10 Yetis Insight Blog – Examples Of PR Stunts With Minimal Effort, Yet Maximum Results

Whilst most clients want press releases, features and reactive opportunities to generate them coverage and get their name out there, stunts are also a big part of PR and can prove far more effective when executed correctly.

Here are some great examples of companies who carried out simple, yet effective stunts throughout 2016, showing that you don't necessarily have to spend a fortune to get attention...

Range Rover

Back in May, images were circulating everywhere you looked of a white Range Rover parked outside Harrods. The £90,000 brand new vehicle had been seemingly spray painted by a woman scorned, with the red paint writing out “cheater”, “hope she was worth it” and “it’s over”. For a little while everyone wanted to know who the guy was; some felt he deserved it for cheating on his lady, some felt sorry for him after having his brand new car vandalised.

However, when no one was able to track down the owner, people then started to wonder if it was actually a well-executed PR campaign by Range Rover. It got people talking, it got people sharing images of their vehicle, and for a short while ‘Range Rover’ was on everyone’s lips. We imagine they either used a paint that would come off, or went on to re-paint it, either way it wouldn’t have cost them a lot to do and it sure got the required results (and some).

ILoveGin

If gin’s your thing, then you’ll be excited to hear that recently ILoveGin announced a job vacancy for a ‘gintern’. The company are looking for someone who is a gin enthusiast who is willing to travel the UK and Europe discovering and sampling gins. With the role due to begin in 2017, the company state the winning ‘gintern’ will be pain a competitive salary, can work their own hours and, of course, get lots of free gin. Applications are open until the 16th, so if this is one for you then you can apply here.

I bet they’ve been inundated with applications, they’ve received so much coverage (and no doubt tonnes and tonnes of links) and everyone’s talking about them. It’s yet to be seen if this is simply a stunt or if there is a genuine job at the end, but either way this is a great example where minimum effort can generate maximum results.

We’ve done a few of these ourselves in the past with equally impressive results! One campaign that I did, personally, was with a beauty brand looking for a nail-polish tester – it went worldwide, we generated 120 pieces of media coverage, almost 100 blogger reviews, 107 links and saw over 70,000 applications! You can also read about the ‘Canine Critic’ job role that we worked on with a client where they legitimately hired a dog to review their properties.

Ghostbusters

There were a few stunts done in the lead up to the release of the new Ghostbusters, but my favourite was definitely the hotline that Sony had created and include on their adverts up and down the UK.

I was in Gloucester City Centre in the lead up to the release of the movie and saw an advert for the movie on the side of a phone box. At the bottom of the advert was a hotline number that you could call, and being me I wanted to test that number and see if it actually led somewhere or if it was just a dud number (or even better, if they’d accidentally picked a number that was in use). To my delight it was an actual line and is a pre-recorded message from Chris Hemsworth advising on what to do if you’re experiencing any ghostly goings on, and also directing users to their Facebook page.

I’d love to know how many called the hotline. Can you imagine?!

Odeon

Earlier this year we were all (OK, I was) gripping the edge of my seat to see if my future hubby, Leonardo DiCaprio, would finally – after all these years and after dozens of Oscar-worthy performances – win the Oscar that we all knew he deserved!

In support of Leo, the Odeon in Leicester Square added “Leo” in front of its name, added a few giant golden Oscars and showed digital imagery on the outside of the building asking if people thought Leo was going to win. This imagery then changed to a picture of Leo in The Revenant with the words “He won!”.

Whilst Odeon weren’t the first to play with their company name in support of someone famous (Morrison’s have done it before in support of Andy Murray), this was by far my favourite one. There was just so much love here!

These are just some of my favourite examples of PR stunts that saw the companies put in little effort, yet generate maximum results. All examples got a tonne of media coverage, saw people sharing and talking non-stop on social media, and no doubt generated a high amount of links back to each website (as was no doubt the plan).

Don't hesitate to get in touch with us if you're thinking of running an online PR stunt, or even want help with a cross-platform campaign - we'd love to chat and share some ideas with you. It is, after all, what we do.