What goes into the perfect PR stunt?

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Mangogate

Source: couriermail.com.au

How do you raise awareness and drive trial of something as simple as a new mango and lime flavoured chicken? You nick a giant mango from the tropics of Queensland and days later, once the story has borne its fruit in the media, you bring it to Federation Square for the world to see, of course.

This is exactly what Nando’s Australia did recently, resulting in mass media exposure and the heist dubbed #mangogate spreading like wildfire across social channels.

Morning shows picked up a story on the theft of Bowen’s famous Big Mango first up on Monday, with news outlets across the globe catching wind of the fruity robbery over the coming days. Needless to say #mangogate was trending on twitter. By Thursday, the mango popped up in Melbourne’s Federation Square, along with Nando’s accepting culpability for the gimmick and promo staff handing out pieces of chicken. Introduce: round two media reports.

While media exposure continues to be calculated in the wake of mango madness at Nando’s HQ, and the video revealing the heist on their official Facebook page continues to soar past 270,000 views, we can be certain of one thing. Stolen fruit really is sweetest. This was a well-executed stunt.

So what goes into a PR stunt these days? In few words: good idea, #talkability and content.

1. Good stunts start with a good, memorable idea. Mangogate was built upon a very clear, simple and brilliant connection between highlighting the mango flavour of the new product and stealing Australia’s most famous mango.

2. Everyone could #engage with the drama. The hashtag #mangogate was quirky and gave people the ability to easily talk about the top story of the day. Memes were uploaded by people to Bowen’s Big Mango Facebook page, and one guy even posted an image of the Big Mango on Gumtree for sale.

3. The stunt included content that never expired. With Nando’s filming the entire heist for the ‘big reveal’ and posting photos of the product trials in Federation Square, the creation of the #mangogate hashtag and countless user-generated posts, and hundreds of news stories now seeded across the inter-webs, this stunt won’t be quickly forgotten.

Here are some other good stunts in recent years from Australian franchises:

McDonald’s Australia “Macca’s” – for Australia Day 2013, McDonald’s name-changed thirteen stores to “Macca’s”, all with new signage. The gimmick was part of an integrated campaign supported by ABT and BTL activities.

KFC goes green and gold – what better way to engage Australia in the fight for the Ashes Urn, and leverage your sponsorship of Cricket Australia, then to give five flagship stores a green and gold face-lift and put Aussie and English burgers on the menu.

Jim’s Mowing “MoAthon” – in November 2013, 150 Jim’s Mowing franchisees took part in “MoAthon” from Hobart to Brisbane as part of the franchise’s national Push for Change campaign. The year before they mowed the world’s biggest grass moustache. We love a world record attempt!

Ignite PR works with Australia’s leading franchise brands to both increased brand awareness and improved franchise development. Contact us today. 

Internal Communications: Getting it Right

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While marketing, advertising and PR are all great vehicles for getting your key messages out to the wider world, many CEOs forget one simple fact – that the best word-of-mouth for any business comes from those closest to it: the employees.

Your employees are your most important stakeholders – and your greatest brand ambassadors. Ensuring regular, consistent communication to everyone within the business is essential if you are to engage them, whether they are part of the executive management team or work the shop floor.

And internal engagement is critical. Without it you cannot expect your team to be working towards your company’s common goals – especially if they are not even clear on what those goals are. Equally, it’s important to have strong business values.  If you don’t make the company culture visible, you can’t expect your employees to behave in line with your brand’s ethos.

Transparency is integral to internal communications. Many CEOs have felt the backlash when they have made a big decision that impacts the whole business, but haven’t communicated it well (or at all) to those who matter most. Hearing about it through a public news announcement is never going to ingratiate staff towards head office.

Another essential point to remember is that although internal communications are never intended to be seen outside of the business, as much care should be taken with the linguistic style and tone as a media release, for example. You are still conveying key messages to a core audience, so take as much time and care as you would any other piece of written collateral.

Finally, don’t ever circulate anything you wouldn’t want talked about or published outside of the four walls you work within. As demonstrated by Deane Priest of Brumby’s early last year, nothing is ever ‘off the record’. Read more here.

Top tips for getting internal communications right:

1) Ensure a consistent voice – make sure that any written materials (memos, emails, blogs etc.) are all written in the same tone and with the same language. Consistency will ensure you are talking as ‘one company, one voice’.

2) Involve your employees – if something big is happening with the business, ask your employees for their opinions/feedback on how this should be communicated. Hearing from them how best to approach the situation will help you get it right.

3) Communicate little and often – short, snappy communication done on a regular basis is likely to be more engaging that long, complicated emails/letters that go unread because of lack of time (or attention).

4) Encourage internal social networks – this will allow all employees on all levels to interact, removing any ‘them and us’ feelings.

5) Respond quickly to negative news – if murmurings are afoot that there is something wrong with the business, respond quickly and honestly. This is far better than allowing the rumour mill to get out of control and will reassure employees that their employer is looking out for them.

The etiquette balance

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Talking with fellow PRs recently, the subject of client relations cropped up. As agency employees, we fully understand the importance of good PR etiquette; however, the majority of us agreed this respect is not always reciprocated by clients.

Courteous, ethical and well-mannered communication is key to any relationship, as is transparency and honesty. Clients who hold out on decisions around PR plans and proposals are unknowingly causing their agency sleepless nights; while putting PR work out to tender without informing the incumbent agency is becoming all too frequent in the PR industry.

Of course, the door swings both ways. To ensure a healthy, happy working relationship, it’s imperative that both parties treat each other as they expect to be treated in return. As the old adage goes, it takes two to tango.

We’ve put together a few tips for both clients and PRs below.

PR etiquette:

1) Communicate well and often – while the PR wheels are grinding back in the office, your client might not always realise that’s the case. Not updating your client makes it look like you’re not doing much even when you are. Aim to have three points of contact with your client each week, including an end-of-week activity summary.

2) Don’t harass your client – while a client no doubt understands they aren’t your only client, equally you must realise your client has priorities other than PR. Give them plenty of time to sign off materials and respond to your questions. A little nudge is okay every now and then, but don’t bombard them.

3) Acknowledge correspondence – even if you can’t respond straight away, let your client know that his/her email has been received and noted, and give a time that you’ll get back to them.

Client etiquette:

1) Be considerate – receiving a brief and being asked for an ‘urgent’ proposal is a huge bugbear for PR agencies, especially when said proposal is then ignored for weeks or months.  We’re all for pulling out the stops to help meet a deadline, but 24-hour’s notice is never appreciated.

2) Don’t treat your PR as your PA – while you are a top priority for your PR agency, you are unlikely to be their sole client. Unless you are paying for 100 per cent of their time, bear in mind that other deadlines and clients exist. Please be understanding – we’re only human!

3) Say thanks – it’s a simple yet important gesture. Yes, we’re paid to get you great coverage, but it will only benefit the relationship if you take a second to acknowledge a great result. We’re happy if you’re happy, so let us know that you are.

Media relations: what they don’t teach you at uni

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For the past three and a half years, I have been studying public relations at university. While I thought I knew everything I needed to know to start my career as a public relations practitioner, my time spent interning at Ignite PR has made me realise there is much more to PR than what we learn in the classroom.

‘Media relations’, for example, was a term chucked around in lectures but we were never taught what was really involved. At uni I was never taught as such the idea of ‘pitching’ a media release to a journalist and it was a completely foreign concept to me. Media relations isn’t even considered a unit of study yet most graduates from university will start out as juniors who need to know what media relations encompasses.

During my time studying at university, media relations was described at best as sending an email to a journalist and presuming that they would publish the attached media release. I was quick to learn that there was a whole lot more involved with media relations than met the eye and that it makes up a large component of the work we do as PR practitioners.

I was always under the impression that once you emailed a journalist with a media release that it would miraculously appear in the paper. I was soon to find out that this was not the case at all. Media relations is a skill in its own right. It isn’t a case of just picking up a phone and asking for coverage – you must ‘sell’ a story to a journalist, convincing them to cover it.

The idea of talking to a journalist was indeed a daunting task at first and I wished I had learnt how to do this at university. However, I came to the realisation that it would be very difficult for universities to assess students on the art of’ pitching’ and ‘following up’ – it is something that is best learnt in a working environment with real clients and real journalists to pitch to.

This is where the value of a work experience opportunity comes into play, as here you can apply what you have learned in your studies into practice.

I’m surprised Australian universities can’t include a media relations subject as a unit of study, considering it is such an essential part of PR. Saying this, it is something that is learnt over time and you do eventually become more confident and better at it with practice.

University students wanting to get a career in public relations should seriously consider taking up as much internship experience as possible before they graduate. It is not only a good GPA that lands students into getting full time paid position jobs, there are some things that can only be learnt in a work experience environment, one of them being media relations.

Five questions

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It’s always interesting to get hints and tips for pitching to media direct from the journos themselves. We asked Fairfax Media’s small business editor, Ali Cain, for some insights on how she likes to work with PRs.

1)      What are your deadlines and what is the best time to contact you with a potential story?

As the small business editor for Fairfax, I start work at 4.30am and publish my first two articles on the Herald/The Age by 6.00am. I don’t really have deadlines as such – I just have to make sure I publish two articles a day on the homepage, on my page and also on the business home page.

So there’s no best time to contact me – but I literally don’t have the capacity to answer my phone to PR people. I must get about five calls an hour and that’s not exaggerating! If I answered them all I would not get my work done. So send me an email and if it’s interesting I’ll respond. I try to tell PRs ‘thanks but no thanks’ if I don’t want a story, but just like the phone calls it really is impossible for me to get to every email.

2)      How do you prefer to be contacted (i.e. email, phone, text message, Twitter)?

See above.

3)      What are your three pet peeves about PRs?

People who pitch me ideas totally outside my area of interest, people who ask me if I have received a media release – yes, amazingly email does work fine – and people who offer me an exclusive when the story has already run elsewhere.

4)      What would the perfect story pitch be for you? And what’s the best PR pitch you have ever had?

Something that has popular appeal, in a business context, involving pictures of shirtless men I can publish because those stories generate the most hits. Sad but true. I ran a story recently on a guy who is a junior gambling mogul and may well be the ‘the next James Packer’. The story did really well for me. I knew as soon as I’d spoken to him that I needed to publish ASAP to make sure I had the story first. I did the interview and the story was up within an hour.

5)      How important is it for PRs to approach you with a fully-packaged story (i.e. case studies, spokespeople, images) rather than just a media release/headline?

I generally won’t publish stories based on media releases because I know the story has been shopped all over town. These days pics are really important. But we’re not in the business of publishing advertorial, so I prefer my journalists to find their own case studies, mostly.

The Science of Social Timing

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Ever wondered why some tweets and Facebook posts get a much bigger response than others, even if you think they’re equally interesting? Well, it might have something to do with the time of day you share your snippet of information. KISSmetrics has come up with a great infographic about the best times to share on social media to get the biggest response.

We found this infographic via Ragan’s PR Daily.

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The basics of body language

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At presentation skills training it’s always drilled into you that it’s not necessarily what you say, but how you say it. So you could be delivering the most brilliant speech ever, but if it’s done badly – mumbling, monotone, no eye contact, etc – then you may as well be reciting a nursery rhyme for all that your audience will take away from their experience. Perhaps a little extreme, but one aspect of delivery is body language. It’s a key part of how you present yourself, whether it’s in a speech, an interview or presentation. Every eyebrow twitch, hair twirl, eye movement or leg-crossing can indicate something about you.

Whilst we’re certainly not experts on the subject, we’ve done some research to offer you some top tips on understanding body language so that you can hopefully make it work in your favour.

1)      First impressions really count. When first meeting people it’s vital to make a good impression – make sure you have a firm (but not too firm) handshake with no sweaty palms; make proper eye contact (but don’t stare); be alert, if sitting down make sure you have a relaxed but upright posture.

2)      Learn the art of ‘mirroring’. This is when you pick up gestures and tone from a person and ‘mirror’ what they are doing. When done in a subtle way this is often said to make people feel more comfortable in your presence as it’s often something that occurs between close friends and family members. Don’t be too obvious though as otherwise people might assume that you’re making a mockery of them.

3)      Be ‘arm aware’. What are your arms and hands doing? Crossing your arms across your chest can be viewed as defensive, expressing opposition or being insecure; if sitting at a table, folding your hands in your lap or having them under the table can be viewed as untrustworthy; wringing your hands can be seen as a sign of nervousness; and when presenting an idea or talking be wary about being too wild in your gestures.

4)      Respect personal space. Never get too close to someone, especially in a workplace situation, unless you know them really well. People can really take offence; it can create nervous tension and create a negative atmosphere.

5)      Are you flirting with me? Women especially can have a minefield to manoeuvre round when it comes to body language being interpreted as flirtatious behaviour, for example stroking your neck (nervous) or fiddling with your hair (anxious). Be wary of this, especially when dealing with people of the opposite sex.

Another tip worth noting is for doing presentations and speeches – film yourself practicing and then play it back without any sound. You will notice any nervous ‘tics’ or repetitive actions as well as what works.

Whilst this blog post is our own work, we used a number of articles to inform our words: Forbes.com, Thinkquest.org, New York Business Partners and eHow.com.

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6 questions: Jen Bishop, Editor and Publisher, Dynamic Business

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Next up in our series finding out how journalists like to work, any issues they have with PRs, how they like stories to be pitched to them, etc, is Jen Bishop, editor and publisher of Dynamic Business, Australia’s highest circulating magazine for SMEs.

1)      What is your deadline day?

I have a different deadline every day of the week! We work on a two-month lead time as a rule, and don’t give out deadlines because if we haven’t commissioned something, why do you need to know?

2)      How do you prefer to be contacted (i.e. email, phone, fax, post)?

Always my email. Press releases by fax or post end up in recycling and I’m so often not at my desk, phone isn’t a good way to get me. I’m usually really quick to reply to emails and tweets/DMs though!

3)      Is there a particular time of day you prefer to be contacted?

Not really.

4)      Do you like to meet companies and bosses for coffee/ lunch? If yes, do you have any favourite venues?

Sometimes. I like venues close to my office so it’s less time out.

5)      What are your three pet peeves about PRs?

One: Chasing up the press release sent half an hour ago.

Two: Not doing your research and getting my name wrong/knowing nothing about the magazine.

Three: Phoning up and reading off a script (usually the intern).

6)      What would the perfect story pitch be for you? And what’s the best PR pitch you have ever had?

The best pitches are those targeted specifically to my publication by someone who has taken the time to look at it.

I get the best pitches from Caroline and Melissa Shawyer from the PR Group because they know exactly what I need and want and they make my life easier by thoroughly thinking something out before they pick up the phone.

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Media storm of the month – June 2011

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One of the previous month’s biggest stories has been a tragic one – the murder of a Gold Coast police officer Damian Leeding. Shot in the head late in the evening on Sunday May 29, his family then had to make the heartbreaking decision to turn off his life support machine.

The media coverage of the murder and subsequent funeral was extensive with all mainstream print and broadcast media covering the initial reports, the following progress of the officer and then his state funeral on the Gold Coast, attended by thousands.

The sheer scale of the response was huge. The power of the media was used for good as all the major TV stations were asking the public to donate to the Damian Leeding Remembrance Fund for his young family left behind – more than $150,000 has been raised so far, a huge amount for what might have been a small local charitable fund.

Damian had one of the biggest state funerals ever with the public moved to show their support. The event was broadcast live and online and was a topic of much interest on the social networking site Twitter. The Catholic Leader printed the homily delivered at the funeral.

And other brands got in on the act to help out – the police officer’s young son even got to meet the Queensland State of Origin team.

The murder itself exposed issues of police protection – a new taskforce was announced following Damian’s death. There has been a spate of violent crime in the Gold Coast so far in 2011, predominantly linked to drugs and biker gangs. In fact, Damian’s boss was himself injured following a drug raid just weeks after his death.

Trying to make some sense of the increase in crime, the Queensland Police Union has linked it to the global financial crisis.

But as well as the heartbreak for Damian’s family and the tragic loss for his police colleagues, the media storm surrounding the current crime spree on the Gold Coast has further negative implications.

Local politicians have claimed it’s having an effect on education with foreign students cancelling their courses after seeing the recent stories in the news.

The evaluating committee for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, for which the Gold Coast is a contender, have had to make a statement saying that the crimes won’t affect Gold Coast’s chances of hosting, but it’s hard to see how it won’t.

And there are some indications that tourists are cancelling trips. The new CEO of Sunshine Coast Destination Ltd has even said that selling his destination as a safe place to holiday could help them attract the tourists now not visiting the Gold Coast.

If we want to help the Gold Coast now to try and stop these crimes happening we shouldn’t be deserting the area in its hour of need but keep visiting in our droves to keep the tourism and surrounding industry buoyant so that people can have gainful employment and less need for the drugs as a result of despair. It’s a simplistic viewpoint, but something worth considering. The media are doing their job in reporting the facts, but it would be good if they can help with the recovery as well.

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Motivational speech from a child learning to ride a bike

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If you haven’t seen this yet then I defy you not to smile at this child’s words of encouragement to other children who  might be trying to learn how to do something new. Thumbs up for rock and roll everyone!

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