a year or two back. Clever use of a sensible business decision – my reaction to the story was “wow, I didn’t know anyone even made casette players still”.

Opportunity for specialist audio shops: Tell your local media that you’ll continue to stock cassette equipment as long as someone makes it!
Opportunity for record shops: Hold a cassette amnesty – let customers bring casettes in and swap them for new CDs or download credits.

Now something new. A trial of new cards that you can pre-load with cash, and use for purchases under £10.

Opportunity for any shop that has transactions under £10: Start a “save our cash” campaign. Poll your customers, see what they think. Donate 1p to charity for every £1 spent in cash in your shop.

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