Four Favourite PR Campaigns from August

From Fortnite fitness classes, and Persil’s dirt-activated books, to a sleepover in a Finnish supermarket: the innovative PR campaigns came thick and fast in August. Here are four of our favourites.

Persil’s dirt-activated story book encourages kids to play outside

In a bid to get children off their phones and playing outside, laundry brand Persil created the world’s first dirt-activated story book in South Africa as part of its ongoing Dirt is Good campaign. ‘The Tale of Spots and Stripes’ is about a leopard cub and a tiger cub who are determined to become friends, despite their physical differences and against their mothers’ wishes. The two cubs roll around in the mud until their parents can’t tell them apart, and realise tigers and leopards are not so different after all.

The illustrated book could only be read when the pages were smeared with dirt, thanks to a special ink formula, which meant children had no choice but to go outside and get their hands dirty to read the feel-good story.

Persil has long been an advocate of outdoor play, claiming it’s the best way for children to learn, express their creativity, and bolster their immune systems. The book gets the message across in a fun and innovative way and attracted plenty of media attention. It also boosted Persil’s campaign to get the book into the national curriculum in South Africa.

David Lloyd Clubs trial Fortnite fitness classes

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months, you’ve probably heard of Fortnite: the video game that’s taken the world by storm. The game drops you and 99 other online players on to an island with guns and ammo, and you battle it out to be the last player standing. Add to this fun scenario the ability to scavenge for weapons and armour, plus a construction element which enables players to build forts to keep them alive, and you’ve got a recipe for a pretty addictive game. But there’s one element of the game that has got fans talking more than anything else: the dance moves. It seems gamers just can’t get enough of the floss, orange justice, take the L, the wiggle, and other animated moves they can unlock as they progress through the game.

Taking advantage of the Fortnite craze, health club brand David Lloyd introduced an ‘Emote Royale’ fitness class for children that were available at select clubs across the UK during the summer holidays. The classes were dedicated to learning 12 of the incredibly popular dance moves featured in the game.

There was research behind this clever stunt. David Lloyd questioned 1,000 parents of kids, aged seven-17, in July 2018 and found that the average child spends two hours and fifteen minutes a day playing video games during the summer holidays.

This clever PR campaign won coverage from the likes of the BBC, by tackling childhood inactivity – a topical cause – in a fun way.

Finnish K-Supermarket cools down customers with sleepover

Last month, a supermarket chain in Finland invited 100 customers to spend a night in one of its air-conditioned stores as Europe endured a record-breaking heatwave. After hearing customers joking that it’d be nice to sleep in the cool supermarket to beat the heat, the manager of K-Supermarket in Helsinki decided to offer shoppers the chance to get a decent night’s kip. They were invited to bring mattresses, sleeping bags and blankets, and camp out by the open refrigerators and freezers for the night, then enjoy a complimentary breakfast in the morning.

The store announced the unusual event on Facebook, which was ‘liked’ and shared thousands of times. The store received so many RSVPs, it had to turn people away.

Needless to say, this wacky but genius stunt was a PR spinner. It did wonders for the supermarket’s reputation in the local community, and, after going viral, attracted publicity from all over the world.

Charity enables people to donate to the homeless

A homeless charity called Greater Change got fantastic coverage on the likes of Wired, BBC and The Telegraph after announcing a new scheme in Oxford whereby people can donate to the homeless by scanning a QR code on the street via an app. Greater Change only enables the donations to go towards the homeless person’s savings targets, such as a place to live or job training, and the money is only released to the providers of those services.

It’s a great idea that’s getting well-deserved media pick-up, especially as we move towards being a more cashless society with the homeless no longer benefiting as much from spontaneous cash donations.

As these brands have shown, an innovative and timely PR stunt can win you fans and propel your brand into the global spotlight.