Roman Maslennikov - Explosive PR. Secrets of Outrageous PR-Stunts from Russia with Love for Positive News

After I sent a press release, I first had a call from Russia 1 TV channel, the Call Center program, which was later rewarded for “finding” a cool storyline. This call was followed by two others. A day later, we had an international fallout:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/rosebuchanan/he-just-wants-to-forage-in-trash-let-him-live?utm_term=.awK3zw3L8#.rl0BLlBM8

“Russian zoo sues advertising firm for ‘traumatizing’ rented raccoon in erotic photo shoot.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/16/russian-zoo-sues-advertising-firm-traumatising-rented-raccoon/

“This Raccoon Is Extremely Uncomfortable with Being Featured in A Naked Video Ad”

http://collegecandy.com/2017/03/17/thomas-raccoon-naked-ad-art-msk-animals-arent-toys-zoo-details/

“Traumatized Russian Raccoon in Erotic Video Scandal”!

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/traumatized-russian-raccoon-in-erotic-video-scandal/

“Russian zoo sues ad agency for using raccoon in ‘erotic’ shoot.”

https://www.rt.com/viral/381057-raccoon-scandal-video-shoot/

http://www.euronews.com/2017/03/16/moscow-zoo-sues-after-nude-raccoon-photoshoot

My friends from the art-msk.ru video studio visited by 100 users a day, on average, recorded a sharp surge: they had 1,000 visits first, then 6,000, then 15,000, and then their meters stopped counting, baffled by mounting figures.

This was not the end of the story, though. The video studio filed a counter lawsuit against the zoo because their “profligate” raccoon mangled the actress’ lingerie. That news was not such an astounding success, even though it featured in about 10 national periodicals.

It did not even occur to the readership of BuzzFeed this was just a PR stunt:

How did my friends from the video studio and their friends from the contact zoo benefit from that action, besides promoting their web sites and global publicity? Plenty of fun and, hopefully, new clients, though this was not their top priority, I believe. All for the sake of the case and victory! I like the happy eyes of clients who look as if they just experienced an orgasm, while these were “just” publications.

Who’s So Cocky There?

Let’s meet each other!

My name is Roman Maslennikov, I am director of the PR agency Prostor PR & Consulting 2. I have degrees in sociology and philosophy, but my primary vocation is journalism – I made some income as a journalist while at school when I wrote an article about the night spots in my home city, Tver. The editorial office long refused to accept the article, claiming it was advertising. I told them: “If this were advertising, I’d praise all the bars, clubs, and restaurants or bash them, showing their pros and cons.” I essentially promoted the night lifestyle without being aware of it. They paid me 50 rubles ($5 in 1998) for the article.

I’ve been engaged in PR since 2002 (organization of parties in night clubs and DJ booking). Since 2004, I’ve promoted one small translation agency in Moscow. We are still collaborating, and now this company is among the top-5 leaders of its industry. Since 2006, I’ve been running my own PR agency. For six years, I was doing what I call “classic PR”, organizing press conferences, press tours, and getting limelight for my clients in leading business periodicals like Forbes, Dengi, Vedomosti and others. One day, I realized I was bored and thought of leaving PR for good. But then a client came my way, who wanted something special, something off the charts, some non-trivial PR campaign.

I did not know what I was being drawn into, but I agreed to give it a try.

Normally, my clients are startups in different fields of business. The first client of this sort was a representative office of the investment firm Botanoo in Russia. They traded in carbon credits. I still don’t fully understand what carbon credits are, but we attracted a long line of people to their doors in central Moscow.

Then I was ordered a sensational opening by Moscow’s most expensive bath house in Moscow, Tazik Club. We came up with a crash of five limos, with their logo painted on all of the sideboards.

Despite a major holiday, plane crash, and saturated political agenda, our news ranked sixth in the top-10 daily news, according to the YandexNews search engine 2 2 https://news.yandex.ru/ .

Then we “kidnapped” a model who wanted to win renown.

Three days later she was a recognizable personality.

When our fourth resounding promo event was a success, I realized I had groped for an efficient technology.

We did an excellent job promoting a new coupon site for two days, selling indulgences at a discount. The stunt lasted until doomsday by the Maya calendar 3 3 http://tinyurl.com/shock-pr89 .

Their web site traffic rose from 1,000 to 10,000 visits and remained at that level for a week.

The PR success of my clients convinced me to give up on “classic PR campaigns” in favor of “explosive PR”. I had an amazing revelation: – you didn’t only spend money on PR (advertising or marketing) but also earned it via PR.

Our sizzle reel was uploaded on YouTube, which was freely made by a TV channel. The reel is an exposure of our promo event in a fur shop. We deliberately arranged a striptease of a hapless salesgirl who allegedly misunderstood the terms of the promo event and stripped naked to the waist for the customer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ1ybIkPQrs

I played the role of that customer. In those days, I could be in the public eye without arousing suspicions. Now I am not involved in promo events unless I promote myself, because now people may say we know this is a PR man, so something must be wrong here.

The story ended with a showy phrase: “Our fantasy becomes your reality.”

True: we do not lie, we are daydreaming.

How A News Hook Became a New Business and Caused a Stir in Moscow

And here’s how our newsworthy information not only become real news but also launched new lines of business.