There’s always plenty of excitement when you decide to promote a new brand or product. You want the world to witness and feel the same thrill that you have while bringing it to the centre stage. When you plan a PR event to promote it, it’s important that you create a buzz, here are some great ways to get the word out.
Make sure you have great visuals
Your brand is your superstar; make sure that you pay enough attention to a photoshoot. Plan and shoot striking visuals with or without a model. Great visuals make it easier to register your brand in your target audience’s mind. At the venue of your event, have selfie stands and backdrops with branding. This helps to register your brand in the minds of prospects. This will also give you plenty of user generated content.
Create a social media buzz
Build up hype towards your event through social media. Pull out all stops to include your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networks to create the much-needed eagerness and anticipation. Get active with your blog, YouTube channel and emailers. You must make sure that your campaign is aggressive before, during and also after the event. Get some popular influencers on board. Get them to review your product, this is a very effective way to convince prospective customers to give your product a shot. They can also make brand mentions and promote your brand with special offers.
High quality visual content
Visual content for social media has to be innovative and engaging. Explainer videos are those that explain what your product is, its features and what makes it a cut above the rest of the competition. Infographics can at a glance showcase your product\’s features. Use custom graphics to promote discounts and special offers.
Call the media
To get the word out, you definitely need to have a media strategy and invite media houses and journalists. If your company is in the top bracket, the bigger media houses are more likely to accept your event, if not, try to reach out to individual journalists through your personal contacts. Local media in your area is more likely to be supportive besides smaller media channels and newspapers, build a good rapport with them.
Go for celebrity appeal
Where there is a celebrity, the paparazzi will follow. If your brand or product has a celeb brand ambassador, nothing like it. If not, see if you can get a celebrity to launch or promote it. This will not only grab eyeballs bit give you great visuals.
Pull off a publicity stunt!
If you can’t afford a celebrity, think out-of-the-box, think up an idea that won’t be forgotten. Fast food chain KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) has always been a fine example of powerful branding and promotion. In 2016, it pulled off a mega publicity stunt by becoming the first restaurant ever to design a logo that could be seen from space. This was handmade done in Nevada. No doubt this got much talked about.
Throw in the surprise element
Whether it’s a movie or a brand promotion, the surprise element can make a huge difference to the publicity generated. For instance Lord & Taylor which ranks amongst America’s oldest retail companies felt that it was being left behind in the social media game, came up with a request to customers to hashtag any product from their store as #obsessed and wait to see what would happen next. These hashtagged products were given away free and this gesture generated a great deal of valuable user-generated content.
Have an outdoor event
Outdoor events like a marathon or cyclathon provide many avenues to publicise your brand. Participants wearing a T-shirt of other merchandise carrying your brand message and logo is a great way to attract attention. Sponsorship of outdoor events will also generate a great deal of publicity.
Collaborate with a media house
Tying up with a media house can bring many advantages. You could run a contest in collaboration with a media house, say a radio station. They would provide the publicity and you could provide your products as gifts for contest winners and you could get brand mentions. There are many other ways of collaborating too. You could also take up paid slots in TV channels where you can talk on a subject related to your product and then speak about it.
Try out these ideas and innovate as you do it and your brand will get the publicity it deserves.
