Like
most people in the UK – and indeed the world – I was glued to my TV screen on
Saturday night, willing Jessica Ennis on in her quest for Heptathlon gold. She
had, of course, been the favourite to win all along. The media hype before the
event had been colossal and poor Jess had the hopes of a nation on her
shoulders as she entered the biggest spectacle of her life.
After
she won by such an impressive margin – and after the initial celebrations had
died down ever-so-slightly, whispers started over whether she would choose to
race in the 110m Hurdle event later in the week. Jess had, after all, achieved
the best hurdles time ever achieved by a heptathlete.
As my
family joined in the speculation, I argued: “She could, but she doesn’t need to.” In fact, Jess doesn’t need to do any athletics ever again.
What she achieved on Saturday was so magnificent that it has cemented her in
sporting history and paved the way for her to do absolutely anything she wants
– she could be a presenter, a sports pundit, a film star, a politician… Almost
overnight, she has the world at her feet.
It’s
every PRO’s dream; achieving the equivalent of Jess winning the heptathlon gold
for one of our clients. An idea so great, so huge, so influential, so genius
that it simply never leaves the pages
of the world’s media and is written about for years to come.
While
we’re talking big and aiming high, here are my top three Jess-Ennis-Gold PR
equivalents of 2012:
- Kony video
A perfect example
of viral publicity working at its best, the video exposed warlord, Joseph
Kony’s use of child soldiers in Uganda. Film-maker Jason Russell from advocacy
group, Invisible Children, uploaded a 30 minute documentary to Youtube and
Vimeo that had soon been viewed by over 100 million people that had previously
been unaware of the issue.The
Kony 2012 campaign’s goal was to increase awareness about Kony and his actions,
pushing people to urge the American government and others to intervene in the
search for Kony. The group then developed the ‘Kony 2012 action kit’,
consisting of various DIY marketing materials, which quickly sold out at $30
per set.
-
Mission: Impossible – The Queen
I’ve
never really been much of a Royalist. In fact, Britain’s Jubilee fever left me
feeling somewhat queasy. But even I had to voice my new-found respect for the
Queen when she met up with James Bond at her Palace, climbed into a helicopter
and jumped (yes, that part was real)
out at 20,000 feet, to make her entrance into the Olympic Park. The dare-devil
Queen was watched by around a billion people – and in a matter of seconds
quashed any image or reputation we Brits have as ‘reserved’ or ‘stuffy’. This
bold move will certainly be in the history books of the future, and will earn
us a new reputation as a ‘fun’, ‘radical’ and truly ‘far out’ nation.
Overnight, widespread faith in Britain was restored.
-
Lauren Luke / Refuge
Self-taught
make-up artist, Lauren Luke, was once herself a victim of domestic violence.
The Youtube sensation, whose self-filmed make-up tutorials have earned her over
111 million views, was chosen by Refuge to front a campaign against domestic
violence by making a series of videos that showed victims how to cover up their
bruises after being attacked. The shocking tutorials – one entitled ‘How to
look good the morning after’ – were a depressing reminder of the high numbers
of victims that try to cover up their abuse. Refuge’s campaign was everything
that a PR campaign should be; it took advantage of a medium that was likely to
go viral, it was impactful, and bore a simple message; making it worthy of
stories in almost all target national and consumer media.
By Jess Matthias
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