The Economist’s new campaign is a joy to read and the Mahindra Reva e2o’s PR is electric

 14th March 2013    Good and Bad PR 

Great PR
 

The Economist social media campaign takes everybody back to the joy of reading
 

Remember the first time you heard a story? The joy of plunging into an imaginative new world. The Economist is currently running a very creative campaign for India where readers can create their own little story about the joy of reading and also take thanks the person who introduced them to the world of books. Take a look at some of the favourite stories in this video. Our favourite? Rohan thanking his grandmother for introducing him to The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

The sheer range of favourite books mentioned is fascinating from Tintin to Asterix from Pinocchio to Amar Chitra Katha and Rudyard Kipling to Thomas Hardy.

Intelligent way to link the values of reading to our first memories of books by The Economist. A huge thanks to @InaBansal for alerting us to this campaign.

Mahindra Reva’s PR is electric for Mahindra e2o
 

In the run up to the launch of its next generation of electric car, the e2o, on the 18th of March, the automaker has come up with a truly clever way to engage with the audience. Dubbed the Ask movement Mahindra Reva connects the need for an environment friendly car with the inherent human desire to ask questions for a better future.

People can now come up with their own and upload their own “Asks” video starring themselves and their friends. Creating and sharing these videos make them eligible for a chance to win the e2o car.

So far over 2,000 questions has been asked, the greater the people participating, features of the car are unlocked. This tactic is a bit similar to a contest we have previously discussed where tourism authority, Visit Norway, asked people to submit their best scream to unlock prizes including a trip to Norway.

The Mahindra Reva e20 is a smart campaign with the right mix of creative stakeholder engagement and tie in with the brand values of the product.

Indian Army reaches out via Twitter
 

The Indian Army is the world’s largest volunteer standing army in the world. Filled with rich traditions and a lifestyle unique to military stations all over the world, the much respected Indian Army has now takes a step towards civvy street by getting itself a Twitter handle @adgpi. The Indian Army has traditionally been very shy of the social media with firm clampdowns on its officers going online. As per this story, in January 2012 the Indian Army banned all its officers from a social media presence.

Now with the Indian Army officially going on Twitter, this can emerge as a interesting and modern PR exercise for one of the most respected institutions in the country. The army has already received some good advice from Twitter star and minister Shashi Tharoor that the Twitter handle should have name Indian Army in it , rather than the pedantic @adgpi.

A quick look at the tweets also shows that the tweets are a bit to immersed in the army universe, plenty of scope for creating a real connect for an institution and its many supporters .

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.