PR Stunts: Friend or Foe

Giant rubber band balls, human art galleries, dancing elves -- I certainly have had endless amounts of tales and fodder when it comes to publicity stunts. So often, these stunts are seen as the root of all evil. Just a shameless ploy to get media attention. Not strategic -- just crazy and off the wall. Or are they? I have some terrific friends in the business that feel stunts are worthless.

Reflecting on my career, I have certainly gone both ways. Sure -- when I (in conjunction with a team at a previous organization) developed an event tied to the relaunch of OfficeMax's brand, we did take the "shameless media relations ploy" of a stunt. We found a guy who was building a massive rubber band ball, which just happened to be the visual identity OfficeMax was rebranding to. We shipped the sucker to Chicago and held an official Guinness World Record weigh-in. Knowing media would never mention OfficeMax by name, we took the NASCAR approach and branded the hell out of the event site. From the ball and backdrop to the spokespeople -- everything dripping with the OfficeMax logo.

Though shameless -- it worked. The event generated 422 TV segments airing in 127 markets to reach 27 million consumers on outlets like ABC-TV’s “World News Now,” “Anderson Cooper 360” and in hundreds of newspapers and magazines. Viral buzz about OfficeMax exploded on more than 220 Web sites and blogs, with 365,000 downloads of a Yahoo.com video. But most importantly, it brought the brand top of mind with consumers and OfficeMax enjoyed its highest fourth-quarter sales in years!

So I have to ask -- shameless given the results or strategic given that the event covered every key objective set by the client? Ultimately the objective was brand visibility -- without a doubt this event accomplished that.

But what happens when these publicity stunts actually have a heart and a meaning?

In October 2007, I have the privilege to lead a team for one of the largest single day corporate cause initiatives -- OfficeMax's "A Day Made Better." Teachers spend $4 billion a year on the basic supplies to run their classroom. Imagine showing up at your first day at the office and being told you needed to bring your own chair, printer, pens and paper. This would be unacceptable by cooperate America's standard but it seems to be AOK in education.


OfficeMax's solution? Shut down the entire company and honor 1,000 teachers in 1,000 classrooms simultaneously across the nation by providing them with a massive box of supplies with everything they need to run their classroom presented through surprise ceremonies at every school.

The result -- instant brand loyalty, massive consumer engagement due to local market media coverage showcasing these teachers and their efforts and outstanding employee engagement since over 5,000 OfficeMax store employees participated in the event. In addition, the non-profit partner from the event, Adopt-A-Classroom, saw a 1,018 percent increase in Web traffic and a 459 percent increase in donations, with the number of classrooms adopted soaring from 301 to 4,527.

So again -- sure this was a massive publicity stunt. But it was one that was strategic and tapped into the core values and mission of the organization and it had passion. Yes there was also massive media coverage -- over 53 million media impressions with 99 percent of the stories mentioning OfficeMax.

Now I will be the first to agree that media impressions should NEVER be the only way campaign success is measured. In fact, often times it is very misleading. But when it comes time for those teachers to build their school supply list, where do you think they will encourage their students to go? Where do you think they will shop and tell their friends to shop?

So again -- I get it. Stunts sometimes get a bad wrap but are they overlooked for what they potentially can be? What are your thoughts?