This year we have a group of Young Lions reporting live from the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. They’ll be bringing us all the breaking news as it happens.
No, this isn’t an education on the virtues of self-love.
According to James Herring and Peter Mountstevens (of PR powerhouse Taylor Herring) in their keynote “Zen and the Art of The Publicity Stunt”, both have something to teach us about winning hearts and minds with little money and a whole lot of chutzpah. Or, as us OMDers love to call it, earning share of life.
Trump, who so far has made an astonishing $2,000,000,000-worth of press coverage with less than an 8th of the budget of Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign, reminds us that media spend (or morality) doesn’t dictate what we talk about at the dinner table. And while porn is an unlikely guest at most social gatherings, Pornhub (biggest archive of “nothing”) shows how a NSFW brand can get mainstream coverage with a wink, a nod, and a Wankband.
They’re not the only ones either. Herring and Mountstevens also gave a shoutout to the likes of:
Ikea and their beautiful disregard for the preconception that ‘nobody tweets a billboard’. The living billboard certainly got people chatting.
Uber, who remain open to the most illogical brand partnerships (UberKittens for animal shelters) and prove red tape and challenges aren’t an excuse for boring work.
HBO Game of Thrones, who don’t isolate stunts to launch strategy. With Bring Down The Kings and a food truck menu lifted from the show, they’re consistently surprising and creating things people want to get their cameras and hashtags out for.
It’s entertain or die (to get all GoT on ourselves). If Taylor Herring reckons brands should put 10 per cent of their budget into doing something magical, perhaps it’s this 10 per cent that will keep them alive.
