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Wednesday, January 31, 2007

PR Best Friends

In public relations there are many ways of communicating a certain idea to the target audience. Still few of them are 100% productive because many people distinguish between information from an independent source and a message provided by all concerned. Professionally organized gossips work better than news, no matter how objective mass media try to be.

1. Think of information about your company or product that will be interesting for your target audience. (This is the most difficult task as the message should be worth spreading)
2. Choose some of your employees to get this message across to as many existing and potential clients as they can. (The message should be presented as a secret)
3. Alternatively find an impartial source and let these people know the information but not directly from you. (Example: Forget a document with the information on the table)

It will be the cheapest PR you ever had. If the gossip is interesting you will not have to take pains to get your message over to the customers.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

New Product Stage Play

Most of new product presentations are a like as two peas in a pod. The company rents a night club, invites a showman and pretty girls are walking back and forth among the guests in tight-fitting dresses of company colors. If you don't like mediocrity, stage the play devoted to the new product of your company in the theater.

1. Hire a playwright to write a play about your new product (ex.: She forgets her new lipstick or perfume made by your company on the table in a café and he tries to find her to give her this priceless product and eventually they fall in love with each other at the end)
2. Hire a stage director and theatrical company to get up the play
3. Invite your clients and potential clients to the performance
4. Invite the press and send them press releases and promotion materials afterwards

The invited target audience will never confuse your product and its competitor. In case your product is sold nationwide you can give 'performances' in many cities within a promotion tour.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Fashion Store Flash Mob

In life of each fashion store there is a time when the old collection has sold badly and the new collection has not arrived yet. Sell-off is still a long way off, so you urgently need an idea how to push up sales without spending much money on advertising. Organize a flash mob that will prompt your target audience to drop into your fashion store to find out what the buzz was about.

1. Make an announcement on Internet forum or chat about flash mob place and time
2. Instruct participants to come into the fashion store, pick up any item of clothes and ask a shop assistant if they 'have the same item but with pearl buttons'
3. Inform the press about the flash mob making just a hint where it will take place

This might help you 'stay alive' up to new collection or discount and keep up popular image of your fashion store.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Billboards of Art

Hundreds of billboards hit our eyes when we drive or walk through the city. However their pay-off is doubtful because only real advertising masterpieces can catch our imagination and win our favor, others just remind us of your company brand for half a second and then disappear from our mind. Your company's fame will blaze widely in the city if your ads are painted on the billboards by real artists.

1. Order a highly artistic advertisement image
2. Rent billboards in the places where your target audience is
3. Hire a group of artists or art students to reproduce your ads on the billboards
4. Invite press to cover this culture event

Press would love it and write positive reports about you and your creative approach. Your company name and advertising exhibition will be remembered long after advertising campaign is over.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Tender Like His Touch

Sometimes it seems that shower gel commercials are clones of each other. A lady takes off her clothes, gets in the shower, smears her body with a shower gel and... suddenly finds herself in a garden, that represents the shower gel aroma. Is that what you feel when you are taking a shower? Imagine how you would really like to take a shower and you will probably agree that shower gel commercial should look like this:

Scene 1. A lady is taking a shower. She hears that her young man quietly opens the door and tries to slip in the shower. She smiles but doesn't turn around.
Scene 2. She takes her gel and starts to pour some into her palm. He doesn't let her do it by taking it from her hand.
Scene 3. He starts spreading shower gel over her body. She closes her eyes like being in a bath of bliss.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Wash Off Your Shampoo

How to make an average shampoo commercial that will make your audience change the channels? Three scenes are enough: a young lady suffers from scurf, then she washes hair with your client's shampoo, and finally, she tosses her head to show the volume and brightness of her hair. Want to know how to make a shampoo commercial outstanding?

Scene 1. A young actress or model holds a shampoo (a blur but one can guess the brand of your competitor), smiles and says the advertising slogan (not to a word, but associated with the one of your competitor).

Scene 2. The camera moves back and we realize we are at the shooting area, the director screams: 'Cut!', assistants start fussing about, the young actress goes to her make-up room keeping the forced smile.

Scene 3. The actress is in the make-up room, looks at her hair in the mirror, stops smiling and makes a long face. Then she takes your client shampoo from the shelf to wash off the shampoo she advertised a minute ago.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Toothpaste For Dental Nerves

An effective toothpaste advertisement should reveal a new scary problem it solves. Some years ago we fought an epidemic of caries, now we feel real pain when we watch commercials about sensitivity of our teeth. However, the number of teeth problems is limited, so the tooth disease idea described here may become the last one.

1. Say that your company did some research and found out that we loose teeth because we wreck our dental nerves.
2. Say that your company invented a toothpaste that cures and settles your dental nerves.
3. Show at the picture how the toothpaste reaches dental nerves through gums.
4. Show middle aged people with bright smiles and slogan 'Iron nerves, rather that iron teeth' or 'Nerves of steel, teeth of yours'.
5. When your competitors pick up this idea, you can produce the toothpaste that renews your dental nerve cells.

So stop this create-a-new-dental-problem race as you attack the tooth problem at its root. Also you can produce a special toothbrush that reaches teeth roots and make twice more money selling toothpaste and toothbrush as a bundle.

You can afford it

Car commercials are based on typical scenario: a car drives through a picturesque place, like mountain or desert road, we see its beautiful design from various angles and we feel how comfortable is to sit inside of it. It's ok for classic models, but benefits and advantages of a car like BMW it is better to show in a different manner even breaking the rules:

Scene 1. The car runs past the red light. Pedestrians that started crossing the road turn back to the sidewalk.
Scene 2. The speed limit sign. The speed counter shows that the car overspeeds the limit twice. The traffic policemen gaze after the car and shrug their shoulders.
Scene 3. Traffic jam. The car drives on the wrong side of the road. Oncoming cars turn aside.
Scene 4. Slogan: "You can afford it". Car company's name.