I woke up this morning to a radio news headline about Cirque du Soleil’s 25th anniversary. Not only is today the official anniversary, but to celebrate the day, Cirque is trying to break the Guinness World Record title of the most people simultaneously walking on stilts. Their publicity stunt will take place simultaneously in cities throughout the world.
Clearly Cirque understands the value of publicity. Go to Google and do a search and you’ll find over 42,000 hits for Cirque du Soleil’s 25th anniversary. You can’t buy this type of publicity.
How did they do it? By following a few simple rules of public relations. First they took advantage of a major anniversary. In twenty-five years Cirque has become a world-wide phenomenon. By reminding the press about the anniversary they could be fairly certain they would get some news coverage.
But they didn’t stop there. Cirque created an event to coincide with the anniversary. Attempting to break the Guinness World Record and holding the event in several locations further enhances the likelihood that they’ll get media coverage in a variety of places.
And you don’t have to be as big as Cirque to use these same techniques. Your local newspaper might be just as happy to print a story about your small business that has survived 5, 10 or more years and the national news are to talk about Cirque. And adding an event to coincide with your anniversary will increase the chances you get some space in the paper or on the air.
Andrea J. Stenberg
If you want to learn more about using publicity, why not purchase Getting Publicity for Your Small Business. This is a teleseminar I did with publicity expert Julia-Isabel Davenport. For only $17 you can get instant access to the recording and learn how to start getting publicity for your business.
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