“3 Clever PR Tricks! How To Use
Them, And... How NOT To!”
by Craig Garber
Today's tip is going to be on the "lighter" side.
See, in a few days it's going to be April Fools Day, so I figured a little levity was in order.
Know how April Fools Day actually came about?
Well, the "exact" answer's a little sketchy, but historians reckon it had something to do with the introduction of the Gregorian (modern-day) calendar, which happened in 1580.
Moving the official "New Year" from March 25th back to January 1st, caused some confusion, and the people who just didn't "get it" were jokingly called "fools".
Now here's something else you may not know about: Did you know, in 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu, called...
The "Left-Handed" Whopper!
This burger was specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans.
It's true!
According to the ad, the new "Left-Handed" Whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger special sauce, whatever), but all the condiments were "rotated" 180° degrees for the benefit of all the lefties out there.
So what do you think of this, at least from a marketing standpoint?
And how about this one: On April 1, 1986, the French newspaper 'Le Parisien' shocked the people of France, by reporting that a confidential agreement had recently been signed, to...
Dismantle the Eiffle Tower!
This international symbol of French culture was instead going to be rebuilt in the new (at the time) Euro Disney theme park going up, just outside of Paris.
And where the Tower used to stand, a 35,000 seat stadium was going to be built for the 1992 Olympic Games.
Amazing, hey?
And maybe you can remember when this happened: In 2002, British supermarket "Tesco" published an advertisement in The Sun, announcing the historic and successful creation of a genetically modified "whistling carrot".
(And as a very important side note here, I was actually at the Grand Opening of the new Tesco in Dunstable, back in 1993 -- very memorable I must add -- loved the clotted cream.)
Anyhow, the ad explained how the carrots were genetically engineered to grow with tapered airholes on their sides. Then, when you fully cooked the carrots, these airholes caused the vegetable to whistle.
Again, pretty weird, right?
Well, the truth is, all 3 of these stories were April Fools Jokes created by the companies themselves.
And yes, it is unusual to see a company having a sense of humor, and poking fun at itself, but as you can also see, there's some great publicity opportunities available when you do come up with something creative like this.
Remember, if you're going to use publicity to try and "promote" yourself, you can do it in 3 ways:
1. Be Newsworthy!
If you can enter the conversation that's currently going on in your prospect's mind, related to current events going on at the time, this is one sure-fire way of getting noticed.
And from experience, I can tell you the best way of being newsworthy is by being controversial -- in other words --
Going against the grain!
So for example, if everyone is telling you why you should eat low carbs, you'd want to talk about why eating low carbs isn't good for you and what you should really do.
Or, tell people the Eiffle Tower is being moved to the newest Disney theme park, if you want publicity for Disney.
2. Have some kind of "wacky" new invention!
And when I say "wacky", I mean fun and outrageous, like the "whistling carrot", or the "left-handed burger", or the coffee bean-counting contest that accurately predicts the winner of the election in your town.
NOT "wacky" as in stupid, like the guy who once called me up and wanted me to help him sell his portable cabanas you stuff inside the trunk of your car and then lug over to the beach with you.
Again, if you can tie your "wacky" promotion into something that's going on in your prospect's lives, it's even better.
3. Offer a solution to a problem!
The more "popular" the problem, or the more "severe" the problem (or, the more "perceived" severity), the more important your solution will be.
Anyhow, hopefully you can take a cue from some of these examples, and apply them to your particular situation.
See you next week.
P.S. The other way of getting publicity is by acting like an idiot, but remember, you only reap... what... you sow!
And believe me, the last thing you want, is to start attracting idiots as clients and customers -- life's tough enough working with "normal" people.
True?
See you next week.
And if you haven 't already done so, go ahead and click here right now to sign up for my FREE Tip Of The Week -- it's the Number One Direct-Response Marketing And Copywriting Newsletter for independent business-owners.
Any comments?
Send them to me by scooting over to the contact form on my "Here's How To Contact Craig" page, and maybe I'll publish them -- I appreciate your feedback!
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