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.

Reverse Riots

After the London riots last year, 14 to 25 year-olds have become the age group holding the worst reputation in the UK. This is why vInspired, a youth volunteer charity, launched the Reverse Riots campaign.

Reverse Riots is a 'Do something campaign' and encourages young people to show the society that they contribute positively to society on social networking sites. The campaign uses celebrity endorsement, including Paloma Faith and Plan B. Audience participation is also a big part of the campaign. Youngsters from all over the UK are invited to take a picture of themselves holding a piece of paper in which they state how they positively contribute to their community, spread it online and use the hashtag #ReverseRiots on Twitter. 

Some lucky participants will have the chance to win a number of prizes or replace the Twitter profile picture of a celebrity on the London riots anniversary. 

MY OPINION

I think this social media campaign is very smart and I really like the audience participation factor. It seems like it will generate the media interest necessary to make it noticeable to traditional media and become mainstream news. 

Images from here.

The Book that Can't Wait

I am very busy with my dissertation and my job as a Student Manager at the International History of Public Relations these days, so I cannot update much the blog. Nevertheless, I came across this clever PR stunt and just had to share it with you.

Eterna Cadencia, an Argentinean publisher, had the brilliant idea of releasing 'The book that can't wait' using a special kind of ink that disappears as soon as it comes into contact with light and air. The stunt was developed in support to first time authors, whose books are often left on the shelves for months and years. The stunt generated incredible media interest and word of mouth.


It takes 2 months for the ink to disappear completely... Will you buy it on time?

Guerrilla Marketing Inspiration

I know guerrilla marketing is not PR (strictly speaking), but in a world where integrated campaigns are more than needed, I think it is all right to get some inspiration from some BRILLIANT ideas like these...

Images taken from here, here, here, and here.

Want to know more? Go here ('Top 5 excellent ways to increase sales with guerrilla marketing').

Life. Live it.

There are a lot of smart and good campaigns launched by the Red Cross, many of which are focused on educating the target audience in order to empower it - a common strategy in health promotion.

Life. Live it. was launched in 2011 to educate children and teenagers the basics of first aid.

THE CAMPAIGN

The key message of the campaign is: some very easy procedures can save the life of a friend.

Tactics:

° A mini-website filled with resources that help teach children aged 5 to 11 some basic notions;

° A kit that teachers can  use to educate 11 to 16 year-olds;

° A Facebook page;

° A contest that gives the chance to win 1 to 3 'Pushover' frisbees signed by the Bombay Bicycle club. Contestants needed to share the Facebook status of the Facebook page;

° A Twitter account. 

MY OPINION

I believe this campaign has not much of creativity, but it is effective and to the point. Many health promotion or public information campaigns need to be direct and aim for concrete results. On the Facebook page you can read: 'if your friend had too much to drink and passed out - would you know what do to?' Simple and to the point, just like the campaign. 

Lush's Animal-testing-on-human PR Stunt

Today we will talk about this fairly recent campaign that shocked thousands of Londoners on their way to work or the odd shopping trip.

(Taken from here)

THE CAMPAIGN

Last April, Lush decided to reinforce their stance towards animal testing on the occasion of the World Week for Animals in Laboratories. The PR stunt that constituted the epicenter of the campaign was extremely original and powerful.


A performance artist, Jaquelin Traide, underwent the same horrific treatments to which animals are submitted, dressed in a nude body stocking. She was kept  for 10 hours in a shop window of the Regent Street Lush store, in London. Jaquelin was given injections, shaved, and got cosmetics dropped into her eyes, all standard procedures for animal testing.

(Taken from here)

The stunt caused horror and persuaded 200,000 people to sign a petition demanding EU-wide legislation against animal testing. Of course the media coverage was huge.


MY OPINION
The stunt was certainly powerful and conveyed strong images. I personally really liked it. The idea was very original and bold. I also think that this shock campaign was a very effective way to raise awareness of animal testing. Sometimes people do need a shock.

#McFail - Beware of the Hashtag

From a brilliant example of PR to... a flop. Today I want to talk about the famous McFail.

(taken from here)

WHAT HAPPENED?

A few months ago (January 2012) the McDonald's started a 'hashtag campaign' on Twitter with the aim of generating some publicity and quality User Generated Content (UGC). They launched #McDStories and #MeetTheFarmers as promoted tweets.

It all started off pretty well with the McDonald's official account telling stories about the production of the burgers and cheese process... But soon enough Twitter users hijacked the hashtag and started tweeting disgusting stories and comments about past experiences at McDonald's.

                                                                 (taken from here)

(taken from here)

(taken from here)

(taken from here)

(taken from here)

Animal rights groups took the opportunity to share horrific images of McDonald's food.

The campaign lasted less than 2 hours. Rick Wion, social media director, had to call it off straight away.

WHAT WENT WRONG?

The social media team probably got stuck on the 'big idea', deciding to ignore the risks that it involved. The association between McDonald's and the word 'stories' was a dangerous one, and I refuse to believe that no one in the team raised their voice to question the campaign before the launch. With such a big name and a long history of complaints though, it was naive for the company to hope that it all would have worked out fine.

LESSON TO LEARN

UGC cannot be controlled on micro-blogging platforms such as Twitter. There is no chance for the companies to moderate the content and tone of what people think and publish. If you are really eager to launch a campaign that involves UGC, try to do it in a more controlled environment such as Facebook. There you can set your own rules before launching the campaign and then have the right to delete deleterious comments. Also, we must remember that the best UGC is usually spontaneous. If we try to force the public to write/talk about us, it can end very badly.

Cheddarvision

I want to start this collection of reviews with one of my favourite PR campaigns: Cheddarvision, by Bray Leino.

Dom Lane, Creative Director at Bray Leino, delivered a lecture at Bournemouth University in which I was lucky enough to sit in this year. He told us all about the campaign, so I'm happy to share the details I know.

THE ISSUE:

In the end of 2006, West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers were facing economic issues and needed a sales boost. The budget was small, but the situation severe. They decided to hire a PR consultancy to try to solve the issue.

THE SOLUTION:

With such a small budget (in the region of 5/10k if I remember correctly), Bray Leino needed to generate a simple original idea that could be executed at a low cost. 

Dom told he was sitting in a meeting with a client that produced wine and he suddenly had the idea of filming the growth of grapes and the process of making wine. Unfortunately the meeting's purpose was that of dismissing the agency for budgeting reasons. Right after the meeting, West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers called him to check how things were evolving with their account. He realised that the idea he had for the ex client could be applied to their key product - cheese.

Bray Leino set up a webcam in West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers' farm to film the maturing of the Cheddar. A micro site was launched to stream the video online. It quickly got viral. By the end of march 2007, the website hit over half a million visits. 


The cheese round got so famous that it was 'baptised' Wedginald. During the broadcast, Wedginal went to Glastonbury festival, received a Valentine's Day card, wore a red nose, opened a Facebook and Twitter account, and became a good-luck charm at the Rugby World Cup.

You can see a time-lapse of the famous cheese maturing from month 0 to 12 here. 

When Wedginald finally matured, it was auctioned off for Children in Need and sent to its buyer all the way to Australia, first class.

The success of the campaign was huge; in fact Bray Leino won the CIPR Pride Awards 2007. 


MY OPINION:


I believe this is a clear example of a creative campaign that has the 'viral factor' and that 'has legs'; that's why it worked. I guess we all dream of conceiving something that has the potential to get viral. However, we must never forget that viral is an effect. We can only produce intended viral material, spread it as much as we can and hope it will become viral... Let the magic happen. If it is good enough, the magic will happen.