Top 10 PR and marketing stunts and campaigns of October 2015

By on Monday, November 2, 2015

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Now, on with the show.

Here, in reverse order (and based solely on the number of unique views each post received), are the top ten PR and marketing campaigns throughout October 2015:

10. Moonpig get green fingers in London’s One New Change – post by Lydia Bryant

confession shed

To promote its new flower delivery service, online card and gift delivery company Moonpig created a ‘confession shed’ in a shopping centre in Kent, inviting visitors to ‘confess’ who they should thank, apologise or say ‘I love you’ to. Those who entered the shed were entered into a draw to receive a free floral delivery, had their photo taken (photo-booth style), which was then pinned on the outside. Moonpig ‘gardeners’ were also handing out free flowers during the day.

9. Mercedes-Benz create uncrashable toy cars to promote anti-crashing feature in real cars – post by Johny Ho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KgJuiXpsrM

To promote its new Brake Assist System PLUS feature, Mercedes created ‘uncrashable’ toy cars by fitting them with super strong magnets, offering them to kids to play with.

8. UNICEF shock parents with stunt at event in Brazil – post by Johny Ho

In a stunt to highlight global child rights abuse, UNICEF hired actors to play travel agents. The actors then offered parents unthinkable travel experiences for their children which are still a daily reality for millions of children and teenagers in Brazil and throughout the world.

The options offered included fighting in a civil war with real weapons (Children Revolutionary Program), spending time in a refugee camp (Adventure Camp Program), heavy work camps (Work Experience Program) and studying in schools without water, electricity or learning resources (Focusing Study Program).

7. ‘Scariest vending machine in London’ gives passers-by Hallowe’en trick and treat

Gourmet gummy sweet brand Candy Kittens unveiled a ‘Dead Good’ Halloween vending machine in Shoreditch, London this week.

Offering passers-by free sweets, there was a trick in-store – in the shape of a ghostly hand grabbing at those trying to scoop up their free treats.

6. Bacardi takes the party to the road with ‘The Truck’ campaign – post by Lydia Bryant

Bacardi has announced that a ‘party truck’ will tour the US in (and I have to admit, I very much wanted to shinkick Bacardi’s global VP Fabio Di Giammarco for saying this) ‘a bid to connect with millennials’.

Basically, it’s a party in the back of a truck. Bacardi say the truck will provide ‘surprising creative moments and activations, musical performances and an overall party atmosphere’ as it tours the east coast.

5. Taste the Translation – post by Johny Ho

Translation service ELAN Languages wanted to show how good its tool was – so, a Japanese recipe was translated pitting it up against Google Translate. A chef cooked the two translated recipes and the dishes were served to people who tasted them blindfolded – with the outcome, unsurprisingly perhaps, showing that the best dish was the ELAN translated one.

Nice PR tip for businesses and services out there – if your product or service is better than the one most commonly thought of as a solution to the problem you both solve, think creatively about how you can demonstrate that.

4. Now TV celebrate the release of season 6 of The Walking Dead by creating a perfume that repels zombies

Now TV partnered up with McBusted drummer Harry Judd to create and promote a new perfume,‘Obfleshion, Eau de Walker’ to promote season 6 of TV series The Walking Dead.

The fragrance was created in partnership with The Perfume Mistress, Tanya Moulding, and uses a mixture of ‘odious ingredients’ to evoke the rotting stench of Walker flesh.

3. Follow up to ‘Do It For Denmark’ campaign hilariously addresses low birth rate

Danish travel agency Spies released this – a brilliantly put-together campaign video, viewed by just shy of 7m people so far, asking Danish grandparents to prepay for active holidays for their children in a bid to address the country’s low birth rate (because people have more sex on active holidays, obvs).

2. Pepsi selling 6,500 collectible ‘Perfect’ bottles, as seen in Back to the Future II

pepsi-perfect-bottle.0

I know, I know, you thought you’d seen the back of THAT bloody day, but this actually seemed to go down well. Or you were just hatesharing… who knows?

Pepsi created 6,500 bottles of Pepsi Perfect – a product based on a design featured in the Back to the Future II, costing a princely (but campaign-relevant) $20.15 each.

1. Life-sized mosasaurus smashes through South Bank in Jurassic World PR stunt

Jurassic World Mosasaur

A 7m-tall mosasaurus (eating a shark) was unveiled on London’s South Bank in a stunt to mark the DVD release of Jurassic World.

Though not particularly nuanced, the stunt fared well no doubt thanks to just how great the sculpture looked.


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