Smoking Gun PR shots Clever Campaign

Smoking Gun has just launched (November 2012) a smoking hot integrated campaign for the Kennel Club. 

The core elements are the competition ‘Crufts Factor’, which aims to find Britain’s most talented dog and is supported by Britain’s Got Talent Winner and Young Kennel Club member Ashleigh Butler, and the Discover Dogs event.

Dog owners who think their pooch has the Crufts Factor, can upload a video of their star through a Facebook app. The audience will have the chance to vote and elect three finalists. The three lucky doggies, together with a wildcard entry, will then show their talent at the event in Earl’s Court. The final winner will finally perform on the global stage at Crufts in March 2013.

MY OPINION

I might be slightly biased because of my love for dogs (my favourite pet), but I think this campaign will be extremely successful. We could say that there is a celebrity endorsement element in this campaign, which will definitely help its success. However, I think that the competition and the extremely shareable UGC will ultimately be its X (= winning) factor.

What do you think? Am I too biased?

** Apologies for the rare updates - I am working 9-5 and have no access to the Internet at home, which makes things complicated. It will all go back to normal in a few weeks.

empty13

Today I want to talk about empty13, the campaign that aims to bring together communication experts from different fields for a stimulating debate. But what is it all about?

The campaign was launched by Bite Communications on 19th July 2012 and aims to generate a debate around the lack of 'big events' in 2013 and the meaning this has for brands.

Advertisers, PRPs, journalists, agencies, anyone involved in the industry can join the online conversation using the hash-tag #empty13 on Twitter. The agency opened the @theempty13 account to generate interest and awareness. Moreover, a website was created in order to offer the participants an open space where to discuss in further detail the topic. Anyone can in fact publish a post on the website.

The conversation has already started both on the website and on twitter.

MY OPINION

I find this campaign very clever and stimulating. I really like the idea of an extensive online conversation amongst experts from the different industries and the sense of community this can generate. I am in love with the name 'empty13'; I find it very powerful and memorable. I also believe this campaign can lead to more engaging topics such as the continuous need of generating stories and news for brands and organisations, following the digital revolution. It is not the first 'empty year' for the marketing industry - marketers always need to create new stories around brands. This is an undeniable truth.  It would be sufficient to think of the famous smoking campaign launched by Edward Bernays in the 1920s. It would be interesting to hear how experts feel about this constant need for newsworthy material and how they deal with it in their day-to-day lives. 

#ShellFail - The (Greenpeace) Le'ts Go Campaign Hoax

Just last week, at the International History of Public Relations Conference, I heard a debate about 'professional PR' and 'activist PR'. The present experts and academics were discussing the issue of professionalism in PR and whether not-for-profit PR could be deemed as professional. I am quite sure that after the latest Let's Go campaign signed by Greenpeace, they will have no more doubts...


THE  CAMPAIGN

A fake launch event in Seattle, at the Space Needle, last June (2012) marked the start of the campaign. As you can see in the video, something went terribly wrong at the event...

The video was spread on Twitter with the hashtag #ShellFail and went viral. It also has a dubstep remix!

A fake Shell website (Arcticisready) was also created by the activist group.

On the site, the new (fake) Shell campaign 'Let's go', which was all about new drilling actions in the Arctic, was being promoted and users were given the opportunity to contribute by creating ads like these: 

A kids section with the game Angry Bergs (obviously recalling Angry Birds) was also available. 

A bogus Twitter account (@ShellisPrepared) was also created. 

The tweets looked rather suspicious and often unprofessional, so it wasn't difficult to understand who was actually tweeting...

However, the tweets helped spreading the ads and increasing the popularity of the #arcticsready trend.


Greenpeace admitted the campaign was launched by them and now that the hoax is public, the environmentalist group is spreading a new trend - #TellShell - in order to launch its last tactic - a competition.

Twitter users who tweet the hashtag will have the chance to win a t-shirt.

Shell sent out news releases stating that the company was considering legal action. However, it seems that the oil giant is taking its time to respond to the 'attack'.

MY OPINION

As the French would say... fantastique! The idea and the implementation are simply brilliant. Excellent way to 'undermine a personality' (Cwalina et al. 2011). I think there is no doubt: not-for-profit and activist PR can be as creative and as effective as for-profit PR. The level of professionalism in a number of cases is equal, as previously demonstrated by the performance of Greenpeace, WWF, Save The Children, Unicef, and many more organisations. Shell will struggle to react to this clever strategy.

(All images in this post are screenshots I took because I suspect the ads will be removed shortly).


Reference:
Cwalina, W., Falkowski, A., Newman, B.I., 2011. Political Marketing: Theoretical and Strategic Foundations. Warsaw: Sharpe Incoroporated.

Wish You Were At Topshop

Last year (June 2011) Topshop launched its digital campaign for the summer. 

The Wish You Were At Topshop campaign is rather interesting because Topshop was the first in its industry to use Instagram.

THE CAMPAIGN

Client: Topshop

Agency: FreshNetworks

The campaign was mainly centred on the Instagram application for Ipad 2 and it linked experimental marketing with PR. 

Shoppers in the high street Topshops of London, Dublin, Liverpool, and Manchester had the chance to receive a free styling and make-up session. After getting all 'dolled-up', the shoppers were offered the opportunity to create a digital postcard with the Instagram application for Ipad2. Participants were then able to take the postcard home with them or upload it on their Facebook wall. A copy of the postcard also appeared on the Topshop gallery on the brand's website.

MY OPINION

I think this campaign was pretty smart. Nothing new in the experimental concept: we've seen free make-up sessions in Harrods, Selfridges, and other clothing shops before. However, the idea of linking this with the Instagram application was very clever (most of all at a time when Instagram was experiencing its boom). I believe audience participation is key to successful PR and digital campaigns. Moreover, I think experimental marketing can be very effective. Well done FreshNetworks.