Globespotting – June
PR Campaigns & Stunts
PAVING FOR PIZZA
What?
Domino’s paved over pesky potholes in America as they claim the holes in the road cause “irreversible damage to your pizza” during delivery
Who and When?
Before launching the nationwide campaign, Domino’s helped towns in Texas, California and Georgia fix their roads, branding the paved potholes with iconic Domino’s dice. Customers were then invited to nominate their town on a dedicated website
Where?
The ‘Paving for Pizza’ initiative was covered by international media including UK nationals The Guardian and I, and viral sites Vice and Unilad
Why?
The creative campaign addresses one of the general public’s pet peeves, driving talkability and attracting attention not just from consumers but from communications trade and consumer media alike
MAKING WAVES ON WORLD OCEAN DAY
What?
Corona armed itself for the war on plastic and took over World Ocean Day, to build awareness around marine plastic pollution by creating a Wave of Waste
Who and When?
Corona teamed up with Thor actor, Chris Hemsworth and changed its tagline to ‘This is Living?’ The brand placed waves of plastic in cities around the world and invited the public to drop off their own plastic waste
Where?
The stunt generated national coverage as well as blanket trade coverage and masses of social chatter from celebrities and other brands
Why?
Hopping on the back of the trending topic of ‘plastic waste’ and tapping into its longstanding image of a beachy beer brand, Corona innovatively drove insightful conversation and awareness about a serious issue
THE NATION’S FAVOURITE FATHER
What?
Brazen client, Showcase Cinemas, revealed The Lion King’s Mufasa as the most admired fictional father
Who and When?
Showcase polled the nation to reveal which movie dads were the most popular to celebrate Father’s Day
Where?
The story caught the attention of national titles Daily Star and Daily Mirror as well as viral sites such as LADbible and Unilad, generating huge reach
Why?
Every man and his dog attempts to hijack calendar dates such as Father’s Day but only the best ones make their way into the public domain
HEINZ SANDWICH CREAM
What?
Global giant and market leader Heinz announced its popular ‘Salad Cream’ was facing a name change
Who and When?
Heinz announced it was rebranding to ‘Sandwich Cream’ in June, after it said its customers used the product more on sandwiches than salads, causing uproar with consumers
Where?
The brand received blanket national and consumer coverage discussing the name change, as well as huge volumes of social chatter and customers even started a petition to stop the rebrand!
Why?
As an iconic brand, Heinz came up with a new way to Own the Screen and generate talkability around a product which may have been experiencing a stagnant sales period
Trends
FATHER’S DAY
National calendar dates like Father’s Day inspire campaigns and social content from all manner of brands. Large scale campaigns this year included celebrity partnerships between John Legend and Pampers, and Beckham, Hugh Jackman and Lewis Hamilton with Unicef.
Brazen’s own team Showcase showed how to cut through the noise and Own the Screen with a news story with talkabilty at heart.
FIFA WORLD CUP
Football fever well and truly spread across the nation throughout June, engaging consumers and media alike.
With the majority of brands wanting a piece of the action, unfortunately not all got it right, with Mastercard bosses finding themselves in hot water.
We have no doubt there will be even more madness if England make it past the quarter finals, watch this space!
PRIDE 2018
In the month leading up to Pride parades around the world, people were already preparing to celebrate, and brands were keen to show their support too.
Virgin Trains created conversation on social media when they very frankly addressed some of the unimpressed responses to their ‘Ride with Pride’ campaign and Paddy Power partnered with Attitude magazine to raise money for LGBT+ charities during the World Cup.
#PRFAIL
MASTERCARD FEELS THE HEAT
What?
Mastercard faces backlash with an insensitive, The Hunger Games style campaign for The World Cup
Who and When?
Mastercard had to pull its charity initiative to donate 10k meals to hungry children for every goal scored in the World Cup by Messi and Neymar. The brand came under fire with media and consumers questioning why they couldn’t just donate the meals regardless
Where?
The epic fail was criticised worldwide and made national headlines accusing the brand of launching an insensitive stunt which in some cases, was compared to The Hunger Games
Why?
Mastercard was accused of trivialising child hunger and publicly apologised once the campaign was pulled, resolving to donate a total of 1,000,000 meals to children facing poverty worldwide
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