The document discusses two case studies involving PR campaigns. The first case study describes how PR company Bottle worked with Poundland to change perceptions of the store from occasional to weekly shopping destination. Bottle conducted research, developed a "Weekly Essentials" campaign using PR and social media, and increased grocery sales significantly. The second case study discusses how Cohn & Wolfe promoted the DVD release of Bridesmaids using a themed event leveraging interest in the royal wedding. They created fake photos of Pippa Middleton at the wedding to generate tabloid coverage, hosted a party for media/celebrities, and the DVD sold almost 300,000 copies in its first week.

1. Case study file
Katie Torpey and Savannah Hardwick
Market research
Market analysis
Marketing strategy
Advertising
Brand promotion
Managing the message
Positive publicity
„Spin‟
Damage limitation
Organizing events
Lobbying
Case study 1- BOTTLE
PR, Poundland Campaign.
‘’BRIEF
With well over 400 stores, Poundland wanted to capitalize on its
high street presence. It wanted to become an essential location for
everyone‟s weekly shop. It wanted to own the hearts and minds of
the nation‟s shoppers.
INSIGHTS
Poundland was seen by many as an occasional and/or seasonal
shopping destination. We knew this challenge was all about making
key audiences aware of its broader range of branded groceries and
household goods. In doing so we could put Poundland firmly in the
same playing field as „the big four‟ supermarkets.
STRATEGY
We devised a „Weekly Essentials ‟ campaign that challenged
shoppers to find out just how much they could save on their usual
weekly shop with Poundland. The campaign was leveraged via a mix
of social media and traditional PR. A NetMumspartnership and
outreach to key mummy bloggers was blended with a research-led
news release supported by a proactive media relations drive to key
national, online and women‟s titles.
OUTCOMES
The campaign delivered 30 pieces of branded coverage across the
personal finance and consumer affairs pages. These included a
double page spread in the Daily Mirror that compared Poundland‟s
branded ranges favourably to those of the major
supermarkets.Over 250 mums shared their Poundland moneysaving experiences on the influential Netmums forum. A series of
competitions in key national women‟s titles to win a weekly shop for
a year,supported the outreach. There was a tangible shift in

2. consumer perception of the brand. As a result of the activity, yearon-year sales increased by 56% in the grocery category, 26% in
health & beauty, and 20% in household.‟‟
http://www.bottlepr.co.uk/work/poundland-becomes-part-weeklyshop/
This piece of text is a case study on how Public Relations Company
Bottle worked on a campaign for Poundland, a variety chain store in
the UK. The campaign was to help Poundland to be seen as more
than an occasional shopping destination, Poundland wanted to
become a place were you could go and do your weekly shop for low
prices. The campaign featured both marketing and PR techniques,
including market research and market analysis, advertising, brand
promotion, Lobbying and positive publicity.BOTTLE, the company
working on the campaign has used each of these techniques for
obvious reasons, some more than others, but all of them are used
effectively and appropriately.
You can see in this case file how BOTTLE, the PR company chosen
to work on the Poundland campaign, have done plenty of market
research into their client, finding out about how many stores they
have, what type of products they sell and who the consumers are
for this retail unit. They used market research to find out who their
target consumer were, which in this case are specifically women,
possibly mothers, who are most likely to be doing the „weekly shop‟.
BOTTLE then did further market analysis in order to see what these
shoppers would want from this store, how Poundland could attract
them to their store and how Poundland could be seen as more than
just an occasion/seasonal shop. BOTTLE then created a marketing
strategy, a business approach to how they would achieve these
things. A way for them to market Poundland in the way they wanted
is to find a way to reach out to their target consumer, middle aged
women, who might be mothers. Their strategy was to create a
„weekly essentials‟ campaign, which was challenging shoppers to
find out how much they could save weekly, just by shopping with
Poundland. They broadcast the campaign through different medias,
including a NetMums partnership and an outreach to key „mummy
bloggers‟ and were greeted with a research led news release, which
was supported by proactive media.Poundland wanted to change
peoples perception of them, so they used a PR technique called
lobbying, wanting to influence others. Poundland then surrounded
themselves with positive publicity, having double page spreads
written about them in the Daily Mail, as well as having blogs written
specifically about them, which showed not only Poundland in a
positive light, but the PR company BOTTLE as well. The access to

3. the media helped with this campaign profusely, having positive
publicity and a good campaign helped to get their message across,
that they are more than an occasion/seasonal shop. This case also
features an example of advertising; because Poundland had an
article written about them, its likely that a lot of people will
see/read the article, which is positive and is essentially advertising
them to the public through the article. The campaign is effective
because of the PR and marketing techniques that have been used to
further change peoples perception of Poundland.
Case Study 2
Market Strategy
Advertising
Promotion
Organizational Event
Success
Bridesmaids have all the fun
Bringing a Royal touch to the DVD launch of Universal‟s Bridesmaids
Everyone loves a good party, and there was no bigger party than
the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.To help
Universal Pictures UK Home Entertainment launch the DVD for
comedy hit Bridesmaids, Cohn & Wolfe leveraged the hysteria
surrounding the Royals and the nation‟s obsession with the ultimate
bridesmaid: Pippa Middleton.
We worked with renowned photographer Alison Jackson – famous
for her celebrity lookalike images – to imagine some behind-thescenes Royal Wedding scandals, including very real looking spoofs
of Pippa at Kate‟s bachelorette party and dancing with „Prince Harry‟
at the reception.We offered the “exclusive” series to the media,
securing high impact, branded coverage across all of the UK‟s
national tabloid press on the day of the DVD release with such
headlines as “Cheeky Harry: Did He Rear-ly Grope Pippa?” To
reiterate the party themes of the movie, we also hosted a rousing
high-end „hen do‟ (a British bachelorette party) for media and
celebrities– complete with goody bags and a build-your-own
cupcake factory.With over 500 million media impressions across
tabloid and consumer press, the results were worthy of a red carpet
premiere. Sales of almost 300,000 DVDs in week one were critical
to securing retailer commitments and ultimately made Bridesmaids
a Top 10 best selling DVD of the year.

4. To help raise awareness of the release of the DVD Bridesmaids the
distributor Universal Pictures UK Home Entertainment contacted
cohn & wolfe to help them promote the DVD by holding an
organisational event to interest and raise awareness from the target
market of the DVD. By holding this event it caught attention of
hundreds of people and the theme of the event even astonished
them more. As the subject of William and Kate‟s wedding took an
interest of many people they decided that this was a perfect theme
to carry out as everyone knows about it and shows interest towards
it. They decided to use Pippa Middleton (Kates Bridesmaid) as the
main focus of the event and use look a likes to represent different
situations the bridesmaid would be in and because the movie was
called bridesmaids this idea fitted in perfectly. This case study uses
a range of different marketing and PR functions to communicate
through to the audience. The first feature, which they have
included, is the market strategy. The first sentence sums up the
objective for the campaign. By including an objective of the
campaign it clear to understand how they are going to carry out the
campaign without releasing too much information. Although that
they didn‟t include much information about the market strategy and
the market analysis it is clear that they researched and came up
with a clear plan of what they wanted to achieve from the outcome
of the event as it was a huge success. I think that the market
strategy of having the theme of Royals is a successful marketing
strategy, as it will interest a large number of the public.
Another marketing function, which has been used during this
campaign, is advertising. As it states that during the event the
media was allowed access to the event to publish articles and
images from the event. This was used as an advertising technique
as it meant that it would raise more awareness of the bridesmaid‟s
movie and eventually increase sales. As it states that the coverage
was released the day of the DVD release and included headlines,
which would grab attention. By doing this it advertised the event
and it also advertise the DVD. Promotional techniques were also
used during this case study. By using an iconic role model this is a
good method of promoting a product, as it will gain attention from a
range of different members of the public, as they will be interested
in the celebrity and be influenced by them. An organisational event
is one of the main functions of PR that this campaign has followed
as they set up an event inviting members of the public and inviting
the media so they can broadcast the event to other members of the
public. By doing this it has drawn attention from the audience and
other members of the public. The event did allow the public to see
the campaign in a different way and allowed them to enjoy the
campaign in a unusual way instead of seeing it on poster
advertisements. By having royal look-a-likes at the campaign this

5. would make the public also feel like royals and they maybe feel
persuaded to buy the DVD. At the end of the event the guests were
given a goody bag. This is also another promotional function used
as they are giving free gifts away with the persuasive message that
they should buy the bridesmaids DVD. From this campaign the
marketing and PR field in which it follows is Media, celebrities and
entertainment. This is because it has used a range of techniques,
which include using celebrities as a way to promote the product and
also allowing the media to be there to photograph and broadcast
the event to the nation. By twisting the story and adding unusual
situations like create a made up scandal of Prince William and Pippa
Middleton this method is entertaining and will grab attention from
the audience and also potentially new customers who are interested
in this event. From using all these different marketing & PR
techniques and functions this marketing campaign was very
successful. With almost 300,000 DVD sales within the first week the
DVD was released allowing the DVD to gain a place in the top 10
best selling DVDs of the year.