Article
December 30, 2013
Viral PR Campaigns and Social Media Show-Stoppers.
At Taylor Herring we aim to bridge the gap between social and news media with innovative, stand-out campaigns.
Our content-powered ideas are proven to resonate with the media and capture the imagination of the public – while having everyone reaching for the ‘share’ button.
Here’s a quick round-up of some of the viral videos, events and social media events we’ve produced and promoted for clients over the last 12 months.
1. The London Eye Burning Rope Trick
Daredevil illusionist and stuntman Jonathan Goodwin launched his new show ‘The Incredible Mr Goodwin’ on Watch by recreating a classic stunt with a unique twist. The death defying stunt garnered coverage worldwide.
2. The Ryan Gosling Helpline
Hollywood heartthrob Ryan Gosling announced his intention to take a break from the big screen.
This was devastating news for his legions of female fans so we came to the rescue with a cheeky little stunt for blinkbox; launching ‘the Gosline’ – a helpline for his distressed fans. Using little more than a pre-recorded message sampled from ‘The Notebook’ and a new mobile phone, our stunt created worldwide news coverage.
3. Tabloid History
History channel Yesterday tasked us with amplifying awareness around a new series ‘The Secret Lives Of’ which would provide a modern take on some of the icons of British history.
We used both the new and existing insights to bring these historical icons into the 21st Century via the magic of photo shop.
The resulting portraits which saw Shakespeare rendered as a Hoxton trendy and Lord Nelson as a modern day British Navy commander became the single biggest soft news story of week, sparking a huge amount of coverage, social chatter and of course viewers.
4. Shopera
We helped deliver both coverage and viewers for ‘pesto pioneers’ Sacla via an impromptu opera performance in the food hall at John Lewis Oxford Street featuring a string of undercover performers dressed as shop staff and casual shoppers.
Our viral video has been viewed over 3.7 MILLION times to date. Full case study here.
5. Launching TLC
US Channel TLC touched down in the UK with a star-studded launch party overseen by Taylor Herring complemented with programme PR around the key shows including ‘Honey Boo-Boo’. More about it here.
6. Mr Darcy emerges from The Serpentine
The launch of UKTV’s new channel ‘Drama’ caused ripples of excitement worldwide thanks to 12ft sculpture of Mr Darcy emerging from London’s Serpentine Lake on the day of launch. More about it here.
7. Game Of Thrones Dragon Skull Washes Up On A UK Beach
Our quest for blinkbox was to create a disruptive piece of marketing that would strike a chord with diehard Game Of Thrones fans while tempting the uninitiated to check out the show. More about it here.
8. The Skoda VRS Man Pram
We helped Skoda unveil the ultimate baby buggy – an incredible one-off pram fitted with sports suspension and 20-inch alloy wheels. More about it here
9. Paddy Power’s Royal Babies
Our unique (and somewhat disturbing) man-size Royal Babies which were rolled out to amplify awareness of Paddy Power’s novelty betting market. Both campaigns generated a huge amount of press coverage with the Royal Babies alone sparking 100+ international interviews for the cheeky Irish bookmaker.
10. Red Bull Soapbox
Following a nine year hiatus, Red Bull Soapbox Race returned to London where 50 teams competed in a whacky races style race at Alexandra Palace. The sold out event garnered worldwide coverage and only two people needed medical treatment. Phew.
More about it here
11. Launching Tottenham Hotspur’s New Entertainment Platform
We worked with Tottenham Hotspur FC to launch their ground breaking new entertainment platform – Tottenham Turfies, a new site aimed at nurturing the fans of the future.
12. Kevin Spacey Hits Edinburgh TV Festival
Taylor Herring worked to promote The Media Guardian Edinburgh International TV Festival ,for the 8th year running, in 2013.
With a keynote speech from Hollywood legend Kevin Spacey this year’s festival was one of the best attended to date.
13. Red Stripe Soundsystem at Notting Hill Carnival
We rounded off an incredibly busy Summer by teaming up with NTS Radio to create a bespoke stage at the Notting Hill Carnival for Red Stripe featuring live performances from leading ‘street percussionists’ Joe Bucket. Look out for Joe in a new viral video we have produced for Red Stripe which will be released in the New Year.
14. Bear Grylls Abseils Battersea Power Station – ON FIRE
Bear Grylls abseiled down Battersea Power Station to launch new Discovery International series ‘Escape from Hell’ and kick off the celeb packed launch party for the show. More about it here.
15. World’s First Teleporter Revealed At Westfield
We marked the arrival of Star Trek ‘Into Darkness’ on the platform by creating the world’s first ‘teleporter’ which was installed at Westfield Shopping Centre.
We worked with an illusionist to pull off the stunt. The video has received 2 Million+ views to date
16. Iron Man. Balloon Man.
To celebrate the early digital release of Iron Man 3 on blinkbox, we wanted to do something different.
That’s when we happened upon Jeff Wright, an American balloon artist from Ohio. Jeff made waves earlier this year with his fantastic collection of superhero costumes made entirely from modelling balloons. More about it here.
17. Live Stream Ghost Hunt
Spooky goings on this month as TV Channel ‘Really’ asked us to create an event around their season of ‘Paranormal Witness’ programming. With Halloween looming we decided to stream a live ghost hunt from one of the UK’s most haunted houses throughout Halloween night on the Really Website. More about it here
18. Giant Mona Lisa ‘Made Out Of Selfies’
We helped bring the classic canvas into the 21st Century with a giant version made out of ‘selfies’ of the shortlisted self-portraits in Sky’s national portrait competition.
19. The launch of ‘Alpha Papa’ on blinkbox in December called for something special so we set to work on creating and staging a unique light show in Norwich – Alan Partridges spiritual home. More about it here.
20. The Bristol Harbour Alien
A new illusion show from the team behind Derren Brown ‘The Happenings’ was on a mission to convince Britain into believing that magical and mysterious incidents were taking place across the country.
We were brought on board by Watch to launch the show with a sensational stunt. More about it here.
What the press said about Taylor Herring’s work in 2013;
‘Masterful’ – Advertising Age
‘Clever Marketing’ – Mashable
“Make no bones about it a cool way to advertise’ – Huffington Post
“Very cool …nice unconventional advertising.’ – Buzzfeed
‘An intoxicating mix of public art and advertising’ – USA Today
“A marketing stunt of epic proportions” – Business Insider
‘Marketing GOLD’ – Adweek
‘…Best PR stunt ever’ – Stylist