*Amazing photo by gotreadgo|fotographie
The Barnum & Bailey circus has come to Austin and that excites me because I LOVE circuses! When you think about it the circus is the ultimate PR spectacle and Barnum is a big reason behind that. P.T. Barnum was one of the greatest showmen of all time because he knew how to put on a spectacle that people would talk about for ages.
Here are 5 things the circus teaches us about making your PR campaign a spectacle:
- Build Anticipation. If you’ve ever lived in a town where a circus is going to visit, you know that they don’t just show up. They flyer the entire city with fun posters that announce when they will arrive. Any good PR/Marketing campaign would be good to build anticipation for what is about to happen. It is important to wet people’s appetite and find early adopters who will spread your message. People don’t generally like to be flat out surprised, they like to slowly be surprised. Start out slow and clever with your message and you’ll find you have more success, as you slowly unroll the magnitude of your spectacle.
Example: David Ogilvy ran a billboard ad in France once that showed a girl in a bikini, the tagline read something to the extent of “On Sept. 28, I lose the top.” This was building anticipation. On Sept. 28th, they replaced the billboard with the same girl only she was topless. This time the tagline read something like, “On Oct. 15, I lose the bottoms.” More anticipation created a lot of buzz and then finally, On Oct. 15th, the model stood on the billboard naked. Building anticipation is powerful.
- Make a grand entrance. The circus takes making a grand entrance to the highest degree. As it parades into town, it literally parades into town. In Barnum’s day, an elephant might even lead the parade down main street. It’s hard to ignore an elephant stomping by your office. Whatever your event, promotion or campaign, make sure you create an element that people can’t stop looking at. The nightly news is told in images, when you create an irresistible image, it won’t just be the press talking about you, it will be the entire city.
- For a limited time only. One of the reasons the circus does so well wherever it goes it because it only comes around once or twice a year in each city it visits. By creating a scarce window of time, they create an urgency to get people to act and buy tickets before it’s too late. If people can see you every night of the week, you’re not going to have a sold out show on any night. But, if your event, promotion or campaign is limited and creates a sense of urgency, then you’re more likely to get an influx of customers and press coverage.
- Feeding the elephants. Now that you’ve got people’s attention, you want to seal the deal and convert anyone still on the fence. What the circus does is publicly invite the entire community to come and feed the animals for free. No need to buy a ticket, just bring your kids down and see how much fun the show is going to be. It’s hard to see all those animals and clowns and then walk away without seeing the show. What’s even more powerful is that every member of the circus is so passionate about their part of the show. That passion makes buying a ticket almost irresistible. Once you’ve got attention, invite people in to see your operation, or test your product. If you are the remarkable company you say that you are, then you’ll have no problem converting visitors into customers, especially if each member of your organization can sell their part of the “show” effectively. Members of your team don’t have to be sales people, you’ve got sales people for that, but they do need to be passionate about what they do. Trust me, passion sells.
- The Greatest Show on Earth. Finally, you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? The circus gets you all amped about its arrival, then it parades into town making a spectacle, it promises you the greatest show, but only for a limited time. If you want to dig deeper, it lets you feed the animals and meet all the members of their circus team, each of which speak with passion about their craft and then the circus delivers on everything they’ve built up in your head. The Barnum & Bailey circus really IS one of the greatest shows on earth! And when it’s all over, you leaving with a feeling of wonderment, just as you pass the gift shop. You always tend to spend more at the gift shop than you did on the entire family’s tickets and that’s the point. They put on a show that you want to tell people about and then they sell you the tools to tell their story.
After you’ve given a client everything they wanted and more, it’s not a bad idea to have something you can up-sell for added value. With our music video packages, we offer a top notch music video. Once we have a happy music video client on our hands, we talk about shooting an EPK (electronic press kit) that they can use to further promote the band and once they love their new EPK, we offer them a series of social media, PR and marketing campaigns that will allow them to promote their new video content. Then we build anticipation around their album by releasing snippets of footage from behind-the-scenes, then parade into town pushing the music video all over the place…wait this is starting to sound familiar. ;)
How do you organize and execute your PR/Marketing campaign? What tools or techniques allow you to garner the largest response from your product launch, promotion or campaign? What is your company’s giant elephant marching down the street? How are you up-selling or adding more value to the product’s you are selling?
Just trying out some new types of writing to those who read this far. Apparently, I’m a writer now, so that means I have to find a voice, supposedly. Feel free to tell me exactly how you felt about this style, story, content, etc. Hurt my feelings if you want, I just need the feedback or the people who pay me money will beat me with a bone whip. And if you're enjoying this blog, consider commenting or subscribing for free.
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