The Art of the Stunt--How to Grab Publicity For Your Business or Yourself!
They should teach it at Publicity School-the art of the publicity stunt.
I'm not talking Janet Jackson's wardrobe "malfunction"; that was just plain cheesy. This one is inspired!
The winter before last, a New York City comedian hit a home run for himself and Swedish furniture retailer, IKEA, with an inspired PR play. On Monday Jan 7, two years ago, Mark Malkoff, moved into IKEA while his New York apartment was being "fumigated for cockroaches". The story is that he had nowhere to stay (funny, his wife seems to have found a place!) so he called Sven or Nils or whoever runs IKEA and asked if he could have a sleepover.
No marketing slouch itself, IKEA welcomed the guy with open arms. Malkoff stayed for several days. The result?
Both the comedian and IKEA scored big time. Malkoff got publicity right away and got a documentary out of the deal (ie publicity later). He also got attention for one of his other crazy ventures, 171 Starbucks-where he visited all 171 NYC Starbucks locations in one 24 hour period.
In a classic, win-win, IKEA kicked it's "goodwillometer" up a few notches and got tons of extra eyeballs to spice up a normally chilly retailing month.
The comedian came to the right place. IKEA is no stranger to unconventional marketing. The Swedish innovator decked out subway cars in Japan with IKEA furnishings. IKEA dressed up bus shelters in Manhattan to show that IKEA could make "any space" beautiful.
It's not that hard to think of these things. I always have a flood of awesome ideas to promote my Step Into The Spotlight! book. The hard part is having the guts to implement.
Especially when you can't, or don't want to, throw a ton of money at it.
It's easy to do stuff like this when you have a fat wallet or an annually renewing marketing budget that expires if you don't use it. That's why it's not as impressive when Hershey mounts a huge Hershey's kiss on top of the Empire State Building in NYC and gets former Apprentice "did they or didn't they?" finalists Amy Henry and Nick Warnock (how easy it is to forget them a few years later) to give a quick public smooch.
Or for a bra company to take the plunge and send 100 beautiful women into a London, England intersection in front of the National Gallery. The women, wearing just a bra and panties, stopped traffic to show off the company's new WonderBra Multi Plunge Bra. The ripples quickly spread across the ocean.
But the beauty of the IKEA thing was that one was that it was pulled off by one little guy with one BIG idea. Bravo all around!
And the best part is that that little guy could be you!
Ready to step into the spotlight but don't know how?
1. Figure out what you want to draw attention to. (Your comedy, your kisses, your new bra.)
2. Figure out the last place someone would expect to find out about it.
3. If you're low on ideas, check out The Power of Publicity at http://www.thepowerofpublicity.com
4. Screw up your courage (make sure it's legal) and go for it!
Don't forget to send your press clippings or video so I can report your triumph at http://www.spotlightblog.com
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/the-art-of-the-stunthow-to-grab-publicity-for-your-business-or-yourself-1782453.html
