Reg Rumney digs through the office pile of promotional junk and remembers the invitations and press releases he might have missed
AS any good PR knows, attracting the attention of journalists is not easy. It is an open question whether this is because they are overworked, don’t have secretaries to organise their lives, or are naturally disdainful of time-management.
Whatever the case, public relations people have to resort to ever more inventive ways of catching the eye of journalists, whether for a lunch, a launch or a press release.
This is why on my desk is an egg box with three plastic red noses in it; a mouse pad on which is printed an invitation to a “trip beyond reality” and a glossy black box which looks as if it contains a gift.
The egg box has printed on it the legend: “This breakfast will do South Africa’s children the world of good.” The invitation is to a Red Nose Day breakfast, where Ogilvy & Mather promised to share a few of the ideas they had been cooking up.
The mouse pad — at least I think that’s what it is — is an invitation to attend the December 12 press launch of the new Ster-Kinekor entertainment world. What connection a mouse pad shares with the movies I’m not quite sure. Perhaps it would have been cleared up if I had gone to the launch.
The black box bears the line, printed in white: “Just what kind of balls does it take to handle stress?” Inside is a soft red rubber ball and familiar red 702 logo.
These are but a few of the objects that I have come across. I don’t want to think about the times someone in a clown suit or other outrageous get-up has walked across the newsroom to give one of us an invitation attached to a bunch of balloons.
An invitation to Wingstock at a local bar and entertainment venue called Wings came with an assortment of toys somebody there associates with the 1960s and hippiedom, including day-glo hula hoops. Eye-catching was the inclusion of the Wings bar logo, made of two kinds of malleable wire.
Objects made of wire seem to be popular, probably because South Africa seems to have many artists skilled in making just about anything out of it. One of my colleagues has a wonderfully wrought wire elephant which came with a release about the launch of a wildlife park; another has received a contraption that launches a small helicopter across the room from Radio 702. Still another drinks from a mug with a murky pattern that clears up when he pours hot water into it. It was sent by pool chemical company HTH and bears the legend: “It’s amazing what a cup will do”.
Mugs are popular with PRs. The literary editor got first a tin spoon (“This will cause a stir”), then a twist of coffee (“a whiff of things to come”) and finally a book shoved into a tin mug — all from Tin Mug Books.
The Mr South Africa 1994 mug was delivered by Mr South Africa 1993 — in person.
Then there’s the small, wistful toy seal sent out by the International Fund for Animal Welfare to launch its campaign “to persuade the Namibian government to ban sealing and prevent a catastrophe”.
Our office spaces tend to be littered with out-of-place objects, such as a brass tap and a steel mouse-trap. I cannot remember what either was supposed to draw my attention to.
More successful was the stopwatch which accompanied info about an express courier service, and the animal-skin drum which announced the entry of a service provider into cellular telephony.
Most recently a parcel arrived containing a marimba, brightly painted and wrapped in a kikoi. Attached to the marimba was Rand Merchant Bank’s end-of-year invitation to lunch at the African restaurant Iyavaya, in Yeoville. I went because the guys at RMB are interesting to talk to, but the invitation was a better spur than a fax.
Often a “teaser” in the form of a gimmick or small gift precedes the press release or invitation.
For instance, women fashion journalists were sent a custom-made cardboard box with a white lace pattern on a yellow background, on which was inscribed, “We’re sizing you up …”. It was closed with a lacy elastic bra-clasp. Further lettering on a second lid inside read “… so you can get a few things off your chest”.
Inside were a few cryptic items:
* A single sock with a label reading, “We’re going to blow your socks off … for good.”
* A bra mould, so I’m told, labelled, “With `the one & only’ you can let your moulds get mouldy”.
* A yellow lead pencil, labelled, “The writing’s on the wall for the pencil test.”
* A band-aid, labelled “Now you can really stick these where they belong.”
* A yellow balloon, labelled “Next to the `one & only’ everything else is just hot air.”
* A rolled up tissue, labelled “The only thing you’ll use these for is to wipe away the competition.”
This was followed by a phone call from the PR asking whether the journalist had guessed what the box was all about — the launch of the Wonderbra in South Africa.
It was an attention-getter, but many journalists must be wondering what they can do with one sock.
PR company Sussens Mann director Sasha Koch confirms that a great deal of thought goes into this kind of promotional material. It has, she says, to fit in with the client’s image. At the same time, it has to be relevant, and it must not be done too frequently, or it loses its effect. Moreover, the gift or gimmick has to be inexpensive — “We’re concerned journalists don’t think we’re trying to bribe them.”
She gives as an example of a good promotional gift the box containing a small packet of sugar and a silver spoon, which was sent out to the media to announced the name change of CGP Smith Sugar to Illovo Sugar.
The box and ball sent out by Radio 702 cost under R10, says marketing director Cecil Lyons. Describing such promotional gifts as the red rubber ball as “a bit of fun”, he says they must fit in with the overall marketing. Radio 702 sees itself as controversial, witty and outspoken, and comes up with gifts that match the kind of advertising it does on bus shelters, even to the point of duplicating the white-on-black lettering.