Flash mobs as PR tactics

It is widely agreed among PR practitioners that creativity is one crucial factor determining the effectiveness of an PR campaign. Creative PR tactics can set the news agenda and generate massive coverage for organizations. Lately, a collective behavior has raised the attention of PR practitioners.

First appeared in America 2001, flash mobs usually indicate a group of people communicate online, and gather in a public space to perform some same moves (in a variety of ways such as freezing, dancing, laughing, singing etc.) and disperse into the crowd after the performance. Scholars suggest flash mobs as collective behavior, while individuals regard flash mobs as a way to express their attitude and opinions.  

The potential of flash mobs to empower PR campaigns is obvious. Despite media's thirst for unusual events, flash mobs also leave surprises for the witnesses, and lead them to film and talk about  the event to others. More buzz would be generated through social media nowadays. One of the most successful flash mobs as part of integrated campaigns is T-mobile's "Life if sharing" campaign with a series of flash mobs. 

Our practical blog not only wish to inform you with general knowledge, below is the step-by-step procedure of how we can organize a flash mob with a small flash mob we conducted on Feb 28, 2013.  

Step one: Fix your client and your message to be delivered.

In our case, we took BU Media school as our brand, and came up with "We are telling the stories" as our core message.

Step Two: Develop your performance according to your client and message.

In a less than 5 min flash mob, you cannot present an aesthetically perfect stage show. Instead, choose the simplest way to convey the message. "Storytelling" could be well interpreted through movie scenes. So in our flash mob, we chose three classic scenes with familiar songs to attract and resonate with audiences.

Step Three: Choose an effective time and location for your flash mob.

Flash mobs usually take place in among public crowds, like rail stations, shopping malls, streets, and in the tube. You need to be smart when deciding the time as well to reach a large amount of, and not too crowded audience. The BU Media Mob was set up during lunchtime in BU student refectory.

Step Four: Consolidate security issues and permission of the venue, and tackle technical problems.

Security and legitimacy are the issue PRPs should not forget in every special activity. Appropriate management and prevention the risks is a practical skill. 

We got the permission from the BU refectory manager and borrowed loud speakers from the school department.

Step Five: Communicate with your participants (online).

In traditional flash mobs, participants were mostly volunteers receiving emails from the organizer. In the case of PR campaigns, you need to control the group of people and prevent incidents. So the participants tend to be professionals and pre-organized. Our BU Media Mob took both our classmates and online volunteers, and set up a Facebook page to inform all participants with details of the event.

Check our self-produced video teaching the moves of the BU Media Mob.

Step Six: Keep practicing if you want perfect outcome.

In the case of T-mobile, the professionals practiced for a month to get the final presence. Practice is very much required for a strong, persuasive, and satisfying campaign.

Step Seven: Remember to record and communicate with the public afterwards.

To PR practitioners, the publicity result is the most important outcome of organizing such an event. So you cannot just count on the surprising stunt itself to attract the publics. Follow-up moves will finally decide the effectiveness of the campaign.

Take a look at our BU Media Mob! It is not a perfect one, but it will give you some ideas!