Louise Epic of Calgary, Alberta, Canada writes:
I’m looking for some ideas to incorporate in an awareness and product publicity program for our company, SOLE, which makes custom insoles or foot beds.
This product is unique in two ways: it uses a special technology where, after heating the soles in the oven and imprinting your foot, provide a custom fitting. There’s also a competitive price point. The company has asked for one or two creative guerilla PR initiatives and I was hoping your readers might have some suggestions.
To date, the company has an impressive list of high-profile testimonials (well-known athletes, celebrity chefs, etc), success stories, excellent retail distribution, online sales and athlete/sport event sponsorships. Work/military represents about half of sales. Sports/medicine represents the other half. The owner really likes the idea of including an education component and using a long-standing debate between foot experts on “what orthotic products are best” to raise the profile of this product.
Do your Hounds have any other ideas?
You’ll get the most publicity mileage out of sponsoring walking and running events that tend to draw a lot of amateurs. For instance, there’s a 60-mile three-day walk benefitting breast cancer in cities all over the U.S. These are ordinary women, not athletes, participating. Do a workshop beforehand for participants and have representatives offering foot care advice during the event. Do media interviews on how it is possible for an ordinary person to walk 60 miles in three days without injury. Offer tips for posting at the web sites for these sorts of events. The reason I say to target events for amateurs is that they are really likely to be concerned about and to develop foot problems and participants are not a tight little group who all know each other, but a very widely dispersed and diverse group of people who will spread the word about your products to the general public.
Good luck,
Marcia Yudkin
Author, 6 Steps to Free Publicity
Louise
1. Your breathtaking, nearby Banff Springs Hotel attracts people (many of them hiker) from around the world as you know – and makes a great photo op for a demo, contest, etc. (or to take photos for your client’s site
Also, as the author of SmartPartnering, I naturally think of forging alliances with other orgs that reach your kind of customers. For example, the multitude of hiking clubs & asns., from American Volkssport Association to Federation of Victorian Walking Clubs.
Offer an article, tip, and/or ask your client to approach an org. to make a special “for members” only offer that the org. can promote to members(perhaps after fitting one or more of the leaders with a complimentary sole so they can praise the product.
By the way, when I spoke at Pedorthic Footwear Asn. I found your client’s kind of custom approach to be the most beneficial and recall that there was a tax write-off for those whose doctor proscribed orthodics.
– another fan of Joan’s great advice, Kare @ http://www.sayitbetter.com
April is Foot Health Awareness Month. Why not pitch the product to a segment producer at one of the national morning shows? Offer to send them a few pair to test. They are always looking for timely health-related stories. They would likely use your product alongside others in the “foot health” segment, but it’s amazing exposure and a hot topic.
Louise, how about injecting a little fun into your promotion to attract some media publicity.
Make a couple of sample products for a fictional character like King Kong then get someone dressed in a gorilla outfit to show off your product.
What about casting a footprint the size of Bigfoot and announcing the ‘discovery’ of this new footprint to the media.
Cheers,
Sophie Wajsman
Here are three ideas for online publicity:
–Start a blog on foot care.
–Start an ezine on foot care, or even a simple “tip of the week.” (See “Special Report #38: How to Publish a Profitable Electronic Newsletter” at http://tinyurl.com/6uz9g)
–Contact publishers of ezines who target the same audience you do, and offer free foot care tips.
–Contact bloggers who blog about your topic and offer a sample of your product