Читать книгу Explosive PR. Secrets of Outrageous PR-Stunts from Russia with Love for Positive News - Igor Szucs - Страница 10

I’ve been engaged in PR since 2002 (organization of parties in night clubs and DJ booking). Since 2004, I’ve promoted one small translation agency in Moscow. We are still collaborating, and now this company is among the top-5 leaders of its industry. Since 2006, I’ve been running my own PR agency. For six years, I was doing what I call “classic PR”, organizing press conferences, press tours, and getting limelight for my clients in leading business periodicals like Forbes, Dengi, Vedomosti and others. One day, I realized I was bored and thought of leaving PR for good. But then a client came my way, who wanted something special, something off the charts, some non-trivial PR campaign.

I did not know what I was being drawn into, but I agreed to give it a try.

Normally, my clients are startups in different fields of business. The first client of this sort was a representative office of the investment firm Botanoo in Russia. They traded in carbon credits. I still don’t fully understand what carbon credits are, but we attracted a long line of people to their doors in central Moscow.

Then I was ordered a sensational opening by Moscow’s most expensive bath house in Moscow, Tazik Club. We came up with a crash of five limos, with their logo painted on all of the sideboards.

Despite a major holiday, plane crash, and saturated political agenda, our news ranked sixth in the top-10 daily news, according to the YandexNews search engine2.

Then we “kidnapped” a model who wanted to win renown.

Three days later she was a recognizable personality.

When our fourth resounding promo event was a success, I realized I had groped for an efficient technology.

We did an excellent job promoting a new coupon site for two days, selling indulgences at a discount. The stunt lasted until doomsday by the Maya calendar3.

Their web site traffic rose from 1,000 to 10,000 visits and remained at that level for a week.

The PR success of my clients convinced me to give up on “classic PR campaigns” in favor of “explosive PR”. I had an amazing revelation: – you didn’t only spend money on PR (advertising or marketing) but also earned it via PR.