Hamlet Cigars and humor

Humor has always been a great method to get people to really feel positive concerning the organization. Many businesses create humorous advertisements, but there’s no cause why PR should not also operate with a sense of enjoyable.

Sponsorship has usually been a popular tool of PR: it generates word of mouth and creates a great impression of the firm. Some firms have even managed to make sponsorship enjoyable by backing something humorous.

Hamlet cigars have usually taken a humorous approach to their promotion. The adverts were so well liked that they were released on video-no little achievement in the advertising world. When tobacco advertising was banned throughout Europe, most tobacco companies scrambled to sponsor sporting events, arts events, and indeed anything that was not advertising. The brand managers for Hamlet decided to continue with their humorous approach, and sought out something jokey to sponsor.

Thus was born the Poor Sex Award. Hamlet sponsored a prize by the Literary Review for probably the most badly written sex scenes in new literature. The 2004 award went to famous American author Tom Wolfe, who’s reputed to be the only author who did not turn up to claim his prize.

Sponsorship has now also been banned for tobacco companies, which has left a void in the funding of numerous organizations: nevertheless, for a time the Bad Sex Award offered Hamlet a great method to promote itself. Search for something that your target audience likes. Tap into their sense of humor: this might or may not be exactly the same as your personal. Help the individuals you sponsor to publicize themselves.

Most PR individuals like to blow the fanfare when they have something new to promote. Following all, it’s an excellent opportunity to show what could be done with an effective PR campaign, and enables them to give the media something really meaty for a change. But it’s a truism in PR that the greatest successes come from doing something various from what everyone else is doing. So why not have a non-launch, and keep people waiting for the product?

The Harry Potter books have been a huge good results, making their author, J. K. Rowling, a multimillionaire. New Harry Potter books had been large news, and also the publishers were great at teasing the readers: when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published in 2000, bookstores were prevented from selling the book.

News reports came in that 20 copies had accidentally been sold by a nameless supermarket: TV footage of the books being delivered to bookstores in security vans was shown, and (mysteriously) a copy of the book found its way onto the news desk of the Scottish Every day Record, upon which the journalists (equally mysteriously) returned it towards the publishers unopened. Ultimately the official launch took place on July 8th, 2000. Needless to say, there were queues across the block to buy the book.

Make certain that you have something that people will find exciting anyway: this concept works best for new products in a series, such as new models of car, book and movie sequels, and new menu items in restaurants. Set a date for the release of the product and publicize it. Limit the quantity of outlets or the supply of products-this is more most likely to produce an initial frenzy.

Source: 100 Great PR Ideas

Better tomorrow,

PR Pret-a-Porter.