Article,Cover Story,Dubai,Media/Marketing,The Work,advertising

A drive for publicity


The Mini car rally on Saturday proved that PR events don’t have to be boring affairs packed with presentations and strained small talk


Nov 2nd, 2008  print print    email email   Post a comment Listen to the Article

Public relations events can be very tedious. From the over-zealous PR manager who tries to be ‘friendly’ with you (“let’s do lunch!”) to the drone company manager, who presents his company’s latest ‘achievement’ with as much grace as a susquash can muster, most PR events are downright boring.

But what if a company bypasses the media altogether? What if it doesn’t dine them, throw freebies at them? And instead of focusing its energy on pampering the media, it puts the public at work to do the company’s job?

Yesterday, a Mini city rally organized by AGMC, the UAE’s BMW dealer, put Dubai’s Mini car owners to work. Car owners were organized into teams and told them to drive to destinations in Dubai. At each destination, teams had to complete a challenge in order to receive clues about the final destination (the Dubai Autodrome). It was no coincidence that the organizers called the drivers and their companions ‘agents’.

Throughout the day, Minis raced through the city in tight convoys like packs of tiny, stylish divas. And as car owners met at each destination and complemented each other’s taste in colors and specs (of their Minis, of course), they were entirely oblivious that they were taking part in one of Dubai’s most well organized, and affective PR events.

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