Publicity Stunts - How to Turn Crazy Ideas into Marketing Gold

For years, PR practitioners have argued that one of the best ways to garner publicity is to "go where the media is gathered." Finding the press is the easy part, but turning its attention towards yourself or your company in a beneficial way takes strategy, chutzpah, and good fortune.

When Janet Jackson performed at the Super Bowl in 2004, her suspicious "wardrobe malfunction" turned the eyes of the nation upon her, and the furor following the event put her prominently in the news. Whether or not Jackson planned the incident, it failed to sell her CDs or advance her music career.

A publicity stunt is only worthwhile when you are able to leverage the media spotlight to further your communication objectives without damaging your credibility. Here are a couple of publicity stunts that worked and the strategies behind them:

1) In 1984, I broke the Guinness World Record for the most time swinging in a hammock. Interestingly enough, the record I broke was my father's, and he done this a few years earlier as a way to get media attention for his store specializing in hammocks. The stunt worked for my father, and he got some favorable write-ups that led to an increase in sales.

My hammock record was even more successful in creating publicity because I tied it to a timely event. I sent out press releases and contacted the media notifying them that I was breaking the record as a way to gain attention in a bid to make hammock swinging an Olympic sport. Since I broke the record just before the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the media loved the story and covered it in print and on television. Sales of hammocks rose even higher.

2) John Younger, founder and president of Accolo (an HR recruiting company), read a front page story in USA Today about a controversial Paris Hilton television commercial for Carl's Jr. It struck him that she had probably never eaten a hamburger in her life – and that this could be tied to the concept of hiring the right person for the job. With this in mind, he proceeded to create a 30 second spoof video entitled "Rethink Recruiting" emphasizing how hiring the right person makes all the difference.

Accolo's advertisement generated millions of downloads from the company's website, and it was prominently featured on Good Morning America, Jay Leno, WGN, The Big Idea with Danny Deutsch (MSNBC), the New York Times, New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Business Times, and many more media outlets.

In a recent email from Younger, he wrote "Accolo has considerably more market awareness when we contact prospects, referral sources and candidates… It positively influenced our largest contract to date."

If you've pulled off a publicity stunt that helped your achieve your business objectives, I would enjoy hearing about it and sharing it with others.

Pardon Me, But I Thought Free, Freebie, Free Download As Well As Many Others, Meant Just That!

You all know what I am referring to and I'm sure you are as fed up as I am with all the parsing of common words to misrepresent something, someone or both. The parsing of commonly held words is stupid and will not be tolerated by the masses any longer! If an advertiser wants us to dance a jig or jump through hoops to receive their low cost, almost worth nothing, free or freebie item all they must do is simply say so. Rather than parsing of words to mean almost free or free if you are new to our service, or free for the taking but it will exclude you from future almost free or freebies items, just simply say so.

Most adults are capable of understanding that you are a business because you want to feed your family. As adults most people don't want you as a business to lose any money. As adults most people would like to know that you are making a fair profit and will be in business for years to come. As adults we simply wish for you to not parse words in an attempt to take advantage of anyone! We are giving you businesses, big and small, fair warning that we consumers are fed up with the parsing of words to take advantage of consumers and we are not going to let it continue any longer. We promise to embarrass you and your company if you continue in the future of parsing words to not mean what everyone takes them to mean. Just so that everyone is on the same page, we have listed what we understand these certain common words to mean.

1) The word free or freebie means simply that - zero exchange of money, postage stamps or anything of value.


2) The word free and freebie mean no exchange of money now or latter and also mean the same for new as well as existing customers.


3) The word free and freebie do not mean that we will be branded to lose out of or to be excluded of any special price or deal at a later time if we take advantage of your free product or service now.


4) The word free and freebie simply mean free, zero cost and zero exchange of valuable information such as our email address or the email addresses of six of our friends. This would also include any personal telephone numbers. Time of year or season does not change these commonly held meanings.


5) The word free or freebie means that we don't have to do anything or offer anything in exchange for your free or freebie product or service.

Now that we have stated clearly what these commonly held words mean to us at large; we expect you businesses, big and small, to understand that we consumers will penalize any company by broadcasting it over the internet to everyone that said company has tried to parse these commonly held words. We believe there is no reason to parse these commonly held words other than to take advantage of another. Therefore we will broadcast across the internet via e-mail, via blogs, via bulletin boards via forums via any way possible now and in the future any company and/or individual that plays games with or parses the meaning of these commonly held words. For the record the meanings of these words are the same whether you are giving us a great or not so great of free or freebie item.

We also wish to state for the record that we consumers understand that you businesses must make profit in order to stay in business. We are not opposed to the fact that not every free or freebie item will be of great worth. We however expect the meaning of these commonly held words to remain just the same, regardless of worth of free or freebie item. May this article serve as fair warning to all businesses, big and small, that we consumers are fed up with all the parsing of commonly held words to take advantage of any consumer!

As a consumer, if you agree to this writing then it is expected of you to hold all businesses to these rules and if some business does not, you have the responsibility to make said infringement known to the masses via one or more methods listed above. Every concerned consumer should print out this little article and keep it handy and ready to post or serve such business and/or individual that breaks these rules. This article is free, zero cost, will not exclude you from future freebies, and will not require you to post personal information or the personal information of six friends. You need not do anything to print it out and post it. This article is completely free of charge regardless of time of day or season of year. This article is simply, FREE!

How to Create Instant Publicity With Press Release Marketing

Press releases are another nifty, inexpensive tool which can help to quickly promote your web site or business. With the advent of web-based PR distribution services, press releases have become a much more popular means of distributing newsworthy content than ever before.

"When Should I Use a Press Release?"

Press releases aren't for any old news story — they're typically saved for major company developments and are not written like advertisements. The main purpose of a press release is to communicate essential information about a newsworthy story to media outlets. Journalists, bloggers, and other interested parties use your release to gather background research for articles that they plan to write.

Not everything is news. If you don't think you could get an unbiased person interested in your story, don't use a press release. Also remember that press releases are not hard-sell advertisements.

Some typical events covered by press releases:

* Release of a new product and/or service

* Recap of an event that has taken place or will take place

* Opening of new offices or stores

* Publication or re-design of a web site

* Company mergers or acquisitions

The Benefits of Press Releases

Press release marketing is a great idea for a number of reasons.

* Press release marketing is inexpensive. Most web-based PR distribution services are completely free, which means that if you are confident in your ability to write your own release, the campaign won't cost anything. Even if you decide to outsource the article to a freelance copywriter, most charge inexpensive rates as the articles typically aren't very long and don't require hours of background research. Click here to get a quote on a press release.

* Press releases can generate exponential exposure. In the ideal press release campaign, several different news outlets will use your release to write an army of articles which all publicize your business. In this manner, the information tends to spread itself among a variety of different sources without any effort on your part.

* Press releases can bolster your reputation. If your company is constantly the focus of newsworthy press releases, you better believe that prospects, journalists, and news editors are going to become more familiar with your name. A well-written press release can give your company a very professional image and make your name more recognizable. If you are quoted as a reliable expert within the press release, this can also serve to establish you as a leading authority in your niche, field, or industry.

* Press releases provide a source of new web content. Constantly updating your web site with new content can be a frustrating task. However, press releases are a great way to take care of this need. By frequently posting releases, you offer the visitors on your site some interesting information that will keep them there and increase your chances of a sale or conversion. Search engines also appreciate press releases and reward frequently updated web sites with higher rankings in their search results.

There you have it. If you're interested in generating publicity, building your reputation, and increasing the number of sites that link to you, press releases can be a useful tool. With almost no monetary investment, you can start generating exposure for your company in as little as 24 hours.

Marketing by Public Speaking- Steps to Getting Started

Speaking is selling. It' an effective marketing strategy because it showcases your knowledge and expertise to many people at once. People will remember you and will think you're successful. It gives you higher visibility and credibility which will increase over time.

But you already know that. Now you want more. You want to know HOW to get started. It' actually quite easy to promote your service-based business by public speaking.

To help get you started, I'll share with you the steps I took that got me started public speaking and giving presentations.

It all started with an article.

• Step 1: October 2006. I wrote an article entitled "How to Get Unstuck and Regain Momentum." It appeared in that month' newsletter, on my blog and was submitted to online article sites.
• Step 2: November 3, 2006. The readers' response was so great; I decided to continue the discussion, a very casual one, using Skype. Around 6 people joined the call.
• Step 3: November 5, 2006. I was surprised with how interactive the 'call' went. Most everyone joined the conversation. I asked questions and those present shared their insights then asked their own questions -- I hardly did any talking. Following that session, I posted a review of the call on my blog "Marketing momentum discussion continued."
• Step 4: About the same time, a call went out to members of a networking group, asking for volunteers to speak at their upcoming virtual summit. I didn't have a presentation nor any material prepared, but I knew I had to jump on the opportunity. My heart in my throat, I replied, offering to give a presentation on regaining momentum. My offer was accepted.
• Step 5: For the next month and a half, using my article, Skypecast notes, blog comments and additional research, I worked my butt off writing a presentation description, bio, the actual presentation and PowerPoint slides.
• Step 6: January 12, 2007. I nervously gave my first presentation "Regaining Loss of Momentum" in a virtual room and it was a success.

That' when things really took off. That single presentation led to invitations to give the same presentation to their groups. To date, this is the most requested speaking topic. It also increased my confidence, so I was more willing to volunteer.

I had a similar experience with my blog post entitled "How to create a compelling 30-second pitch." Not only do I offer this as a workshop topic, I've turned the content into an information product -- a guidebook called "Designing a compelling 30-second intro" -- that I give away when signing up for my newsletter.

In the short time I've been speaking, I've given numerous presentations for virtual events, been interviewed on the radio and via Podcast, participated in radio round table discussions, appeared as a guest host for online networking meets, hosted group discussions and given teleclasses.

Despite my maternity hiatus, I still receive speaking invitations. My goal is to start Podcasting this year, and I may team up with 2 entrepreneurs to do a weekly internet radio show.

The steps outlined above are simple strategies I used to get started. There are many other speaking opportunities available to you. And if you're willing to speak for free, you'll find more than you know what to do with.

You may want to expand and improvise on my suggestions for your own business. The point is, just get out there and start speaking. The first few times are the most difficult, but you'll find the more you use public speaking to raise awareness about your business, the more comfortable you'll be doing it. You may even find that you like it.

Copyright. Cristina Favreau. All rights reserved.