Total Eclipse of the PR Heart

Yesterday was an exciting day around the country with #eclipse2017. There were some big PR wins that came with it and some brands that took full advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  In fact, Adweek even had an article, Eclipse 2017: See All the Kooky, Silly Ways Brands Are Trying to Cash In, that listed brands that were trying to “win” with the eclipse. While there were some wins listed, I have written quite a few blog posts, including May the PR Force Be With You and The Bandwagon PR of Pokémon Go, that both discussed making sure your brand image and strategy fits into the current “theme of the day/week” and not just jumping on the bandwagon because everyone else is doing it. It must make sense for your brand to be involved.
That being said, in my opinion here are some of the biggest wins of #Eclipse2017

• The Great American Eclipse – The eclipse could only be seen in the United States (with the proper eyewear of course) and let’s be real, we could really use a win right now!
• Bonnie Tyler & Royal Caribbean – I mean who knew that she was still singing? But a pretty cool move from both Tyler and Royal Caribbean for her to sing her most popular song “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” (along with Joe Jonas’ band DNCE – side note who knew that Joe Jonas was in the band DNCE?) on the “Total Eclipse Cruise” on Oasis of The Seas.
• Joseph, Missouri – Apparently this was one of the locations in the U.S. where the eclipse could be seen the “best” and the longest, and Missouri did a great job capitalizing on this.
• Midwestern University – Bringing this a little closer to home, Midwestern’s optometry program gave away 2,000 free solar eclipse glasses to get individuals into the Eye Institute on the university campus (Abbie’s parents took a ride over there last week to pick up two pairs).
• Glasses – And finally the glasses themselves are for sure winning. Who knows how many glasses were actually sold, but Abbie had to visit multiple locations that were all sold-out before she had to special order them for our office.

Were there any others that you thought were big PR wins?