You can promote a product or draw attention to an important theme in many ways. You can hang up posters, deliver a brochure or you can take a much more creative approach. That Public Relations and related marketing, are real subjects and that you can express a lot of creativity in them, as the following examples prove!
1. A restaurant without employees – Foodsy
Foodsy, (pronounced 'foetsie', a joke of course) was a fictional restaurant without staff. In the empty restaurant, guests had to prepare their own food, pour their drinks and ensure that they were served, following a number of instructions. A real top chef, real press releases, a website and a number of interviews completed the illusion.
The restaurant then really opened and real guests came, who, as expected, made a huge mess. The food caught fire, wine glasses were filled to the brim and there was nothing tasty to eat.
Ultimately, this turned out to be a smart action by the FNV trade union, which demonstrated that catering staff are indispensable.
2. HEMA: The mega push-up bra
How do you show that a push-up bra really works for everyone? HEMA had their mega push-up bra worn by none other than Andrej Pejic. You read that right, Andrej is a man! Under the motto 'if it gives a man such a beautiful cleavage, imagine what this bra can do for you', Andrej Pejic was on many front pages with this HEMA campaign.
Not only was this the first time a male model was used to sell a bra, it cleverly tied in with the slogan 'the bra that adds two cup sizes'.
Because Andrej Pejic has an almost feminine beautiful face and wears his hair long and blonde in the campaign, everyone initially thought it was a woman. It wasn't until HEMA released the news that they had used a male model that there was a huge wave of attention for the campaign. The campaign was shared and viewed from Australia to Russia.
3. Aruba: truly the most beautiful beaches
To prove that Aruba really does have the most beautiful beaches in the world, the Aruban Tourist Office came up with a very smart campaign. The agency had the beaches of Aruba captured by a professional photographer and then placed the photos on a royalty-free image bank from which advertisers often source their photos.
After some time they traced the photos of the beautiful Aruban beaches, and guess what? As many as 12 other countries used photos of Aruban beaches instead of photos of their own beaches. From Puerto Rico to the Cayman Islands.
Aruba Tourism made a video about the entire project with the slogan 'when their beauty is not enough, they use ours', in which they joked that even their direct competitors thought their beaches were the most beautiful!
4. Apple iPhone6 Plus: need a new pocket?
When the iPhone 6 Plus was released, the size was of course the first thing that stood out. The phone was big, so big it couldn't possibly fit in your pocket. You would say that the designers might have been better off making different choices when designing the phone. But KPN saw it differently.
To make it clear that this is really a matter of prioritizing, KPN hired a tailor to stand next to the store with his sewing machine. The customers who were waiting for their new device could immediately have their pocket measured by this tailor. The iPhone6 Plus fit so perfectly into the upgraded Pocket Plus!
5. Prison or Budget Retirement Home?
In 2013, Delta Lloyd launched this striking, but also painful, campaign. Entrepreneur Aad Ouborg came up with the idea of using the De Koepel prison complex in Breda as a care home for the elderly.
A video explained the plan to care for the elderly in prison from now on, as a 'budget retirement home'. The care was done by robots, and the elderly would be monitored with cameras.
The media naturally fell over this plan, and Ouborg. The entrepreneur's slogan is: 'Entrepreneurship is entertaining', and he succeeded quite well, although not everyone found it funny.
Fortunately, the idea turned out to be part of one PR campaign from Delta Lloyd to wake people up and get them to look critically at their pension.
6. BNN's Big Donor Show
One of the most famous PR actions in Dutch history should not be missed here. BNN's Big Donor Show attracted attention from major international channels such as CNN and received worldwide attention.
In this program, the critically ill Lisa was allowed to choose which of the three kidney patients Esther-Claire, Vincent or Charlotte, would receive her kidney after her death. The 1.2 million viewers could also vote for the candidates.
At the end of the program, Lisa turned out to be an actress who was in perfect health. The three kidney patients were also part of the plot. BNN pulled off this stunt to draw attention to the shortage of donor organs in the Netherlands, 5 years after the channel's founder, Bart de Graaf, died of kidney disease.
7. Zeeman x Fashion Week
Zeeman is probably not the most glamorous brand you can think of - when you say Zeeman, we mainly think of practical underpants and socks. However, Zeeman also produces a collection of clothing every season and in 2011 they decided to put it in the spotlight in a special way.
They registered for the Amsterdam Fashion Week under the name FRANK. Zeeman/FRANK organized a fashion show, complete with guest list and journalists. Only at the end of the show did they reveal that everyone had 'just' been looking at Zeeman clothes.
8. And… Action!
What would you do if you saw a big red button, on a quiet square, with an arrow pointing to a sign: 'for more drama'? Would you press that button?
It happened to a number of Dutch and Belgian 'victims' of the scentilla campaign by TNT, Telenet's drama channel. Everyone who pressed the button was treated to some serious drama! Shots were fired, cars drove into the square with screeching tires, soldiers stormed a van – total chaos!
The video that was made of the action on the market square of Aarschot in Belgium went viral with more than 31 million viewers!
A good PR stunt
Perhaps what makes all these campaigns so good is the fact that they make us look at the world in a different way. They cleverly use stereotypes that affect us all. As in the case of Zeeman, which we associate with practical clothes that are certainly not fashionable.
Or a campaign turns an existing situation around, so that you suddenly start thinking very carefully. Such as in the case of the retirement home or the donor show. These types of promotions don't just tell you about a nice product you can buy, but are about the world we live in. Which PR campaign was your favorite?
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