Most PR is carried out in a pretty gentlemanly way, as indeed is most business. Now and then, though, someone will pull a really cheeky stunt-and frequently there is PR worth attached to it. Some of the cheekiest stunts have taken place in the airline industry. The low-cost airline business is, by its nature, pretty cut-throat. Margins can be very tight, and also the industry relies on the aircraft flying full fairly much all the time-there is extremely little margin for error, and not much respect for competitors.
In this environment, even a little change in circumstances can be sufficient to bankrupt an airline: irreparable damage can even be done by a little error in programming the computer that makes the bookings and therefore automatically sets the prices.
When new low-cost airline Go opened its doors for business, it represented something of a threat for established airline easyJet. easyJet rose towards the occasion, though-they booked ten seats on Go's inaugural flight, and filled the seats with easyJet employees dressed in business uniform. The easyJet staff spent the flight handing out leaflets to the other passengers, promoting easyJet.
Obviously this is a stunt that could have gone significantly wrong-Go clients might well have felt that easyJet weren't playing by the guidelines, and needless to say the Go cabin crew may have prevented them from handing out the leaflets. Ground staff might have realized what was going on, and prevented them from boarding in the first location.
In reality, anything that Go might have done to scotch the stunt would have been likely to have backfired, since (for example) refusing boarding to passengers who have paid their fare merely due to what they are wearing would have made an excellent news story in itself. In the event, the cheeky stunt made the news, and easyJet's reputation as a fun, enthusiastic airline was enhanced.
In the business-to-business environment, and even in many consumer industries, there are times when merely talking about yourself becomes tedious for the readers. If you're in consultancy, training, education, or anything where you're helping customers, you could gain a lot by talking about your clients instead of yourself. Companies such as trainers and consultants frequently have trouble establishing credibility with new customers. Following all, you are expecting individuals to commit to you before they know whether you are any good-and that takes an excellent deal of faith.
What many firms do is write situation studies about their clients. Obviously the clients need to be pleased for this to occur, and you will not have the ability to put anything in there that is confidential, but in numerous cases the customers themselves are more than happy to have some additional PR at no cost or effort to themselves apart from approving the copy.
The case studies can go on your website, or if they're newsworthy enough they could even be sent to trade magazines. A great case study need only be a couple of hundred words long, but it is a triplewin scenario. You get publicity and enhance your own credibility, your client gets additional coverage with third-party endorsement from you, and the journals get great, interesting copy that fills a space. An additional plus is that situation studies have a lengthy life-they are less time-sensitive than news stories.
Almost any consumer service industry can create case studies. A flying school could run profiles of successful students, talking about their background and reasons for learning to fly: a hair salon could produce a write-up about a client who has appeared on TV or been voted Lady of the Year, and so forth. As usually, the key would be to be alert for opportunities.
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1. Publicity stunts and ambush PR
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