New York, NY – Baseball season is upon us. Opening day is a special time for fans. But when your expectations are dashed and you miss your most beloved day of the year – you are obviously going to be upset. For one Met’s fan, his anger turned into a PR dream for a brand – and is a great example of several trends we’re following.
Frank Flemming woke up that glorious morning prepared to meet the day with peanuts, popcorn and cracker jacks. But when the NJ Transit experienced train delays, Frank was late to his date and didn’t hold back, with his story quickly airing on local news stations and even gaining national attention.
Within hours, Excedrin PR had hatched a plan. To produce buzz around the brand, they reached out to Frank and provided him with a private car and tickets to Friday’s game – along with planned interviews with the New York Daily News, MLB Whiparound and several other live media shows.
From a PR and social perspective, we look to identify cultural moments that are headache inducing, explained Scott Yacovino, senior brand manager at Excedrin. We’ve all been in that moment where you’re so excited to go to an event and [then a] mass transit headache [happens]; it was a no-brainer for the brand to jump in.
This story generated 31 feature placements in both regional and national outlets and has earned over 83 million media impressions across both traditional and social outlets.
Why This Matters –
This quick hit campaign is obviously a PR dream – take a challenge someone or something is having in the moment and not only solve their challenge but also create buzz worthy content knowing in this day and age, we all love to see someone succeed.
In 2017, the best content lives in the moment and empathy wins when we celebrate the effort. Excedrin’s quick thinking capitalized on this moment and created a better experience for this fan and attempted to reach the hearts of people to the tune of over 83 million impressions.
Excedrin is no stranger to taking advantage of social conversations – as they developed a quick and buzz-worthy campaign last election season – #debateheadache.
