Five Cracking PR Campaigns from March

The clocks have gone forward, the days are getting longer, and our favourite PR campaigns from March had a spring in their step. From Laithwaite’s new English Sparkling pantone colour, to Yorkshire Tea’s special biscuit brew, March was a month of creative PR campaigns. Here are five of the best:

Laithwaite’s Wine and Pantone create sparkling new colour

If you’re a fan of English sparkling wine, you’ll be delighted to know you can now, quite literally, paint your home in it. UK wine merchant Laithwaites has teamed up with the colour experts at Pantone to create a bespoke shade called ‘English sparkling’.

Designed to celebrate the growing popularity of English fizz, the shade reflects the creamy hues of one of the nation’s favourite English Sparkling wines: Wyfold Vineyard Brut, by Barbara Laithwaite.

The quality of English sparkling wine has improved massively in recent times, thanks to investment in production and growing techniques. As a result, sales have increased 89% in the past five years, rivalling Champagne as our fizz of choice.

This campaign was a great way to celebrate quality English produce at a time when there is a vested interest in buying British. It also got some great press coverage to boot.

Barbie’s special edition boxer Barbie

In recognition of International Women’s Day on March 8, toy company Mattel released a special edition Barbie doll, honouring British double Olympic boxing champion Nicola Adams OBE. ‘Boxer Barbie’ was the 15th doll to be introduced to their ‘Shero’ collection that celebrates inspirational modern-day women who have broken boundaries in their field. Other women immortalised in doll form include US snowboarder Chloe Kim, Australian conservationist Bindi Irwin, and Chinese actress and philanthropist Guan Xiaotong.

If you’re wondering where you can get your hands on a Shero doll, you’re out of luck, as the range is a one-off creation. Mattel said it had no plans to sell the dolls. Rather, the aim was to ‘inspire conversation’ around role models. And it did. The campaign got the Twitter community talking, and featured on the likes of Sky News, BBC Sport and WWE UK.

This was a clever way to garner goodwill and reinforce Mattel’s brand ethos of inspiring girls to realise their potential.

Yorkshire Tea’s biscuit brew

Tea and biscuits belong together, like fish and chips or bacon and eggs. And you can now enjoy the classic pairing without having to open a packet of digestives, as the clever folk at Yorkshire Tea have created a new gluten-free blend that combines the two flavours. Genius. The question is, are the public going to ditch the classic builder’s tea in favour of the ‘Biscuit Brew’? Us Brits love a cuppa, but what about the dunk? Some may argue the dunk is the best bit. But that’s the beauty of this PR stunt: it’s got people talking, both online and in the media.

Whether it’s product innovation or creative PR at play, this was a brilliant way of generating product awareness.

Electoral Commission takes 5

Research by the Electoral Commission found that 19% of people are not registered to vote as the capital prepares to go to the polls on 3 May 2018. The Commission’s new campaign, ‘Got 5?’ is encouraging people across London to register online at gov.uk/register-to-vote before the 17 April deadline.

The campaign, which ran on the Commission’s social media channels and in local media outlets, focuses on how quick and easy it is for people to register to vote. The campaign tag line ‘Got 5?’ refers to the times in a day when a person might have a spare five minutes to spare – when running a bath, waiting for a bus or waiting for nail varnish to dry. This is the amount of time it takes to unlock your vote.

This is a new approach for the Electoral Commission. Rather than focusing on the negative i.e. by not registering they’re losing the chance to vote, this campaign focuses on the positive, by emphasising how easy it is to register.

Novotel’s extra hour

The start of British Summer means one thing: an hour’s less sleep. But hotel chain Novotel took advantage of the clocks changing to pull off a simple but effective PR stunt.

Guests at 30 Novotel sites were given back the hour they lost when the clocks went forward, by being allowed to check out at 1pm rather than the typical midday deadline.

Novotel said they didn’t want guests to lose precious sleep and wanted them to have a more relaxed and comfortable start to their day.

This was a great publicity spinner – earning coverage in publications including The Daily Express and several regional newspapers.