A string of LED fairy lights from a pound shop and a barking mad idea to knit coloured woolly jumpers for hard-to-rehome dark dogs have contributed to a clutch of award nominations for Aberdeen-based PR agency, Tricker PR.
The agency has also been shortlisted as Scottish Outstanding Small Public Relations Consultancy of the Year at the CIPR Scotland PRide Awards.
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The agency known for its attention grabbing, high profile campaigns has been nominated in the Not for Profit and Low Budget categories for its Coats Of Many Colours Counteract Black Dog Syndrome campaign for the Scottish Women’s Institute’s centenary year.
SWI members were encouraged to knit stripy jumpers for hard-to-rehome dark-coloured dogs in Scottish SPCA centres across the country. Dark animals don’t photograph well as it’s difficult to distinguish their features, and superstition has also given black dogs a bad image, often appearing as evil forces representing death.
By kitting out long-term, dark-haired, canine residents with coats of many colours, the SWI promoted their own craft skills, highlighted their centenary year, showed their values of friendship and fun, and gained an estimated 2.53 million digital views as well as coverage in national newspapers and on BBC, STV and Sky News.
Engaging with the galaxy’s most exciting mixologists led to the creation of four interstellar cocktails to accompany Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – namely Kessel Rum, Dark Vader, Obi-Rum and Wookie Fuzzball. The campaign made sure that the force was strong with pre-Christmas coverage of Scotland’s only rum distillers Dark Matter. The campaign reached media and digital outlets across galaxies far, far away and closer to home.
“We’re not sure if it was genius, serendipity or extra sensory perception,” says Beverley Tricker, managing director of Tricker PR. “But the shot for the Kessel Rum cocktail – launched a week before the film – featured a light effect remarkably similar to those in publicity shots for Star Wars. Although we suspect the Star Wars lighting cost more than ours which was created with a small strand of battery operated LED fairy lights… from The Pound Shop.”
