PR stunt ideas + our favourite PR stunts of all time

What is the definition of a PR stunt? Publicity stunts are planned events designed to attract the public's attention to a business or their cause and gain exposure. In this article we dive into some of the best PR stunt examples, plus our top tips on how to perform one of your own.

Publicity Stunt Ideas

Stunts are a great way to earn media; if you pull them off well, people will do the heavy lifting for you, effectively advertising your brand or product through word of mouth and press coverage. Ultimately, a successful stunt needs to be clever and reactive, plus, anything photo or film-worthy is going to help the stunt get maximum coverage. Stunts are a great way to get people talking, but tend to perform best when they are a smaller component of a bigger campaign or purpose. This keeps people involved and engaged on a bigger user journey. Here are a few publicity stunt ideas to get you started on your next stunt.

Tie it into the current news agenda

Piggybacking on news stories, current events or a national conversation can give your stunt instant exposure. Being reactive, or planning your stunt around known events (planned reactivity), presents the opportunity to insert yourself into real-time discussions with your audience. Using hyper-contextual content is powerful as it resonates with an audience's current state of mind and creates impact that lasts. In this way, you are becoming part of natural narratives, making your brand relevant and relatable too. If you want to learn more about reactive advertising strategies click here.

Be brave and make a scene

Don’t be afraid to push the boundaries, playing it safe never caught anyones attention. Some of the most famous PR stuntsare those that stepped outside of the box and did something bold. The fear of failure or backlash can limit doing something new and different and often means a stunt falls flat. Therefore a successful stunt should always disrupt and challenge people to stop, think, and act. The PR stunt is no new phenomenon, so doing something new will help you be seen and talked about.

Make it memorable

A successful stunt creates conversations that live on beyond coverage. Stunts are short-lived by nature, so making sure the concept is memorable ensures it will stand the test of time. One way to make your stunt memorable is to play on emotions, such as humour. Laughter stimulates the parts of the brain which are responsible for memorising information, making it a powerful way to build a connection with an audience.

Use social media to drive engagement

At Don’t Panic, we never create anything IRL that won’t be shared online. While your stunt may take place offline, it’s important to recognise what most people will view it on social media, so it’s essential that it is captured using a short film and images, to expand its reach and increase the potential for engagement. For those who do get to see the real thing, ensure there’s a visible hashtag to encourage engagement to aggregate in one place.

Stunts That Work: Our Favourite Examples

PR stunts that work take a lot of planning, but get it right and it can be an incredibly lucrative marketing tool for your brand. Here are a few recent examples that earned attention:

Stella McCartney Anti-Fur Protest

We partnered up with Stella McCartney and the Humane Society to drive awareness around global petitions to ban fur. We launched three stunts across three of the world’s fashion capitals (London, New York and Milan), each centred around a “protest” led by people dressed in giant animal heads and the clothes from Stella’s Autumn ‘21 range. Held outside some of the cities’ most recognisable landmarks, not only did the stunts gain coverage, but were visible to the many people we encountered along the protest.

Sky Arts - Everyone Together

To mark Sky Arts becoming free-to-air for everyone, 220 members of the public gathered for a socially distanced nude art installation stunt in the first major participatory work of art since lockdown. The installation smartly made virtue of the two-meter rule; using the negative space between each person to differentiate from Spencer Tunick’s usual installations where bodies closely intertwine. This stunt both pushed boundaries, and played into the appetite for participation and freedom.

Madame Tussauds - Donald Trump waxwork

When Donald Trump cancelled his visit to London back in 2018, Madame Tussauds put its waxwork of Donald Trump outside the new US embassy. Madame Tussauds successfully struck while the zeitgeist was hot and tied itself into the current news agenda. Passersby stopped for pictures and before long it started conversations on Twitter had gained coverage from major news sites. This stunt is an example of something simple yet effective that didn’t require much planning - opportunities such as this don’t come around every day, but when they do you must act fast.

Gain Media Coverage With Our Creative Marketing!

If you’re looking to pull off a stunt or want to learn more about marketing strategies, get in touch with one of our specialists here or, read more about our social media content services here and case studies here.