Campaign: Calendar Girls DVD/video
Client: MVC
PR team: In-house/Idea Generation
Timescale: 3-16 February 2004
Budget: £4,000
When hit British film Calendar Girls was released on DVD and video, the MVC PR team was keen to do something innovative to point out that one per cent of revenue from sales would go to the Leukaemia Research Fund. Objectives
To promote the release of Calendar Girls on DVD and video. To achieve maximum awareness of MVC stores. To raise money for the Leukaemia charity.
Strategy and Plan
MVC's brief to Idea Generation was to tell the story with photos. The team decided to place naked women similar to clips from the film in 19 MVC shop windows, using cardboard pianos to preserve their modesty. The campaign ran on 9 February and Valentine's Day to provide customers with an opportunity to visit the stores. MVC corporate affairs manager Daniel Himsworth gave interviews in the run-up week.
Measurement and Evaluation
Cuttings agency Romeike and the PR team's own clippings showed 51 pieces of regional print coverage. Items also appeared in RetailWeek and other trade magazines.
ITV's London Today covered the story twice. BBC TV South West, Scottish Television and Carlton East Midlands all mentioned the campaign.
BBC Radio Gloucestershire, Severn Sound, Reading's 2-Ten FM, BBC Radio Nottingham and Trent FM also covered the story.
There were no customer complaints about the naked stunt and 99 per cent of the coverage was positive, according to Idea Generation.
Results
Across the 19 campaign stores, average turnover on 9 February was 30 per cent higher than for the same day the previous year. Sales were also 30 per cent higher for the release in those stores compared with MVC's other branches.
'We previewed the forthcoming release in our February issue,' says RRP Magazine editor Tim Murray. 'The (campaign) was well staged, amusing and featured instantly recognisable industry figures. It was very well handled. There were no negative aspects at all.'
