I’m sure we’ve all received presents at Christmas that didn’t quite hit the mark. Perhaps you didn’t like it; already had it; or just decided you didn’t need it! Whatever the reason for deciding not to keep a gift, the question is what to do with it next?
As a B2B PR agency, one of the tools we frequently use when we need to understand public opinion to support one of our customer’s stories is to conduct a survey, and this just what we did for this campaign! We surveyed 200 consumers to find out what they do with their unwanted gifts as part of a campaign on Christmas buying trends for our client, Wax Digital, an eprocurement software specialist.
The survey showed that:
- 37% of consumers will regift their present to someone else after Christmas.
- While 50% will sell their unwanted gifts for cash or give them to charity.
Survey results collected and verified, we then wrote a series of press releases featuring a number of different angles specifically targeting certain sectors of the press.
Retail spend over the Christmas period is well documented in the press and as a result, column inches are fiercely fought over, therefore persistence was key to making the press sit up and pay attention to our story.
After lots of pitching to the national press we eventually struck gold and our story was picked up by The Telegraph and the article featured both online and in print. It appeared three days after Christmas so was perfectly timed to resonate with readers who were in the midst of deciding on what to do with their unwanted gifts.
An article in The Telegraph was a great way to round off a successful year of PR for client Wax Digital. But no rest for us busy Skouts, it’s now time to finalise plans for our campaigns for this year.
Alex Brown has just started his career at Skout PR and will be a regular contributor to the Skout blog.
