With global political events and the news agenda moving faster than ever, being reactive to the world’s happenings is more of a challenge than ever. However, there are always key events in the calendar which, if executed effectively, can result in high impact exposure.
We’ve cherry-picked some campaigns we feel got it right:
1) Super Bowl – A whopping 111.3 million people tuned into this year’s Super Bowl to witness the Patriot’s exhilarating win and much talked about ad breaks, so it’s no surprise that an endless number of brands battled for a slice of the action.
Mr Clean : According to social media tracking tool Brandwatch, cleaning product Mr Clean created the biggest single social moment during this year’s Super Bowl, getting more than 11,700 mentions on Twitter in under a minute! But how did this seemingly unassuming cleaning product get people talking? Proving that brands should never underestimate the power of humour the company played on gender stereotypes with a new comedic, cartooned 30 second advert, declaring ‘You gotta love a man who cleans’.
2) Valentines – The day of the year which divides both the public and PR industry with a multitude of both cringe worthy and crafty campaigns.
Tesco: “Basket Dating” : They say ‘You are what you eat’, but is this accurate when it comes to love? Last Valentines British supermarket giant Tesco hired a psychotherapist to match make people solely based on their food purchases. The social experiment didn’t necessarily get singles flocking to Tesco in the hope of finding their soulmate on aisle five, but it did generate over a million Youtube views for the brand and according to Adweek, half the dates were successful – not bad odds!
3) Easter – A time when you can pretty much guarantee that the papers will be filled with features on DIY & the barbeque boom from the bank holiday weekends. Plus this year is ‘Mega Easter’, meaning 18 days off as a result of just 9 days annual leave, so a big window of opportunity for brands!
If Carlsberg Did Chocolate Bars: What’s the one thing everyone associates with Easter? Chocolate. With this in mind, last Easter beer brand Carlsberg (never one to shy away from a stunt) created a giant chocolate bar in London. Although many would argue pop ups and unquestionably chocolate related PR campaigns at Easter have been overdone, this inventive campaign cleverly linked in with the brand’s well-established #IfCarlsbergDid tagline and proved a hit. Over half a tonne of chocolate enticed hundreds of passersby to stop for a pint over the bank holiday weekend, creating a storm on social media.
As for us, we’re now busy planning the year ahead. A few of the upcoming calendar moments we’ll be helping clients exploit include: Pancake Day, The triggering of Article 50, Switch to British summer time, April Fool’s day, End of the financial year, St Patrick’s & St George’s Day to name but a few.
By Rachel Sewell
