The Fame Game: A Silent Night, a summer anthem and a saucy stunt

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

Ready, set, DON’T GO

Wellington City Mission staged a sell-out concert at Sky Stadium… that no one went to, and nothing happened.

“The Silent Night” was a Christmas fundraising with a difference.  The public was encouraged to buy a ticket to the event, set the night aside in their calendar, and then not attend.

The innovative fundraiser was designed so that 100 percent of the profits will be directed to Wellington City Mission, helping them deal with demand quadrupling from Covid and the rising cost of living.

This is brutally clever – many charities are struggling, and creating a fundraiser often comes with a significant amount of cost. The budget for Wellington City Mission was a grand total of $ 0. This means they’re due to receive roughly $ 280,000 in profit to maintain their existing services.

The story has landed everywhere – from Newshub to Seven Sharp, the front page of The Dominion Post, and more than 50 other editorial articles all over the country expanding well beyond Wellington to hit audiences in Auckland through to Dunedin.

That’s well worth toasting for Christmas, and if anyone is interested in supporting The Silent Night – you can still buy tickets (because after all, you don’t need to show up) through Ticketek here:

A bloody outrageous stunt from Hell Pizza

Hell Pizza created a blood bath in social forums once again. They unveiled a new vegetarian Steak and Cheese Pie pizza – but promoted it with a blood-based, and meaty, To-Meat-O Sauce.

That’s right – Hell produced an optional side condiment of tomato sauce infused with traces of real deer blood and packaged in a hospital-style blood bag.

Top points must be given to copywriting. The blood bag reads: “No animals were harmed in the making of our new steak and cheese pie pizza. Seemed like a missed opportunity. So, we killed loads of them to make this sauce. Enjoy the sumptuous taste of irony as you drizzle your vegetarian pizza with a whole farmyard in liquid form. 

Sounds counterintuitive right? 

Hell Pizza claims the stunt is designed to get more people to try vegetarian options, and ultimately be more sustainable. The CEO of Hell Pizza said: “We realise that we need to be creative to encourage the most stubborn of meat-eaters to try new plant-based proteins. We did this with the infamous Burger Pizza a few years ago, and this is the next chapter for HELL in that space.”

This is a brilliant product-based innovation, that not only got headlines – but got people talking. You know a PR stunt is successful when the social posts receive hundreds of comments, and you even get angry vegans complaining to Stuff.

The best bit?  I tried to order this pizza to try it last week, but it had already sold out…. so it obviously resonated with the public.

Now you can spend a night in Hobbiton

Watch the video here…

Airbnb has received more accolades in this highly prestigious (ahem) column than any other brand, and they’ve done it once again.

For the first time ever, fans from around the world can explore the faraway lands of their favourite holiday films with an exclusive overnight stay at the original Hobbiton Movie Set. 

Guests can stay on the property to live like Bilbo Baggins and retreat to The Shire for an overnight stay at Hobbiton, as featured in the famed The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies.

Nestled in the picturesque pastures of New Zealand’s Waikato region on a 2,500 acre working farm, the property’s rolling, green hills bear a striking similarity to The Shire as described by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings.

The Airbnb terms and conditions indicate that guests are invited to park their Pony at The Green Dragon Inn, bare feet are allowed but need to be wiped first, and they’re discouraged from straying at night due to multiple troll sightings.

Honestly, this is the simplest PR strategy in the world.

Find a culturally relevant location.  Create a slick, content-rich experience. Embed your brand by making it bookable. Pump it out to media organisations.

It works every time, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

ANZ unveil their summer cricket anthem

Kiwi music legend King Kapisi has reimagined his classic song, Screems From Da Old Plantation, into a summer cricket anthem for ANZ.

The song blends New Zealand, Pasifika, and Indian sounds into a cross-cultural mashup and is performed live by King Kapisi at summer stadiums across the country.

King Kapsi said: “When I wrote Screems back in 2000, it was about living in Aotearoa New Zealand but staying in touch with your roots, screaming back to your home; your ancestors. For me, that’s Samoa. For others, it could be New Zealand, India, Bangladesh or England. It’s even more relevant today. I want this to be a song everyone is inspired by no matter where you’re from or which cricket team you’re supporting.”

This is a clever way for ANZ to continue their strong statements around diversity and inclusion, but crucially add a bit more energy and culture into cricket games, of which they are undeniably aligned.

Truth be told, I bloody hate cricket. I couldn’t think of anything worse than sitting in the hot sun for literal hours watching people run across a small patch of grass.

Would I be more convinced to attend with a cold beer and a mash-up banger from King Kapisi?  

Marginally. And considering I’m not the target audience, we’ll take that as a win.

An Irish potato in every bottle

Irish talk-show host Graham Norton has inspired a new locally-created cocktail that could be set to topple other tipples this summer – The Tayto-Tini – made with Graham’s very own Irish Vodka. 

Graham Norton’s new vodka boasts it contains “an Irish potato in every bottle”, so Auckland-based bartender Dave Ryan created four weeks developing an innovative new cocktail that includes roast potato herb cordial, a roast potato salt rub and parched potato garnishes. 

The spud-a-licious cocktail has been available to buy through a partnership with Black Pineapple and has been an instant hit with influencers and media alike.

This is a very affordable execution that hits the right notes – strong PR storytelling with Dave Ryan’s tribute to the potato, customer engagement with a Black Pineapple partnership, influencer and opinion leader sampling with media kits, and it even received the ultimate endorsement from Graham Norton himself he shared the recipe with his 600,000 Instagram followers.

Plus, who doesn’t like a bit of potato banter with our Irish friends? 

Submissions for the 2023 column are welcome – PR, influence and activation case studies can be sent to Kelly.grindle@specialgroup.co.nz

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