#LuckyUnderwear

Cheltenham Festival March 2013 | Paddy Power Lucky Pants

Paddy Power and their pair of giant lucky green briefs left spectators speechless. They sure know how to add a bit of fun and mischief to the Cheltenham festival.

The large pair of lucky underwear was afloat for a couple minutes before being put down. The Cheltenham Festival organisers demanded Paddy Power to deflate their giant green pants shaped hot air balloon.

The lucky underwear was clearly a crowd pleaser and didn’t intervene with races or the spectators. The Air balloon was designed to give fans an opportunity to watch the race from above, giving them the best seats in the house.

The blimp is 63 foot high and 60 foot wide, clearly visible to the crowd at Cheltenham. The float is made from more than 3,600 square foot of material.  The lucky underwear has a huge waistband of 2,260 inches.  It took six months to construct and make the giant underwear airworthy. The blimp was used in Cheltenham to promote the Paddy Power brand.

But this was not the only time we heard from Paddy Powers lucky green pants.

Nicklas Bendtner sporting Paddy Power lucky underwear

After scoring a goal for Denmark in the Euros 2012 he celebrated by flashing a pair of Paddy Power underwear. In front of thousands of supporters revealing his pair Paddy Power branded underwear. This caught wind very fast making Nicklas Bendtner pair of underwear a popular topic on twitter. Twitter is now a vocal point for any event that makes headlines. People are able to express their opinions online. If a well-known celebrity makes a mistake it will usually be discussed online. Technology and social networking has made celebrity life less private.

The Euros is a multinational football event, and it is watched by thousands of supporters. Nicklas Bendtner celebrated in front of the cameras after scoring a goal against Portugal. Denmark ended up losing 2-3 to Portugal. The match didn’t make headlines because of how well Portugal played, but instead the topic of discussion was about Nicklas Bendtner revealing his Paddy Power boxers.

Nicklas Bendtner claims that he didn’t know that he was breaching any rules and he just happened to be wearing his “lucky boxers” at the time, claiming that he’s been wearing the Paddy Power branded underwear for a while.

 The stunt was a breach of UEFA rules when it came to ambush marketing, and he did upset his bosses, since Denmark football association is sponsored by Ladbrokes who are Paddy Powers rivals.

David Bendtner was fined £80,000, lucky for him the generous people at Paddy Power decided to pay his fine, as they claimed it was what the fans want. Messages via social media suggested they should pay the fine. Paddy Power couldn’t be any happier, as this has become a popular topic on twitter. Paddy Power was able to promote their brand to a wider audience thanks to Nicklas Bendtner.

Link to the twitter topic https://twitter.com/search?q=paddy%20power%20underwear&src=typd

#NotLikeTheMovies

 

As the world becomes increasingly saturated in digital and online methods of both connecting and understanding, a new and innovative array of channels have opened up that maximise the impact of PR communications. With the arrival of Twitter and other forms of social media, content can be streamed and processed faster than ever before. Items of interest now have the ability to transcend the reaches of traditional media channels. As a result of this, we have ‘viral’ images and videos, which can not only be used to entertain, but can also serve the purpose of driving home a political, social or moral issue which people relate to and invest in, such as the Kony campaign which spread like wildfire throughout social platforms in 2012. 

The film industry utilises the idea of PR for promotion to great effect. By setting up dedicated accounts for their films, and releasing a variety of trivia, trailers and release dates, they are able to draw in fans and keep them updated with current information and generate a large amount of interest prior to the film being released, therefore generating as much hype and profit as possible. So with nothing to stunt the public’s access to information regarding their anticipated releases, the PR campaign for film has undeniably become an easier task. 

However press offices are always looking for new and diverse ways in order to maximise the image and publicity of their films or their respective clients. The concept of celebrity PR relationships emerges from the public’s growing interest in every aspect of the lives of stars. Specifically, a large amount of interest is garnered by the love lives of various stars. By persuading usually the two female and male leads of a film to purport to be in a real relationship, detached from the synthetic world of the film, fans are offered the opportunity to emotionally invest further into the franchise. 

The relationship of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson from the Twilight series is a good example of this. The relationship was initiated around the time the first film in the franchise was released. Their relationship peaked, and fans were able to connect with them, or Bella and Edward, away from the films through magazines such as OK, Star and Heat, providing priceless PR for the series. As the series began to wind down, their relationship hit rock bottom with the revelation that Kristen was cheating with British director Rupert Sanders. This revelation perfectly coincided after the release of the final film, as the relationship now had no selling point with regards to the franchise. The films had stopped, and inevitably with it was the magic of K-Stew and R-Patz.

#FromHarlemToKorea

#FromHarlemToKorea: The world has gone viral!

By Theodora Manyika, P11251409

Six months ago the words “Do the Harlem Shake!” would have evoked nothing more than a raised brow. If you hear that sentence nowadays, you better get your camera out! Of course, that is the idea of trends in the first place, but in the past it took a lot more time and effort for a trend to become internationally recognized. We live in the age of participatory culture and people become global stars in the blink of an eye. Although now officially dead, because of the surplus of attention they received, the best recent examples of the power of viral culture are Gangnam Style and Harlem Shake.

“It’s a Gangnam Style world and we are all living in it.” – Josh Groban

What measures success of a PR campaign? Is it the likes it has gotten on Facebook, the re-tweets, the Youtube views or maybe the word of mouth? No. You know your campaign has succeeded when an aloof, distanced place like North Korea makes a parody of it. Because that’s exactly what happened with Gangnam Style. It got so internationally recognized that even North Korea, in which the access to Internet is highly restricted, caught on with the trend.

Gangnam Style is probably one of the most successful PR campaigns for the last couple of years. And yes, don’t be fooled – Gangnam Style is a well thought campaign that took a lot of planning and effort. Behind Gangnam Style and PSY is YG Entertainment - a famous in its country South Korean P-Pop label.  But instead of going on with the strategies behind this campaign, which are, without any doubt, very well thought out, I will outline this – PSY is perhaps the only Korean politically engaged activist that you and I can name.

Surprised? Behind the catchy tune and crazy dance there is actually a message- PSY ridicules Korea’s class stratification and the impossibly rich lifestyle that the “Gangnam boys” lead. So apart from creating an extremely successful campaign, making an enormous amount of profit and making people all around the world ride invisible horses, Gangnam has also risen the awareness about social problems from across the globe and an interest in a radically different culture (and who knows, maybe tourism levels have risen too!) “It’s a Gangnam world and we are all living in it”, indeed.

Harlem Shake – “In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes”

As for Harlem Shake - this is a trend that has more than 8 million re-tweets. To envision how many re-tweets that is, imagine a small country, and every man, woman, baby, granddad and grandmother with a phone in their hand, re-tweeting. Yes, you get the idea.

Harlem Shake’s success, unlike Gangnam Style is based entirely on luck, or rather, on participatory culture. It became famous after a group of Australian students uploaded their video doing the famous “shake” and the rest, as they say is history – 50, 000 different remakes of it, featuring people in their offices, the Norwegian army, various fundraising organizations and British singer Ed Sheeran. Oh, and let’s not forget the thousands of flashmobs, of course.  The track was recorded nearly a year before it went viral, not to mention that it was entirely sampled, so its popularity is not due to originality. Hence, some might say its success is simply luck. Yet, the key to viral culture is somewhere else.

  Harlem Shake might not have a political message to shout out. It also doesn’t have any powerful corporation behind it. Nevertheless, Harlem Shake teaches an important core lesson about the essential thing to make a trend viral – engagement with the audience. Let people engage with your trend on a personal level and give them the ability to reshape it the way they want to.

 In conclusion, two very important lessons can be learnt from Gangnam and     Harlem Shake about making something viral. First, it must be unusual and novel. And second, everyone must be invited to the party.

A detailed PR report on Gangnam style is available from: http://www.10yetis.co.uk/how-gangnam-style-went-viral.html

A few more lessons on viral from Harlem Shake by Social Media Today: http://socialmediatoday.com/cbm23/1300886/viral-video-how-to-harlem-shake-guide

#ElectrifyingEnd

It’s electrifying, it’s Grease...no sorry guys it’s not Grease Lightning, its daredevil David Blaine again. David took to the stage for one last time (we hope), to perform a stunt set to literally ‘shock’ himself as well as his fans. The magician trended over social networking sites, for example Twitter and Facebook, but for all the wrong reasons! Critics took to Twitter to share their views on the attention fanatic so called superstar, claiming his time was up and it was time to pack away the magic wand. Could this be a shock too far for the magician? Blaine perched himself on New York’s Pier, so that spectators could watch him being bombarded with over one million volts over three days! On an empty stomach and wearing a chainmail suit David patiently waited for spectators around the world to control the coil settings! But was it worth it? The video become viral in seconds, with YouTube hosting the live event! Live streams were being passed around the Internet, so that everyone was able to comment, watch and share the illusionist perform his trick! 

http://www.theworldsbestever.com/2012/10/05/watch-a-livestream-here-tonight-and-through-the-weekend-as-david-blaine-has-one-million-volts-of-electricity-streamed-around-him/#

An example of one the websites streaming the event.

Could the rise of social media be the reason as to why Blaine’s career is slowly fading? With people throwing their opinions over the World Wide Web, the job of Blaine’s public relations officer is going to be a hard one! Repairing the damage of a company or celebrity, caused by social media is becoming a reoccurring issue within the PR profession.

I can’t help but feel a sense of pity for David after weeks of preparation and the endless amount of money and time spent on this trick surely he deserves some credit. Apparently not, Twitter users were in full swing whilst the magician began his stunt in NYC. With comments flooding in from across the Atlantic, complaining about how boring his acts have become, and mimicking the magician, David has not gained the attention he so longingly craved. Freedom of speech mainly on social networking sites, has allowed the profile of celebrities to crumble uncontrollably. 

Comments left by online users highlight the extent to which a celebrity’s image can be destroyed.

Example of comments left by spectators after watching the stunt.

Could this turn of events see the end of David Blaine and his crazy tricks, maybe now that he has a daughter to provide and care for it may be time for David to take one last bow? But with David out of the picture, will this so called hate stop? I think not. Social media has become the platform for individuals to vent their emotions on anything and everyone. I understand that everyone has a right to speak, but surely there should be some control over the content that is available on the Internet. I’m sure that people will disagree, and believe any publicity is good publicity, however I disagree. Surely David’s aim was to be entertaining, not to create a foundation for people to destroy and mimic his reputation. I suppose that these are the perks of being a so called celebrity. Rather you than me David. Rather you than me.

#DancePonyDance

The world of Youtube is very weird but wonderful, the only place where you can find all the crazy animal videos, jackass remakes and Chris Crocker crying over Britney Spears. However, when you are introduce to a moon walking pony dancing along to a Fleetwood Mac soundtrack, its comedic indication has become more irritating than humorous. Internet sensations involving animals has become overrated and overplayed, but here we are with ANOTHER viral video containing a pony.

Brought to you by 3 Monkey’s Communications the pony called Socks has become an international sensation. Introduced in a campaign for the Three network, Socks is the flavour of the month on social networking sites. With 6,218,478 Youtube views (as of 16/4/13) and his (assuming it’s a boy) own personal twitter account with 3,114 followers. Socks has become a celebrity in his own right, but have we lost the point already? As a current promoted trend on twitter to increase the Three networks status, the video has certainly gained many fans attention, but has it achieved it’s campaigns targets?

In PR campaigns, communication is key and the World Wide Web is the fastest way to do it, the Three viral video became March’s big trend on twitter, not only nationally but also internationally. This can be seen in some of the tweets shown below.

The Today Show – In America

Capital FM Breakfast – In the UK

Social media has become apart of daily life and interaction using apps such as ponymixer.com only make the campaign even more enjoyable to potential customers. Making your own pony advert not only increases the awareness of the three networks, but it is also extremely funny!

Here I have created my own pony called Rocks and the link below shows you my creation using ponymixer.com.

http://bit.ly/15cAX0S

Yet, in a world of social media everything and everyone is vulnerable to new takes on videos, including parodies. Three’s timing could not be any better or worse for their campaign when news broke of the horse meat scandal. Poor socks has become the next victim in the video below being shown below. Whereas many are still experiencing churned stomachs by the thought of eating horse, some creative bodies took the opportunity to amuse the situation by having Socks moon walk into a Findus factory. Good press or bad press, all the videos involving the moon walking pony are comedy gold. And more importantly even though it’s difficult to know if Three had any increase in sales or customer base, but the 3 Monkey's communications and the Three networks PR campaign has reached a global audience. And that is just the beginning of Three’s campaign and Socks road to stardom!

 

*No Ponies/Horses were ate in the making of this video.

Useful Websites:

http://www.3-monkeys.co.uk/dance-pony-dance/

https://twitter.com/ThreeUK

https://twitter.com/3MonkeysPR

https://twitter.com/DancePony3