September 25, 2000
Case Study

How the UK's DeskDemon.com Used Scantily-Clad Males to Generate Press Interest

SUMMARY: No summary available.
CHALLENGE
DeskDemon.com is a newly launched service for office management professionals which, says Marketing Manager Anne Roberts, “offers secretaries, PA's and office managers a facility to work faster and more efficiently in their day to day work”. Hence, we presume, the name. Prior to launch, DeskDemon.com were particularly keen to attract the interest of the press in order to promote general awareness of the site and what it has to offer. PR agency Band and Brown Communications decided that, with a name like DeskDemon, the best approach to take would be a lighthearted one...

CREATIVE

Two male models were hired to visit the offices of certain target publishing houses in London wearing nothing but skimpy red shorts, little devil’s horns, and a smile (!). The publications targeted were appropriate to DeskDemon’s predominantly female audience: offline - Ms London, Girl about Town, Nine to Five, New Woman Magazine, and online - Charlotte Street, Beme and New Woman Online.

The boys distributed energy drinks branded with the DeskDemon logo – thus becoming affectionately known as “the DeskDemon Break Boys” – and handed out press releases. And, just to make sure that the message REALLY got through, the boys were “branded” themselves – right across their bare chests, naturally!

RESULTS
Generally speaking, Anne Roberts tells us that the reaction to the DeskDemon Break Boys was very positive. “The boys brought smiles to lots of faces, and they were very well received,” she says. “One editor was seen to be stroking the chest of one of the boys - she was obviously quite taken with them!!”

What about press coverage? Well, the press release that the boys delivered contained a story detailing how today’s PA’s are better-qualified than their bosses. This story appeared across broadcast media nationwide (with reference to DeskDemon, of course). A number of editorial pieces have been published in Ms London, and coverage in New Woman is due shortly.

COST
Of course, it’s difficult to gauge how much impact the exercise had on site registrations but, since the whole affair cost less than £2,500 to stage, DeskDemon consider it “very cost effective”.

NOTES
Says Anne Roberts, “it was very successful, as DeskDemon is now firmly imprinted into the minds of the journalists concerned, thanks to the DeskDemon boys. We’re now considering re-running the exercise in another form, where people can win a visit from the DeskDemon boys, or the chance to send them to a friend.”

Improve Your Marketing

Join our thousands of weekly case study readers.

Enter your email below to receive MarketingSherpa news, updates, and promotions:

Note: Already a subscriber? Want to add a subscription?
Click Here to Manage Subscriptions