Heineken’s candidate hunt is PR genius and Bollywood’s mix with cricket is cause for celebration

 27th February 2013    Good and Bad PR 

The Candidate wins Heineken Great PR buzz!
 

This is someone’s dream job. Or the worst ever job interview. But whichever way you look at it, its great PR for the beer brand Heineken. The story is as follows: the company wanted to hire an intern for its Event and Sponsorship Marketing team. The shortlist of candidates, were then put through a hilarious series of events, which included a fainting potential boss and rescuing a stuck employee from a roof during a fire drill!

The eventual winning intern gets to ferry the UEFA (Union of European Football Association) Champion’s League Trophy around the world, in the run up to arriving at Wembley for the Final on May 25^th this year.

In India, Heineken will use the ‘The Candidate’ as a curtain raiser to its UEFA Champions League activation, as a run up to recruiting a Heineken Social Reporter. The winner will get to report on the UEFA Champions League Final weekend for Heineken’s Social Media channels in India.

A big thank you to @bhatiamegha for putting us onto this story for #GreatPR @PRmomentIndia.

A Bollywood Jatka, Matka with IPL Season 6
 

There is Bollywood and then there is cricket. Mix the two up in the same frame and you are bound to get a pretty potent buzz. IPL 2013 kicks off with its “official dance ambassador”, Bollywood film director and choreographer, Farah Khan .

Not that watching cricket in India is ever tame and laid back. But to amp up the excitement even more, Farah Khan is teaching people some dance moves to celebrate sixes (or sixer as it’s called in this part of the world) among other runs:

Will this lead to improving the flattening viewership for IPL? Only time will tell, but like all good Bollywood films with a spot of borrowing from the Bard, perhaps all’s well that ends well!

Coca Cola, NDTV continuing campaign for Support My School is great PR
 

This is a campaign that has been running for a while, since January 2011 to be precise. This is an idea worth taking note of for the neat way it ties in funds from a huge brand like Coca Cola and also UN organisation with an all India media campaign via NDTV.

“Support My School” puts the focus on the importance of water and sanitation in rural and semi rural India. Lack of proper sanitation and toilets in schools are one of biggest reasons for young girls to drop out of school in rural India. This campaign raised both awareness and funds around this issue. Celeb speakers like Aishwarya Rai, herself the mother of a girl child, has gone a long way in helping this campaign gain a profile.

 A much needed campaign for India and much better than what dreary Doordarshan can pull off!

Have you seen any great or even bad PR?
 

Contact Paarul Chand by emailing paarul@prmoment.in or tweet @PaarulC or @PRmomentIndia throughout the week and we’ll happily credit you for your trouble.