21st Dec 2016 by Helen Stirling

10 Yetis Insight - Creating a low budget stunt - Remescar #NoBeautySleep

We were tasked with bringing together a low budget stunt for our client Remescar to help raise awareness of the brand while helping to promote a discount that they were running around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We devised an activation for less than £500 that focussed on a real-life stunt with social media elements to help further the reach of the brand. Here I’ll talk you through how we brought the stunt together; I’ll also tell you how you can create a low budget social stunt of your own. (Yeah that's me below.)

How we put it together

The stunt was drawn up in our initial campaign plan that was created to help promote the launch of Remescar’s new product, Remescar Eye Bags and Dark Circles. The product helps to erase eye bags and dark circles by up to 75% in just two minutes, and as it is party season we thought it would be a good idea to tie it in as a pick me up after all those December late nights. Whether you’re staying up shopping and wrapping or if you’re out partying! From these ideas, we came up with the hashtag #NoBeautySleep, meaning that you don’t need any beauty sleep if you have Remescar as it disguises the tiredness from under your eyes. We had a small budget so we needed an interactive but cheap activation to get people involved.

How the stunt worked

We bought some mirrors, got some vinyl stickers made up which we attached stating the activation, asking people to share their mirror selfie to receive a pick me up. We decided on a high footfall area to host the stunt as well as deciding on a relevant day (Cyber Monday) a day known for online discounts. We decided to incentivise participation and tied it in to the Black Friday weekend with support from Boots, we achieved this with an exclusive online discount code. We promoted a tweet on Twitter and shared across our social channels to help promote the stunt. We also ran an online section to the stunt where people could share their #NoBeautySleep pictures and either receive a product or the £5 off code. Passers-by stopped to take pictures in the mirrors and they received a pick-me-up that consisted of Remescar Eye Bags and Dark Circles, as well as a choice from a selection of other pick-me-ups such as water, an energy snack bar, chewing gum and an energy drink; all the little things to get you through a rough morning.

Best ways to promote brand awareness on a budget

This stunt was a low-cost way of promoting the brand in a high footfall area. The subtle branding on the mirrors were creating awareness for those who were curious about the stunt but not wanting to participate. Some of those that did take part were given product to take home with them, which means that the awareness continued, with them mentioning it to family and friends, as well as their picture being online with the brand for a social audience to see.

Keeping to a low budget for a stunt can be a challenge as when you initially think of stunt ideas they can be pretty grandiose ideas (if our meetings are anything to go by anyway!) Often though you will find that these big ideas can be scaled back to a much simpler idea that can be executed on a smaller budget. This is actually what happened with the birth of this stunt idea. Originally we were going to set up a ‘rest pod’ that would allow commuters and passers-by to take advantage of several relaxation experiences that would help them feel refreshed after a rough night. This would be in return for a tweet/Instagram photo in the mirror (social currency). This narrowed down to just taking the photograph in the mirror for a free product. So think about how your stunt can be scalable, and you will definitely be able to create awareness on a budget.

How to create a low budget stunt

Putting a low budget stunt together is as simple as it sounds. Go hunting around for any assets you need for the cheapest price, whether it’s an app (although in this case quality over price may be more important), or some full length mirrors (Argos is a good shout). Use your own staff, although promotional staff can often come at a decent price, using agency or brand staff can be cheaper and often they will be able to answer any questions that the general public may have with greater ease. Location is a big one. Finding a high footfall area that is public ground can be a challenge. Although you may initially think London is the place you need to be it’s worth checking out other smaller cities. Lots of people still live there and the prices for area hire are often much cheaper. If all else fails, ask for forgiveness rather than permission! ;)

Make sure to shout about the stunt on social media; this will help to get people interested and heading to the area. You may also want to think about promoting on Facebook to a local and targeted audience as well as contacting local press, this should help you to get people involved.

To sum up

So if you are thinking of creating a small budget stunt for your brand/client, throw some ideas around, scale them down to an affordable base, find a cheap but high footfall location, shout about it on social media A LOT and try and get local press involved! Go forth and create!

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