Sometimes all you need is a clever play on words and a fun event to generate some great publicity.
Take the concept of happy hour. Remove the booze. Add four-legged hounds. What do you get?
“Yappy Hour,” a play date for pooches from 6 to 8 p.m. on a recent Friday night at the Amiable Dog Training School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
A small article on the front page of the Lifestyle section in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the event “allows guilt-ridden pet owners to watch their dogs work off pent-up energy romping together in a supervised environment.” Even dogless folks are welcome to attend for free.
It’s an example of a clever event that generates publicity for a dog training school when there isn’t much of anything else going on. I wouldn’t be surprised if this story also shows up Friday night as the “kicker” at the end of the late-night news. It has all the elements of a perfect story for TV–people, color and lots of motion.
Looking for ways to publicize your small business? Jeff Zbar, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2001 Journalist of the Year, tells you what kinds of small-business stories catch his attention. He was my guest during a teleseminar called called “The Fastest, Cheapest, Easiest Ways to Publicize Your Small Business.” Read more about what you’ll learn on this CD or electronic transcript.