PR campaigns are so exciting because there’s so much room for creativity. Companies and brands are constantly fighting for our attention, which is why it’s so interesting when a company does some PR that feels truly out of the box. Here are some exciting digital PR examples from unexpected sources.
- Fresh Prince on AirBnb
To remind everybody that The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a big part of our lives, the mansion from the series has been put on AirBnb for $30 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the show. According to Tyla, guests will be able to stay in the mansion for one night in October and enjoy the extremely “fresh” interior design (complete with huge pictures of Will Smith). Will Smith is apparently the one who put the property up on AirBnb, but the PR stunt is clearly to promote the Fresh Prince reunion set to air around Thanksgiving (as well as keep the show relevant so they can keep collecting royalties).
- Big Digital Engagement from McVitie’s
McVitie’s is a UK brand famous for their chocolate Penguin bars, which purposefully have terrible jokes in the wrappers so that people will share them with friends and talk about the chocolate more. However, they recently wanted a boost in PR, so collated the tweets directed at them telling them their jokes weren’t funny, and called on their audience to come up with better alternatives. Their “Get your joke on a Penguin” campaign had a healthy level of engagement before it closed on September 13th.
- Specsavers Getting Political
Earlier this year in the UK, a British Politician got publicly ridiculed for breaking lockdown rules and driving to a place called Barnard Castle with the excuse that he was doing it to test his eyesight. Specsavers pounced on the opportunity and started advertising on the back of parking tickets outside Barnard Castle. People who parked there were given a free eye test voucher in a clever tongue-in-cheek political jab. Not digital at first – it became so when it went quickly viral.
- CashLady Youtube League
CashLady is another British company, giving out short-term or payday loans. They drove their SEO efforts by creating a YouTube league, monitoring the amount of money that YouTubers make and giving statistics on top earners per video. They looked at the 50 most subscribed independently founded and English-speaking YouTube accounts, excluding celebrities, companies and brands. Their league has featured in many blogs across the internet, a clever PR campaign that links their brand with both money and leisure.
- Mario Kart – Race Around Your Home
The geniuses at Nintendo are set to release a new version of their much beloved Mario Kart game. Using the Nintendo Switch, you will be able to set up a racecourse physically around your home and then race around it in-game. This is a brilliant PR campaign that is attracting the attention of kids and adults alike – it’s such a unique and creative idea and makes potential customers feel desperate to try their hand at this new and exciting technology. This fits in with the personalization demand that’s driving digital campaigns this year.
