PR Ideas and Promotional Partners

PR IDEAS This is where you get creative, you have to remember that in PR you want to spend the least amount of money but get the most FREE coverage you can. Ways of doing this is to come up with ideas that will interest the editors enough to give you free space in their magazine. Areas to think about are: Survey – could you produce a survey where the public comment on the best and worst similar products on the market e.g. 20% of all girls in North America use Rimmel cosmetics as they believe its a quality brand at a cheap price, 70% of all upper to middle class women aged between x and x believe... Think Bernays and his big hearty breakfast! Great website to find out more about surveys and how they are used:

Ask yourself “who is Wells Fargo?”

Finance Company

Survey examples Mr. Muscle - Cleaning product - How clean is your house? - Top ten products on the market The Children's Society and ATL - Food for Thought: How hungry are our children? (Survey on teachers opinion of school meals) TravelZoo - Know your geography (One in three children don’t know Wales is in Great Britain)

Interview with an expert – could you research and find an expert to comment / give advice / interview on your product which would be interesting for your target audience to read

Interview ideas Garfield the movie - Cat/Animal behavourist Travel agent - Travel Blogger - Writer from the Lonely Planet/Rough Guide Thai Drinking Water - Health Expert/ Nutritionist British Beef - Beef Farmer - Local Butcher

Humanistic angle Charity - could you get a charity involved which could endorse the product as it would help there cause in some way. Red Cross Blood Drive – Write a story on: - Donor Stories - Life saved by blood drive - Day in a life of a medic / nurse / doctor Event – could you research and find an event that is happening which you could get on the back of such as: - Earth Day - Women’s Day - Non-smoking day You must think how the event will encourage the media to pick up your product and how you would tie-in (connect) both the event and your product.

Other areas are: Think of different themes that can relate to your product: - Is someone releasing book at the same time which would fit your product - Would a focus groups which discusses your product and then the results can be released to the public - What about a stunt - Relate to a special day

Run a competition such as these on Diva online

Make a social networking site

PR IDEAS CONT. You should lay out your ideas in the following table: PR IDEASRATIONAL E (why you want to do it) TARGET MEDIACOST (Don’t forget you get more points with the boss and finance dept. if you spend less)

Activity 1 Think about your product and brainstorm 5 to 6 PR ideas. Make sure you write a rational as to why you would include them. You should justify the reason clearly and affectively.

PROMOTIONAL PARTNERS As PR is all about getting free coverage, quite often you still need to meet the magazines page value if there is no more space for features/ Interviews / news stories. So, for example, if you are wanting to have your product (a range of teenage make-up) to feature in ‘Seventeen magazine’ but the page if you were to buy it (advertising space) costs 10,000 baht, what do you do? You get a third party or promotional partner involved who are targeting the same audience and run a competition.

First, you would approach the third party and ask if they would be interested in giving you their product for free in exchange for space in x magazine and your hard work and time setting up the space, then you put together a great package which meets the page value.

Previous promotional partners and competitions for DVD releases have been: Titanic – Cruise holiday for 2 Ice age – Family holiday to Lapland Man on Fire – Body guard training for a group of friends Oceans 11 – Day out at a casino Night at the Museum – A sleep over for a group of friends at a museum Blood Diamond – A free trade diamond necklace and earring set Bride Wars – Hen party at an exclusive club (the club could be the third party) *Note the third party has to be connected to your product in some way, it must make sense why you are working together. If you are promoting a new laptop aimed at men you should not approach a women’s make-up brand!

Activity 2 Brainstorm or research 5 to 6 promotional partners. Write down the reason why you have chosen to approach these companies.

Putting it all together Now that we have finished all the draft work its time to put it together. Remember: PR is not marketing or advertising so no mention of these words. You want to get things free so think logically to whether what you have written could possibly be done.

The proposal is what you would show to your client so make it look fantastic. – Depending on your product depends on how you will present it. – Check for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. – Check all fonts are the same – You want to wow your client so make sure it looks professional and fits your brand