I’ve written before about how celebration days, awareness days and national holidays can be used to build a Content Calendar that will help you plan your communications activity for the year ahead. They’re a great tool for identifying opportunities for a PR stunt, a bit of thought leadership or a timely social media campaign.
I spotted a great example of this being put into action by a big brand today when the team at Heinz delivered an effective PR stunt on what has become known as “Blue Monday”.
According to mathematicians, a combination of grey skies and failed New Year’s resolutions means Monday 16th January is officially #BlueMonday – the most depressing day of the year (source: Cheapflights.com)
The stunt was simple:
- Place cans of Heinz’s famous tomato soup in bright red, ‘In case of emergency – break glass’ boxes in highly photographic locations around London
- Send strong images – like the one featured by Secret London below – to the media with a compelling caption or two
- Encourage the spread of user-generated #BlueMonday content across social media
- Revel in the thanks of grateful soup eaters (and maybe a picture desk editor or two)
It’s a good case study for seizing an opportunity that provides a strong platform to communication your brand message. In this case, Heinz was keen for its tomato soup to be associated with warmth and comfort – everything that Blue Monday is not – so they presented their product as the solution to the most depressing day of the year.
Time for a nice warming bowl of soup, I think…
