PR stunts work. Standing out from the crowd can be tough for any business. Even if your product is as good as anything already on the market, without word of mouth, it is difficult to get noticed.

Luckily for you, there’s one sure-fire way to get people talking about your brand: a darn good PR stunt.

A well thought-out PR stunt can catapult your business into the public consciousness; and create mass awareness over a short time period. Think Felix Baumgartner’s stratospheric space jump, which was watched by 8 million people worldwide and worth tens of millions in exposure for sponsors Red Bull.

Here are two text-book examples of PR stunts doing what they do best – spreading a positive story as far and wide as possible.

1.     Taco Bell

On April 1st 1996, millions of Americans opened their papers to learn that Taco Bell was buying the Liberty Bell; renaming it the “Taco Liberty Bell,” and moving it to their corporate headquarters in California.

Top PR stunts

This caused uproar across America, both in the press, media and online.

Little did the public know that it was all part of an elaborate publicity stunt to promote their “Nothing Ordinary About It” ad campaign.

The brand created fake press releases, satellite video feeds, Internet chat rooms, and took out full-page ads in seven top daily newspapers.

Over 650 media outlets covered the story after seeing the fake publicity campaign, and the story featured on big name TV shows such as “NBC Nightly News,” “The Today Show,” and USA Today.

After thousands of people called in to complain, Taco Bell admitted that it was an April fool’s prank.

2.     Tourism Queensland

Given that part of a PR executive’s job is to sell a product without paying for advertising space, Tourism Queensland’s “best job in the world” campaign was a PR triumph, in 2009.

In an effort to increase tourism around the Great Barrier Reef, they bought ad space in newspapers around the world, advertising for a position they called “The Best Job in the World”.

They were offering someone £70,000 and the chance to be an island caretaker, essentially sunbathing and exploring Queensland! The successful candidate would live in an all expenses-paid three-bedroom villa with a pool on Hamilton Island.

Top PR stunts

Boasting a series of “hooks” that began with a job-application process, through to an X-Factor-style short listing of candidates, the campaign harnessed social media to create a worldwide reality TV competition that tapped into young people’s wanderlust.

Dubbed the greatest PR stunt in history by many in the industry, tens of thousands applied and visitor numbers to the region soared. Top marks.

Hotcow is a non-traditional creative agency that specialises in experiential marketing that goes viral. Our campaigns generate buzz through crowd participation, PR and content sharing. Contact us on 0207 5030442 or email us on info@hotcow.co.uk.