Here’s a great example of why I love PR.

Something that appeared to be so run-of-the-mill that it only got mentioned as an after-thought at the end of a marketing meeting actually turned in to great publicity for a client.

Amy from Heywoods happened to mention that children from a local primary school were due in the following week as they were doing a project on houses.

Small children.
Visiting a local business.
Doing cute things like drawings picture of houses.

I didn’t need telling twice and immediately suggested Amy call the school to ask if it was OK to publicise the children’s visit and also get relevant permissions for the children involved.

It’s a great win-win for the school and for Heywoods who would both get fantastic free publicity out of a seemly ordinary event.

We invited a photographer from local newspaper, The Sentinel, who duly turned up to be greeted by 26 five–year-olds all drawing pictures of houses.

OK, so the page lead picture in the Sentinel the day after the visit focused on one pupil rather than a group of the children which we’d hoped for. But it did get the all-important Heywoods branding into a picture caption story.

And, Amy also played a blinder with constant updates on Heywoods’ Facebook and Twitter sites during the visit and also with links to the resulting coverage.

Not bad for a chance comment huh?

As I said, this is why I love PR because I know that every business is sitting on a goldmine of potential good news stories which most don’t actually recognise as newsworthy. And unearthing these abundant gems is a something that’s a continual joy.