The headline? Online condom sales rise despite stiff competition from retailers

See his blog entry here.

In London today I did a double take… when I thought I saw a Smart car covered in grass.

It was a bit too speedy past St Pancras for me to see the name of the business, but a quick Google search found this photo and the company behind it.

Here’s the YouTube video of the Grass Bugs:

Stunning! There are lots of business that would talk about doing something like this, but very few would have the balls to actually do it. Easigrass deserves to do well.

It’s almost always about the story.

Good contacts can open doors and set up opportunities. But a great story gives you the biggest shot you’ll get at major PR coverage.

I caught the end of our regional BBC TV news tonight, where they did a live outside broadcast from an Indian restaurant that had introduced a curry so hot, no-one could eat a whole plate of it. And they had to fill in a disclaimer form before they did.

A classic publicity stunt. Getting plenty of valuable air time on a BBC TV show.

Fantastic.

OK, so it must be a slow news day. But you don’t get coverage like that “because you know a journalist”. You get coverage like that because you had a great story at the right time (exactly the timem the BBC had a slot to fill).

The story has generated more than 500 articles already this morning according to Google News. And that’s on top of the thousands it has received over the course of the competition.

This has been the perfect PR stunt. Here’s why – and how you can use the lessons to generate publicity for your business.

It was packed with standoutability: This was the first time anyone had offered up a job such as this. Although an unashamed PR stunt from the very beginning, it was highly unusual. Calling it The Best Job In The World helped label it as more than just a normal competition. 

It was aspirational: In these times of financial doom and gloom, it was the perfect antidote for a public and media weary of negative news. Pictures and descriptions of a beautiful island are high in demand.

It had legs: The competition has been running for months, and it’s virtually guaranteed that Ben will get extensive media coverage throughout the six months of his job. There are many different media angles to the story. This one stunt alone has generated a year’s worth of free publicity. 

The stunt promoted the product: The product was the island and every story about the competition plugged the product.

So how can you use this to influence a PR stunt for your business? The most important of the four things above is standoutability. Do not underestimate the power of being the first to do something. This alone will determine how much media coverage you get.

And ensure you are plugging your product. It’s relatively easy to generate a publicity stunt that will get media attention. It’s much harder making sure a sell for your business is built into the stunt.

Great viral, because after I realised it was a gag, I emailed it to 50 people.

Wish I had a tough mobile like the one just launched by Peter Jones (the very tall one from Dragon’s Den). To show how tough his JCB phone is, he put it through a series of public tests including being thrown in a cement mixer.

I’ll be using this example in a talk I’m contributing to at The Business Club Northants on Monday. My theme will be how you need to use actions to back up messages. Don’t just say your phone is the toughest ever – drive a truck over it.

At its simplest, it’s sending a press release (a story suggestion) to targeted journalists in the hope they think their readers/listeners will find it of interest… and so will give it some coverage.

Sometimes they will use it without telling you. Sometimes they will come back and ask for an interview or something else, such as a photo.

If you get a bite from journalists you need to make fulfilling their wish your top priority. Journalists work to tight deadlines, and appreciate a quick turnaround of materials. Like any customer you need to set clear expectations and then exceed them.

On Friday evening we became aware the Daily Mirror was trying to get hold of a single parent who would happily spill their financial details for a late feature on surviving the recession (not all free publicity comes from sending press releases; keeping in touch with what journalists are looking for is one of things a professional PR agency can do for you).

Sounded perfect for our new client Single With Kids. They were amazing – within 30 minutes of our phone call they had found a suitable single mum, who spoke to the journalist that night and agreed to a photo that weekend.

And it was that speed in reacting that helped them get onto page eight of today’s Mirror.

And here’s another great example from today’s Guardian, about how a food company has turned a simple radio piece into the revival of a dead product (that they don’t even have the recipe for any more). There aren’t many companies that can commit to bringing back a product and even set up a special email address that quickly. Well done to them.

You might hear “Seems you can’t go to the pub without a risk assessment” or “you’d better get a warning sign up next to the kettle”.

Good to see the HSE tackle these misconceptions with humour: The Myth of the Month.

Hell, they’ve even turned these into a calendar to sell!