Client Snapshot: Event PR 2013 Round-Up
Here at Cherish we believe that event PR and stunts can be a fantastic way to improve a brands’ image, garner solid and long-standing journalist relations, and most importantly, bring a client’s brand or product into the public’s awareness though broadcast, print and online media. Of course, an event only works when done properly. You always need to have an objective when planning any stunt or event PR, and a clear idea of what you want to achieve and why.
To give you an idea of some of the successful ways Cherish PR have created events and stunts to suit particular clients we have rounded up a selection from this year so far.
January: Mills and Boon team up with ITV’s Lorraine Show to create the Racy Reads Competition
We at Cherish PR pulled all of our combined creativity together to secure a fantastic opportunity between our client Mills & Boon (a British romance publishing giant), and ITV’s Lorraine show. The Racy Reads viewer competition was set up in January, and consisted of a nationwide search to find the next big name in Erotic Fiction.
The competition was judged by worldwide bestseller Jackie Collins and one of Mills & Boon’s most successful authors, London-based Victoria Fox. As well as getting an advance on sales from Mills and Boon, the writer was also able to join Jackie in the USA for a lunch where she passed on much of her writing experience.
After the many entries were whittled down to the final three, Anouska Knight managed to beat the competition to win the prize of getting her book published, with her extract of ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’.
Six months on, and the winner of the Racy Reads competition has now published her book with Mills & Boon! Anouska Knight’s ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ was released on the 16th of July and has already made a massive splash in the literary world.
February: Mills & Boon provides a little ‘Love on the Underground’
Have you ever been sat (or stood) on the London underground, gazing around at the many people with their noses in books and newspapers, wishing you had remembered to put that book you’ve been meaning to read into your bag that morning? With busy commutes for many of us, and only the monotonous clacking of the tracks to keep our minds occupied, the wonderful Books on the Underground initiative is a fantastic way to alleviate boredom and get London reading!
Launched in October 2012, Books on the Underground is as simple as it sounds. Acting as a commuter library, Books on the Underground regularly distribute a collection of literary reads on the tubes for passengers to borrow and enjoy for free, before going on to share themselves.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day the romance publishing giant Mills & Boon donated over 100 books to be shared on the underground to help romance readers in the lead up to Valentine’s Day.
March: Wix provides workshops for Journalists and users alike
The gang at Cherish PR were thrilled to host two innovative events for our Israel-based client, freemium HTML5 web publishing platform Wix. The first event was created to introduce the Wix brand to some highly influential writers. A free and practical event, it offered a creative environment in which to learn more about website building from the very best in the business. Fifteen freelance journalists, all of whom were in need of a website on which to showcase their work, came along to The Hub in Islington for a Wix Website Master-class. They were not only given the opportunity to learn how to create their own HTML5 website from scratch but also got the chance to mingle with interesting small businesses and like-minded journalists.
Both Wix and Cherish were thrilled with the turn out and response to this unique event, and it’s clear from the feedback from all who attended that the feeling was mutual:
~Jenna Wood (Grazia, Sunday Times Style, Marie Claire): “I found the workshop really inspiring and useful and I love the concept of being able to build my own website and for it to look really professional without having to spend loads of money.”
~Fiona Wright (Daily Mail, Woman & Home, Woman): ‘I thought the workshop was really good, liked the venue, Wix people were very helpful and very good teachers’
~Lowri Clarke (Londonlovesbusiness.com, Spoonfed.co.uk): ‘The day was very informative, the site is easy to use, fun, inspiring’.
~Charlotte Ward (Marie Claire, Glamour, Zest): “After tearing my hair out trying to get to grips with website design I found Wix.com refreshingly easy to use.”
Following neatly on from our journalist event the second event for 70 of Wix’ UK-based website users. Our client Wix regularly holds free ‘meet ups’ around the globe to help its users with anything from technical migration of their sites, to online branding. It was a free educational event that gave a number of Wix’ small business users the chance to learn the latest about web design trends and get some handy hints for PR-ing their site and their business.
April: Launch of the Kobo Aura HD
Kobo, a global leader in eReading based in Canada, selected Cherish PR to organise the global launch of their newest eReader, the Kobo Aura HD through a London-based event in April 2013.
With the launch party set to coincide with The London Book Fair, and over 60 journalists in attendance at the event, the Kobo Aura HD landed with a splash.
Within the first two days the Online campaign generated massive coverage with The Financial Times, CNET, BBC News, MSN News, New Statesman, Huffington Post and Stuff TV all featuring the story, with many others picking it up in the following weeks.
Offline, the campaign gained us some truly outstanding publicity opportunities including broadcast media such as CNBC, CNN and BBC News, as well as features in the Mail on Sunday, Metro, City AM and other national media. With coverage totalling 50 million in circulation in just 2 days, which is a nice little reward for some rather late nights.
The Kobo Aura HD’s sophisticated, book-inspired design is available in Ivory, Espresso and Onyx and will retail for £139.99 (UK/MSRP).
To see what the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones had to say about the launch of Kobo’s most impressive model to date, check out his interview with Kobo Chief Executive Michael Serbinis here.
July: Christmas in July for House of Bath
To launch House of Bath’s new Christmas range, we invited eight top-tier interior journalists to an exclusive preview of their Christmas 2013 Gift Collection at Greens in Mayfair. Taking place over a sumptuous sit-down three course festive lunch, House of Bath’s Christmas in July event showcased the very best of products they have to offer this year.
Taking inspiration from years gone by and traditions of Christmas past, the event offered a unique insight into House of Bath’s selection of traditional gifts for all the family. With wooden toys to personalised presents and everything in between, House of Bath proved that they were top providers of classic gifts for all the family.
July: An afternoon of stolen dreams…not as sombre as it sounds!
To celebrate the launch of Mira’s debut author, Claire Garber’s book ‘Love is a Thief’, a host of journalists were invited to the sumptuous Drink, Shop, Do bar in London to meet the author, and see why falling in love doesn’t necessarily mean giving up on your life-long dreams.
There was tea…there were tasty treats… there was tears (maybe more metaphorically than literally), but it was definitely a tea party with a difference!