lights, camera, ACTION!

Jeff Sweat, CEO and founder of Mr. Sweat, recently visited my M-School class and gave a presentation on how to be famous! Jeff is a public relations (PR) expert and shared advice on how you can gain exposure for your company.

I was excited going into the presentation because I am also doing a PR minor. I initially chose my PR minor because I thought it could be beneficial in the marketing world, so it was cool to see my two studies overlap.

Public relations focuses heavily on creating earned media (i.e TV news) , rather than paid media (i.e TV advertisements). Because of this, it is important that PR efforts include things that people WANT to share.

Jeff emphasized this by telling us to always consider the question, "would you share it if you weren't getting paid to do it?". Essentially Jeff explained that good PR should be something that you would actually want to share via social media or otherwise, in your real life.

Our work should always pass the "so what" test! After all, if you are the creator and YOU don't care about the work, how can you expect a unbiased audience to?

Next Jeff went on to share his 6 steps to "fame", or gaining earned media. The first step that Jeff explained was focused on surprising your audience. He told us that "anytime you take something normal and flip it on its head to become something unfamiliar we pay attention".

I liked this point as it reminded me of the disruption presentation that we heard at TBWA. I remember being so inspired by the disruptive campaigns at TBWA and think that this concept of "surprising" your audience relates very closely.

One campaign that Jeff showed us to explain this step was a Tide advertisement. The advertisement took well-known recognizable ads such as old-spice and Mr. Clean and made them "tide ads". I thought it was a clever way to play off of other successful ads, especially because Tide doesn't really have an iconic ad of their own.

The next step to gaining fame that Jeff shared was "take a stand". This step was easy to understand since taking a stand one way or the other will always align you with the group of people who also takes that stance or supports that cause.

This step was also the easiest to relate to our Marketing For Good projects, as each project relates to a specific cause. One example Jeff shared with us was REI's #optoutside initiative.

The opt outside initiative involved REI closing stores on Black Friday in order to allow employees to get outside and spend time with family. As Jeff explained, this was a good method for promoting brand image especially since REI does not rely on increased sales during Black Friday.

The third step Jeff shared with us was to innovate. This step seemed like common sense to me since innovative ideas and products always gain media exposure. The examples Jeff shared however, helped expand my pre existing knowledge on this topic.

He shared with us the advertisement for Australia's "Snickers Hungerithm". Snickers posed the possibility that the internet is an angry place because everyone is hungry, which tied directly to their recognizable slogan "you're not you when your hungry".

Based on this theory, Snickers created a Hungerithm app that measures the anger on the internet and subsequently provided Snickers discounts that correlated with the level of anger. I was very impressed and inspired by this innovative idea; it was a very unique and fun way to encourage Snickers sales.

The third step to become famous was to be funny. As Jeff put it, "funny sells". His example in relation to this point included a very relatable HBO GO advertisement.

The ad showed a mother and daughter watching an "awkward make out scene" together. The scene involved a lesbian couple, prompting the mother to ask her daughter if she was lesbian, insisting that "it's okay if you are".

This ad made me laugh because I could relate to it. I have on several occasions been asked by my parents if I was lesbian, simply because I haven't had a boyfriend in a long time! Although this was a funny relatable ad, I can't say it made me any more inclined to purchase HBO GO, but it definitely promoted my positive view of the brand.

The fifth step Jeff discussed was labeled, be quiet. He showed us a Volkswagen Super Bowl ad without words to demonstrate his point. The ad was successful because the message was conveyed visually with the assistance of the classic Star Wars theme song.

Although the wordless advertisement seemed impactful, it is hard to imagine other ways to successfully achieve a great impact without the assistance of words. This step was probably the hardest for me to internalize and as a result will probably be the step I am least likely to implement in my work.

The last step in getting famous was to be crafty. He explained that craftsmanship and beauty can help to elevate a concept. This step also was not ground-breaking for me. There is no argument that creating a visually appealing advertisement will improve success, I just didn't feel as though this was something that needed to be explained.

Overall, the steps Jeff provided for us varied in impact. While I agree that all 6 are important concepts to consider, they definitely seemed to vary in importance.

After his presentation, each group got the chance to identify some potential sources of PR and brainstorm ways to get local PR coverage for our products. The interactive part of this lesson was cool to me since I have learned how to communicate with media outlets via PR materials through my PR classes.

It even resulted in me actually sending some pitch letters to local newspapers! I was excited that I could finally apply my PR skills in real life and was thrilled to actually get a response from a newspaper interested in featuring my groups project.

It was fun to combine my PR and marketing skills. It was also helpful to have Jeff's steps in such a simplified format! Maybe one day I'll be able to use his advice to help a client achieve fame!