Bizarre requests that clients make
In every PR professional’s career, one always comes across some clients who demand unreasonable collateral(s). These unreasonable demands can be anything from getting their niche brand featured in a Bollywood Movie to collaborating with fashion influencers for free. To give you a sneak peek of such bizarre demands, we asked various PR professionals to share some funny instances wherein their client demanded something really out of the purview of their domain.
1. A kids wear brand wanted to get featured in the fashion magazines
Every brand wants to be featured on the glossy pages of fashion magazines, since they are a sure-shot way of getting wide readership. While it is genuine for a fashion brand to demand this, it is not possible for a kids wear brand to get featured beside a Gucci dress as it is outside the purview of the magazine to feature any product which is not fashion-centric. We knew that the brand can never see themselves in the glossy publications but surely can participate in the meaty stories on the kids wear industry in the country. We got the spokesperson interviewed in many of such stories and managed to salvage the situation.
2. A startup wanted to be seen in Koffee with Karan
Like really, as we all know, Koffee With Karan features the host’s friends and guests (hello nepotism!). Any person outside this elite circle, no matter how stellar his business is, cannot really hope of landing a spot on that coveted couch and land an interview on the show! In this case, the PR professional was direct and got some value-added associations for the brand which made it connect with the consumers, instead of chasing after the moon.
3. Discounts for Valentine’s Day in the serious business papers
The problem in this request was that the fashion accessories brand wanted the exact discount to be featured in the business papers which in turn would have been an out and out promotional activity. On the other hand festival- specific offers need to be clubbed with other brands and then the story is initiated in the lifestyle press. Some of these things are so tough to explain. Sigh!
A serious business writer writing for a financial will write a feature which will entail numbers. The PR salvaged the situation by getting the inputs of the spokesperson of the brand in the industry stories on how the e-commerce portals are cashing upon Valentine’s season but the exact discount could not be featured.
4. Get the products back from the journalist as he/she did not feature it in a story
This is not new especially with brands that are about experiential products. Be it beauty, apparel or food, the client expects to see the brand in the said publication to which the products were shared for the experience. However what the client doesn’t understand is that the journalist is there to experience the product and will feature the product only when he /she thinks it deserves to be seen in the publication. It simply doesn’t work with a gun-to-the-head type situation!
The reasons can be multiple- he/she did not like the product, space crunch, etc. but it is unprofessional to as the product back. Asking for a product back only leads to creating a negative publicity for the brand.
So these were some of the instances shared by our PR friends. Write back to us with some of your funny instances.
