Creating a blonde themed summer pr campaign

HJi’s PR expert, Louise Wood of leading agency LWPR looks at how a simple theme can help heat up a Summer PR campaign. Have a blonde moment with your PR this summer Having a theme for your PR this summer will make light work of your profile building and give you a wealth of material to put across all of your PR channels: social media, local magazine, paper, radio and even your marketing material – a real symphony for summer, all working together to give you lots of impact to make a strong impression. A Blondes theme is always huge for business and for magazines too, so with that in mind here are a few ideas to work across your media: Blonde menu: create a blonde menu of for iconic blonde summer services with either your own material or shots from your manufacturer, once you have produced this, you have a blonde story to cascade across your in-salon material, website, social media and extend that to local press via editorial competitions. Blonde news: The PR stunt to launch the blonde menu to your local press needs something a bit quirky and visual so have a team of stylists dress up as iconic blondes from history, we’re talking Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Anniston.  It makes for a great photo call and if the team dress like that for the day you could link it to raising money for a local charitable cause. Facebook: be social (the clue is in the title!) so, identify the iconic blondes with Hollywood icons or current day celebs and ask your Facebook fans to vote on who they think the most iconic blonde is.  Create a blondes photo album using celebs or clients and caption each photo detailing the shade of blonde clients should ask for if this is the one they want. Keep an eye on changing celebrity hairstyles so you’re the first to report a new trend back to your clients. Create blonde themed collages and mood boards as images because they’re eye catching and give clients a wider range of inspiration – be sure to have a call to action within each post to increase engagement and boost activity on your page. Run a blonde competition on Twitter or Instagram, ask clients to upload their new blonde look before they leave the salon tagging your salon in or using a hashtag so you can monitor the entries, then one winner will be picked at random to win a bumper bag of blonde hair care goodies. Cross promote on Facebook too, and then use the best images in a gallery (with photo credits) to encourage more people to enter. Magazine feature: Suggest a feature to your local beauty editor on iconic blondes and what that means to the consumer, what blonde suits them, what they should be looking for in a blonde consultation, what to ask for and what different terms mean.  You’ll need great imagery (again turn to your manufacturer if you don’t have your own) and through this show the huge scope of blonde going through every hue from pastels and caramel to honey or platinum to blush.  To add to the coverage, you could suggest supporting an editorial competition by inviting a couple of friends to come in for a summer blonde treatment and giving retail sets and a blow dry to five winners. Radio: Pitch a feature to your local radio station dispelling all those old wives’ tales about blondes.  We’ve all heard them, wash your hair with ketchup or squeeze lemon juice on your hair before going in to the sun for “natural” highlights.  Combine this with your top tips on how and when to go blonder for the summer for a radio friendly feature that doesn’t require imagery. Invite the radio to come to your iconic blonde day to talk to staff about hair care for summer. And if you can find a local blonde celebrity to come in for an appointment, and who’s willing to talk about their hair, then this will be another good pull. It’s the perfect time of year to make those blondes work for your business so, keep it simple and stick clearly to your theme across your media