Campaigns: Consumer PR - Vision brings timely boost to the Beano

The Beano is the UK’s second oldest and best-selling weekly comic.

It has a circulation of around 200,000 and is aimed at a core readership

of seven- to ten-year-old boys.

The comic was launched in July 1938 and has been running continuously

ever since. Its well established characters include Dennis the Menace

and his dog Gnasher, Minnie the Minx, and the Bash Street Kids.

On 15 January this year the Beano published its celebratory 3,000th

issue.

It hired Vision PR to manage a campaign to promote the landmark

issue.

Objectives

To boost the Beano’s sales figures, to promote the comic’s web site, and

to emphasise that it has moved with the times.

Strategy and Plan

In order to create high impact media coverage the PR team devised a

newsworthy publicity angle - the Beano 3,000 Celebrity Vote campaign. A

press release was sent out to print, on-line and broadcast media in late

November, to raise awareness of the forthcoming campaign.

Readers were invited to vote, using the comic’s website, for the

celebrities they thought most resembled characters from the Beano.

Approximately 4,000 responses were polled and the winning celebrities

were rendered in comic-book style to appear in the 3,000th issue.

Chris Evans was nominated to star alongside Dennis the Menace, while

Geri Halliwell beat EastEnders’ Patsy Palmer to feature with Minnie the

Minx. Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses was voted to be paired with

Roger the Dodger, despite facing stiff competition from Jeffrey Archer.

Other pairings included Linford Christie and Billy Whizz, and Brooklyn

Beckham and Dennis the Menace’s baby sister Bea.

On the day before the publication of the 3,000th issue, press releases

were issued to all the national newspapers, national and regional TV and

radio stations, and news agencies with the results of the survey and to

highlight that the characters could be seen in the 3,000th issue.

Measurement and Evaluation

Media exposure was extensive. National and regional newspapers ran

articles on the 3,000th issue itself, as did radio and satellite TV

stations. The majority of press coverage included visuals from the

Beano’s web site and from the comic.

The voters who responded to the campaign on the website were analysed

with regard to sex, age group and nationality. This showed that the

campaign reached its target audience, as the majority of voters were

between seven and ten-years-old, although ten per cent were between 25

and 44.

Results

The campaign’s media coverage acted as a reminder of the brand - the

campaign resulting in a sales boost of 27 per cent for the 3,000th

issue.

Of the 4,000 people who voted on the website 86 per cent were based in

the UK. Of these, 70 per cent were male. The campaign emphasised an

institutional brand’s shift with the times and its extension into new

media.

Client: DC Thomson and Co

Campaign: Beano celebrates its 3,000th issue

PR Team: Vision PR

Timescale: November-December 1999

Budget: Undisclosed