The Fame Game: A star poi-formance, frightful frauds and red-hot work

Special PR’s Head of PR & Influence, Kelly Grindle, selects five of the most attention-grabbing campaigns that made a difference this month.

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It’s about the journey as much as the destination

For the first time in its history, producers of the hit television show Grand Designs New Zealand threw open the doors of their favourite architectural gems for an exclusive public event featuring state-of-the-art Jaguar vehicles.

Coinciding with the seventh season of Grand Designs New Zealand, set to air on TVNZ 1 on October 18, Jaguar launched a series of guided luxury drives across the country to showcase Aotearoa’s most magnificent homes.  

The ‘Jaguar Design Drives’ took guests behind the scenes to experience the best innovation in design and architecture, guided by Grand Designs New Zealand’s new host, Tom Webster – with events across Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.

I’m sure we’ve all sat at home and watched the show (or those of us over 30 have) and wondered what it would be like to walk through such jaw-dropping homes…. and now, thanks to Jaguar, you can.

It’s a clever use of television sponsorship, one that moves a brand beyond sponsored idents and into a physical activation that engages the public and customers, and generates media headlines.

This is particularly important for a brand as physical as Jaguar, where prospective customers need to experience the thrill of its products, and this campaign has successfully moved people from a sofa to a car seat.

Spectacular houses, stunning vehicles, and a suave host meant this was a recipe for success – and a new form of brand activation from TVNZ that brought a traditional TV sponsorship to life in a considered and highly curated activation.

Lettuce rejoice at the creativity of British tabloids

Surely everyone has heard of The Daily Star’s ultimate take-down of Britain’s short-lived Prime Minister, Liz Truss, but if you haven’t buckle-up for some lessons in shaaaaade.

With her premiership crumbling around her, a disastrous budget, and angry (even angrier than normal) Tories causing havoc, the inevitable question arose: how long will Liz Truss be able to last?

In a stroke of tabloid genius, the UK newspaper Daily Star put it to the test by live-streaming a photo of Liz Truss alongside a wet lettuce procured for 60p from supermarket chain Tesco.

Within the first five hours of the stream, it had received over 50,000 likes and more than 350,000 viewers the next day – not to mention plaudits from media channels as far-flung as The New York Times to Al Jazeera. 

This is the best use of social media you could ask for – one that generates tonnes of PR headlines, builds the irreverent tone of voice for the newspaper, and crucially drives viewers onto the Daily Star’s website.

Let’s be honest…. You never really think of the Daily Star as the epitome of political news, but it somehow inserted itself into the centre of worldwide discourse and created the most famous lettuce in the world.

And that’s the Fame Game in a lettuce shell.

The Women’s Rugby World Cup put on one hell of a poi­-formance

The New Zealand Rugby Union deserves credit where it’s due. Despite the hiccup in scheduling hitting the headlines this week, they’ve managed to create a tournament that has finally given women’s rugby the attention and profile it deserves.

One of their smartest moves came from a simple question: rather than waving flags in games, what if spectators used poi?

NZRU launched a campaign to unite rugby fans to twirl poi in support of the wāhine toa, with literally thousands of the opening game crowd taking part on 8 October. Wā Poi (It’s Poi Time) created a movement designed to create an unforgettable atmosphere in stadiums, filling the unique sights and sounds of poi, reflecting the culture of Aotearoa and sharing the beauty of Te Ao Māori with the world.

An activation like this can be done by very few organisations given the taonga and significance of poi in Māori culture, and the consultation and cultural guidance received from Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, NZ Rugby Maori Cultural Advisor Luke Crawford, Whangārei Hapū group and poi expert Pere Wihongi, were key to ensuring Wā Poi was tikanga (culturally correct).

Given the fact that thousands of poi were produced, New Zealand rugby focused on working with burgeoning Māori businesses and ensuring sustainable materials are used – including Dunedin-based start-up PōtikiPoi which makes upcycled poi from recycled products.

The result of this campaign was a tonne of media headlines, and a tonne of engaged spectators – many of whom had never used poi before, in a refreshing cultural shift for our national sporting events.

But besides the local impact, it also created a brilliant cultural moment for “brand New Zealand” on the world stage, with images of thousands of New Zealanders waving their poi in the stands and cheering the Black Ferns on beamed to millions of viewers around the world.

And a moment like that is invaluable.

Get ready for the fright of your life from your bank, and no, it’s not rising interest rates

Just in time for Halloween, British bank NatWest has launched an online content series called “The Scammer House of Horrors: Terrifying Tales of Creepy Cons and Frightful Frauds.”

It is fronted by legendary British actor Simon Callow, who sits in front of a crackling fire, and shares real-life horror stories about crypto scams, romance fraud and fake invoices… which come to a grisly end.

The series has been launched in response to research from NatWest that found 73 percent of Brits have been targeted by scammers, with an estimated average cost of $ 700NZD per person.

While I’m not the biggest fan of badging PR ideas with a celebrity spokesperson, the selection of Simon Callow is on-point: not only for his own body of somewhat creepy acting work but because he too had narrowly avoided being scammed himself – providing a personable and authentic message to share as part of the bank’s media relations drive.

But what I really love about this idea, is the sheer simplicity of the mechanic – helping to educate the public on what risks becoming a complex issue.  

A dash of creativity, with some well-timed content ahead of Halloween, has helped elevate this from a corporate announcement to a brand-building consumer PR win.

A spooky way to address a serious issue, and one that will allow us to go back to being terrified about those rising interest rates…

Fire & Emergency New Zealand continue to roll out red-hot work

Fire & Emergency New Zealand have come galloping out of the gates with another creative win for their ‘Museum of Fires Past’ activation that highlights the importance of smoke alarms in Kiwi homes.

Artefacts which were burnt in New Zealand house fires were displayed in bus shelters on Wellington’s Oriental Parade, giving people an up-close and personal view of the devastating effects of a house fire.

The storytelling behind this activation helped drive human connection – from Bruce’s scorched sneakers to Bella’s burnt teddy bear and Jayden’s melted gaming controller, which are inspired by real stories from real-house fires.

While this has been a great use of out-of-home, it would have been so easy to extend this into a truly PR-able and integrated campaign that drove headlines (and arguably more impact) than a static bus shelter display.

Tactics as simple as a meaty research report about the importance of fire alarms, some real-life spokespeople to put a human face to those household items, a curated activation that members of the public can engage with…

I always included work in this column that I like, and I do like this, but with a little more oomph it could go from great to phenomenal.

Easier said than done when you’re not aware of client restrictions, budgets, and bureaucracy, but a killer concept like this deserves a lot more breathing space than clever use of out-of-home – because the heart of the idea is quite literally *fire emoji*.

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Submissions for November’s column are welcome – PR, influence and activation case studies can be sent to Kelly.grindle@specialgroup.co.nz

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