Creative PR Using the “Old” Tools: a Chocolate Press Release

Over the past few years people working in PR have been overwhelmed by new tools or new ways of using the “old”, traditional tools (e.g. press releases) and have been challenged into being creative with their pitches and campaigns. A major reason for this has been social media's growing importance which provoked the emergence of e.g. the social media release and the video news release. With these new tools progressive PR professionals try to be different and innovative to stand out among the hundreds or thousands of releases that journalists receive.

However, it is not just through such online activities that PRs can be creative. You can do it offline too. In fact, because now many are focusing on the social media and online hype, they are forgetting to consider what other things they can do to get noticed, presenting a great opportunity for the few who decide to cleverly pursue such ideas. And I recently came across a great example that illustrates just that.

The Corner Shop PR, a London-based PR and marketing agency, sent the launch press release for the upcoming Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical (directed by Oscar winning Sam Mendes) to journalists on a USB stick shaped like a Wonka branded chocolate bar.

Journalists were thrilled and they shared their excitement about the clever pitch idea on their social media profiles, simultaneously increasing the buzz around the musical.

The Entertainment Editor Rosamund Dean of Red Magazine shared a photo of the release on Instagram:

Here’s what Natasha Pearlman, Deputy Editor of Elle, tweeted:

Love that the (e) press release for charlie and the chocolate factory arrived in this... Now I'm hungry twitter.com/tashpELLE/stat…

— Natasha Pearlman (@tashpELLE) April 23, 2013

Cool, right?

This was indeed a truly unique and personalised way of promoting the musical and thinking outside of the box, but still with relevance to the brand, to secure coverage about the event. It shows that it’s not always the latest technology that works best or is most creative.

Have you recently seen another brilliant example of traditional PR tools use?

Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane/freedigitalphotos.net