Take two meerkats into the shower?

Tonight I went to Hill & Knowlton’s offices in Soho Square for the latest in a line of free events from the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA). This was the first time I’d been in touch with the PRCA and I know they have in-house teams as part of their membership. I hoped they wouldn’t mind a Comms professional ‘gatecrashing’ what was essentially an event for PR professionals, but I needn’t have worried as the welcome was more than warm and the drinks were perfectly chilled.

PRCA hold Campaign Master-classes on the second Tuesday of each month at different locations. They are billed as ‘showcasing some of the industries’ best campaigns and are designed to enhance creative thinking and developing strategic thought’. Sounded good to me, so thought I would get in touch and find out more.

The two campaigns under the spotlight were Wash & Go (Hill & Knowlton) and working with a high profile Meerkat (Frank PR).

H&K showcased how they celebrated the 21st birthday of Wash & Go with a comical spoof of the 1980’s TV ad ‘take two bottles into the shower’. You can see the original ad on YouTube here. They wanted to reconnect the brand with its ‘male prime prospect’. The spoof featured footballer Jimmy Bullard and you can view it on YouTube here.  It was fascinating to hear the thoughts behind the campaign and how the video achieved 250,000+ hits after just three days.  The H&K team spoke about their five key learnings and I found it interesting to hear their views.

Alex Grier from Frank PR spoke about Russian billionaire, business-kat and celebrity Meerkat Aleksandr Orlov and his quest to educate the public on the difference between comparethemeerkat.com and comparethemarket.com. Alex highlighted the various methods that have been used to help keep the profile high including getting the phrase ‘simples’ into the Oxford English Dictionary, topping the Christmas top toy charts and launching a Meerchat show, interviewing Piers Morgan and The Hoff.

I enjoyed hearing about the variety of methods used and the stories behind both campaigns, it was a really interesting few hours and I’m planning to keep an eye on the PRCA’s schedule of events. I enjoyed networking, meeting some new people and admiring the awesome view from H&K’s offices!

Have you been to any good Comms or PR events recently? If you want to share what you learnt and write a guest post for my blog, do get in touch. Rachel.

Comments

  1. I have responded to your article on the CommDiscussion homepage. The link will help your site too!

  2. admin says:

    Thanks for your comment John, interested to read your post on CommDiscussion and am sure we will inevitably hand each other our business cards too at a similar event! Rachel

    You can read John’s post here: http://www.commdiscussion.com/content.php?124-Which-professional-communications-organization-should-I-join&s=f8073de0e73d0a54ba99899f743360ca&

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