Let the sun shine on your business, with a bright outlook for your public relations

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It’s summertime and the living may be easy – but a bit of extra effort will ensure clear blue skies when it comes to successful PR for your business.

Award-winning PR agency explains why summer can be the best month for PR successIN SCOTLAND we don’t see the sun all that often. It’s a bit like your good friend who you never see anymore because they’re all loved up with a new partner.

They’re rarely out with the rest of the group at the weekend, but when word does get out that they might be venturing out for a couple, everyone stops whatever else they’re doing to catch a glimpse of them.

It’s the same with the sun. We don’t see it for most of the year, but when the weather forecaster tells you it’s going to be hotter than Barcelona for a couple of days in May or June, you’re straight to the messy cupboard (we all have one right?) to dust down the sunbathing rug, the picnic hamper and factor 50 for a trip to the beach or nearest park.

Fortunately, this sense of excitement and emotional response caused by the brief appearance of the sun can be a major boost for your business.

Whisper it, but with summer just around the corner, the weather hasn’t actually been half bad, so whip out the deck chair from the garage, sweep away the spiders and let us take you through three of the best summer PR campaigns from the past couple of years (before the rain comes on…).


COCA-COLA – #SHAREACOKE

A genius idea that had everyone talking and hunting for their names on bottle of cokes during the summers of 2013 and 2014.

It won’t have been an uncommon tale for households across the country to have seen loved ones rushing home to triumphantly announce ‘I found it!’ before thrusting bottles of Coke on each other with their names emblazoned on the bottles.

The campaign was such a success that to this day, Coca-Cola still have a section on their site where you can get a name on a customised bottle.

But this wasn’t just an idea on a whim with no real point to it, as the staggering results show.

In 2014 alone, 998 million impressions were made on the Coca-Cola Twitter pages, 235,000 tweets used the #ShareaCoke hashtag, over 150 million personalised bottles were sold and 17,000 virtual name bottles were shared online across Europe.

Not a bad return when you consider removing your brand name from your product goes against everything in the marketing handbook.


ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE

This campaign saw social feeds across the world filled with videos of people pouring ice cold water over their heads.

It demonstrated how an incredibly simple idea could generate worldwide success – with more than $53 million being raised in donations for the deadly degenerative disease, ALS, better known in the UK as motor neurone disease (MND).

From former President George W. Bush, to Alex Salmond, to David Beckham and countless other famous figures in between, the challenge was taken on by a raft of well-known people and the general public alike to raise funds for a great cause.

The campaign was a rip-roaring PR success, with countless articles written by the world’s press and mind boggling figures on social media with people tagging ALS charities and raising awareness of the terminal illness.


IKEA RESPONDS TO GAME OF THRONES

In the summer of 2017, millions of TV fans across the globe were eagerly awaiting the latest series of Game of Thrones.

When news broke that the smash-hit series had been using Ikea rugs as capes for extras in the show, the Swedish furniture giant responded cleverly.

In the hit HBO show, a crew, led by king of the north Jon Snow (not the Channel 4 News host) wear what appear to be animal skins to keep warm from the harsh chill of winter.

 


FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHAT YOUR BUSINESS CAN LEARN FROM GAME OF THRONES IN OUR BLOG POST HERE 


Instead of kitting out the actors and actresses in real animal fur (which would have been a PR disaster), the costume designers decided to pop down to their local Ikea and pick up some faux-animal rugs instead (and no doubt a pocket full of wee pencils).

Ikea hit on the genius idea of encouraging bearded and rugged looking staff from various branches were encouraged to visit the rugs department to try on the PETA-approved fake fur floor coverings.

The resultant photos proving a massive hit on both social media and in newspapers and news sites.

This PR campaign was also a superb example of “newsjacking”, where a business or brand successfully piggyback on a major news story or cultural event and reaps the benefits.

All of which shows that it pays to have a team of media experts on your side to keep a watchful eye over the media landscape.


USE SUMMER TO YOUR BENEFIT

It’s clear that the sunny weather and summer holidays improves the spirit of the country and makes for an ideal time to cash in on some PR success.

One clever idea can sky rocket the awareness and emotional attachment customers feel towards your brand.

As shown in the examples above, the ideas don’t need to be particularly complex, you just need the savvy and a team of experts to guide you from idea – to summer sensation.

Right, you can put the deck chair back in the garage, I think that’s the rain on again…


If you want success in the sun for your business reputation, then do yourself a favour and speak with a member of the team at our award-winning PR agency

We’d love the chance to chat with you about how successful public relations could help boost your business. We’re a friendly bunch and it couldn’t be easier to get in touch for a chat about what could be possible.

Simply phone us on 0131 561 2244, or take a few seconds to fill out and submit the simple form, below, and we’ll get straight back to you.

 

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