Then I was ordered a sensational opening by Moscow’s most expensive bath house in Moscow, Tazik Club. We came up with a crash of five limos, with their logo painted on all of the sideboards.
Despite a major holiday, plane crash, and saturated political agenda, our news ranked sixth in the top-10 daily news, according to the YandexNews search engine2.
Then we “kidnapped” a model who wanted to win renown.
Three days later she was a recognizable personality.
When our fourth resounding promo event was a success, I realized I had groped for an efficient technology.
We did an excellent job promoting a new coupon site for two days, selling indulgences at a discount. The stunt lasted until doomsday by the Maya calendar3.
Their web site traffic rose from 1,000 to 10,000 visits and remained at that level for a week.
The PR success of my clients convinced me to give up on “classic PR campaigns” in favor of “explosive PR”. I had an amazing revelation: – you didn’t only spend money on PR (advertising or marketing) but also earned it via PR.
“We Do Not Lie: We Are Daydreaming”
Our sizzle reel was uploaded on YouTube, which was freely made by a TV channel. The reel is an exposure of our promo event in a fur shop. We deliberately arranged a striptease of a hapless salesgirl who allegedly misunderstood the terms of the promo event and stripped naked to the waist for the customer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ1ybIkPQrs
I played the role of that customer. In those days, I could be in the public eye without arousing suspicions. Now I am not involved in promo events unless I promote myself, because now people may say we know this is a PR man, so something must be wrong here.
The story ended with a showy phrase: “Our fantasy becomes your reality.”
True: we do not lie, we are daydreaming.
How A News Hook Became a New Business and Caused a Stir in Moscow
And here’s how our newsworthy information not only become real news but also launched new lines of business.
From our perspective, everything began with the successful promo event “Raccoons Ransack an Internet Booster Shop” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV5JjzyvROE
There were plenty of releases on Ren-TV, Russia Today, Podmoskovye 360, and even in The Independent. Here is the reference: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/watch-three-badly-behaved-raccoons-ransack-an-office-in-russia-10218013.html
As per the contract terms, however, the client expected three TV releases while there was only one. Because of that, I nearly split with my business partner who was adamant that the action had been completed. But a bargain is a bargain, so I decided to press it home.
The client continually turned down our cool moves. Just follow the link to gage some of them: https://goo.gl/LWz9WS
For instance: “Launching a rumor that an Internet booster manufacturer has won a grant from PornHub to develop the Internet in the Moscow region for greater exposure of local residents to porn. This was on the premise that XXX-sites have a large audience only in the inner city, whereas in the suburbs people do not visit such sites because of the slow Internet. Or “Russian porn celeb Elena Berkova will star in a commercial of the Internet booster manufacturer.”
Here is the plot: “Taking too long to download? Getting nervous and breaking your computer? Hook up and don’t fret.” Or “A nude man is running across the Red Square and trying to climb the Mausoleum to set up a booster. The whack is taken to a loony bin, and the client says, “We bear no relation to this incident: it’s the scheming of our rivals.” Or “An Internet rickshaw: a man with an aerial wire is pursuing a businessman over the Moscow region so as not to lose location.”
Occasionally, it came to funny PR inventions infringing upon the TV broadcasting act. We cut in a TV spot already on the air, but the client got the hang, and we saw a new generation fake was invented – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvkpCTCd2-E
That’s Why Explosive PR Is More Than Just Traditional Public Relations
Eventually, we groped for the right trick and came up with a press release identifying some places in the Moscow Region that needed fast Internet more than others: clinics, daycares, playgrounds, boarding schools, bathrooms, and cemeteries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck12M1O63NA
Now about the Internet at the cemetery. That hook blew the minds of journalists. Everyone wanted to shoot that process in the midst of graves and crosses.
Yet the state enterprise Ritual was hard on us, demanding a multitude of accreditation documents, testing, etc.
That idea did not pay off. We made an arrangement to shoot a video at the animal cemetery in Khimki, but the TV channels did not care. The cemetery Internet had some coverage in newspapers; the company even had calls from real funeral brokers who wanted to hook up, with four annual subscriptions signed. They just did not want any publicity.
This story had a sequel. Ritual announced a tender for the Internet installation at three Moscow cemeteries. When the news hit the Yandex top, questions hailed down on Yota System, and I was personally thanked by journalists for “pushing through a useful initiative.” I replied that “I was simply doing my work” and was not privy to the comments, although actually, I was, as you can see.
Now about the Internet in bathrooms; this was another cranky idea! While looking for a shooting site, I called several Moscow companies to know all ends and outs of this market and made an arrangement with a Moscow toilet chain. When shootings were over – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th_oE3FWBiU – directors were already negotiating the SIM card delivery. Again, a lucrative business arose from a newsbreak.
Oleg Matveychev makes a point in his Ears that Wag the Ass that advertising only squanders your money while PR can help you earn it. Finally, I had succeeded.
What is Explosive PR?
Explosive PR is not the trivial “blatant PR stunt”, though that is what it is. Explosive PR just sounds better, doesn’t it?
Explosive PR takes place every time 30 to 100 or more free features about your company are released within 1-2-3 days.
I don’t know how it works abroad, but in Russia, business people often wonder how PR can boost their sales. I’ll explain everything statistically, although figures are boring. I tackled explosive PR to avoid extensive explanations and reports. Everything is seen with the naked eye. For instance, our news is in the TOP-10 YandexNews. What other coverage evidence do you need? This is the best KPI to be dreamed of in PR: hitting the TOP-5 news of the main information and news source – the search engine used by more than 70% of Runet users.
Our other news topped the Google: Trends of the Day – “A schoolboy wins a night with a porn star in the CS: GO game”
What other explanations and reports are needed to defend the maxim that PR affects sales, albeit indirectly?
Similar claims are made on explosive PR as well, but how on earth can you measure its impact on sales? I came up with a metaphor. Just imagine coming to a premiere or a Super Bowl game, or the NHL finals, or a popular stage production of a Broadway musical.
You needn’t imagine yourself a businessman because this is what you are, so you watch a game or a stage production, the brilliant play of the actors, and have fun.
Can you see how this might affect your sales? There will be some effect, but you are at a loss for precise estimation. The sure positive effect is feeling fine, experiencing a catharsis, and having deep moral satisfaction.
Now imagine being in the center of that game, the main star who scored a decisive goal or a winning touchdown. What do you feel?
Extreme, a surge of adrenaline, your heart leaping for joy. It’s a rush and a kick for you. In the same token, explosive PR is about the INNER STATE.
Apart from a higher conversion rate, the number of brand queries, coverage, etc., the main benefit of explosive PR is the new inner state.
And this is real buzz or bliss-out worth experiencing at least once in a lifetime.
And like my friend and Nietzsche wannabe Anthony “The Inquisitor” Kirsanov would put it, whatever does not kill us can be tried once again!
Theoretical Framework of Explosive PR
Explosive PR did not originate out of nowhere. However, this is how it is now perceived by my numerous rivals. The number of explosive PR agencies keeps growing. Yet, there are only five real professionals in this trade: Anton Vuima, Oleg Voronin, Maksim Perlin, Misha Chernyshev, and Oleg Matveychev4, the guru of all gurus.
Explosive PR has a host of friends: newsjacking, guerilla marketing, viral video, flash mob, pranks, art actionism, cats, sexvertising, experience-marketing, shockvertising, mem-marketing, memjacking, ambush-marketing, hashtag jacking, and marketing shticks.
Works of fiction and cinematography, rather than related areas, that motivated me to tackle explosive PR. Here is the best theoretical framework for those who want to be fearless of explosive PR:
– Wag the Dog movie – a screen adaptation of Larry Beinhart’s American Hero,
– The Black Mirror series,
– The Absolute Power mini-series,
– Christopher Buckley’s Little Green Men,
– Ears That Wag the Ass, a book by Russian authors who are currently employed as Kremlin spin doctors
The authors of the above-listed works present PR as it should be: salient, creative, and stunning, but it is nothing like that. In agencies and corporations, PR comes down to press release mailing, press tours, and conferences. I was bored doing these kinds of things for 10 years, so I decided to return the original sense to PR: foolhardiness, recklessness, and flamboyancy. If these are present, PR is destined to be efficient.
“PR Needs More Balls!”
When I heard Fred Cook’s5 coined phrase “PR needs more balls’6, I knew I wasn’t the only one concerned with PR desalination.
“My outlook on the future of PR is simply that PR needs more balls and I translate balls to mean courage. As PR people, we are known for swimming in our swim lanes and playing nice in the sandbox,” he said. “But this is our opportunity to not play so nice in the sandbox.
We’re looking at whether the term PR is still the right term.
It needs a broader definition to include everything we do, and we have to do a lot to change minds and show what we’re capable of”7.
In this book I’ll tell you how:
– ideas launch new businesses,
– I come up with ideas,
– the info explosion or splash is achieved,
– you “seed” news,
– explosive promo actions are conducted,
I’ll also share cases from my portfolio.
Why I Wrote This Book And For Whom?
I console myself that I’m not the only madman in this world. I would like to meet other spin doctors like me. Why? So we can do something exciting together and know there is more positive, interesting, and hilarious news around us. The news is horrid – at least in this country.
Interesting invented news makes people smile, makes things fun, and allows us to marvel at the things around us.
And if business objectives are addressed against this background, like entering a new market or launching new products or mobile apps, then this is a win-win approach.
You’re welcome to enter the world of Explosive PR if you are:
– a spin doctor or marketing analyst prone to inventing news and willing to do something special in Russia for yourself or your clients,
– a startup entrepreneur interested in rising to fame,
– an experienced business person eager to jolt the market and recharge your batteries,
– a PR conference organizer eager to meet an interesting speaker and cases from Russia
Find my contacts at the end of this book.
Let’s plunge into the fascinating world of explosive PR and I’ll share everything I know.
Even if you use my technology independently, without my involvement, or refine it, I’ll be happy!
Make PR Great Again!
Ten Ways to Come Up With a Creative Idea For an Explosive Promo Event
I love the creative process. I do what I do out of pure enjoyment. Hopefully, nobody does it better. There’s a beauty to making a great deal. It’s my canvas. And I like painting it.8
Donald Trump
I’m a painter. Media is my canvas and ideas are my paints. Some works were done for a mass audience and some only for connoisseurs. To produce better work, you should continue painting, being creative, and implementing ideas.
A good idea means a more than halfway successful explosive PR campaign.
News must evoke the desire to print and reprint it, press a “like” button near it, and repost it. I’ll explain in this article how to make this type of news.
1. “Dictionary Divination.” This method was invented by a well-known PR man from St. Petersburg, Anton Vuima, the author of Black PR.
Here’s the gist of his method. You keep the business you’re promoting in your mind. You take a dictionary of the Russian language, open it to any page, and point your finger at a random word. Whatever it is, your task is to align it with your client and invent a promo action. The case study where a watch worth 200,000 euro was drowned in the Neva is described by Anton in the following video at the end of the third minute.9
How does this work? I don’t know, but it does. This is possibly the psyche or help from Heaven, I can’t tell you for sure. But it works like it worked for the detective from Twin Peaks. Do you remember him guessing suspects, setting up bottles, and flinging stones at them? When his guess was correct, a stone would break the glass. He didn’t know how it worked, but it did. Does it really matter how? Just use it.
2. Thinking in Paradoxes. Coming up with paradoxes means inventing centaurs, that is aligning two seemingly and fundamentally incompatible things – like a man with the body of a horse. As the saying goes, “When a dog bites a man, it’s not news, but when a man bites a dog – that’s a sensation.” Or a man went hunting with his dog and was attacked by… a dog. You’ll be laughing, but that was real news somewhere in Europe.
Think of someone for whom you’ll never be able to provide your services, or of the product you would not sell to anybody under no circumstances.
What client would make you laugh at his/her oddity? When you have the answers to these questions or remember something from your real life and smile, you are on the right path.
One example: we were boosting a coupon web site. What cannot be sold at a discount? We were racking our brain and then came up with the answer: indulgences! That was how we came out with the action: “Selling indulgences at a discount: the bid is valid till Doomsday.” The outcome: 10 TV reports and a 10-fold increase in the website traffic during the week. “… till Doomsday” – that deadline was not picked accidentally but in full compliance with point 3: Agenda.
3. Agenda (How Newsjacking Works for You and Your Business). Your task is hooking events of the day to your business using the following algorithm: look up the sources (YandexNews, Twitter Trends, Mediametrics top news, the main page of LiveJournal), choose what is relevant for your business, and then dovetail. If you come up with a centaur, great!
Case study. We promoted a translation agency at the Student Games in Kazan. The idea was for a youthful translator to declare her love in 68 languages… but for whom? The action was ready, it remained to find a heartthrob. We looked through news the day before and saw that an athlete from Uganda had been administered to the hospital with malaria. That was our hero! If the news were about a female athlete, our action would have a lesbian skew. Well, someone was lucky enough to get limelight on Channel 1 after a report in Life