PR Lessons from the Ron Burgundy Blitz

One of my 2014 goals is to surround myself with different voices and perspectives. This will come to fruition in a variety of ways (I hope!), but one of the ways I’d like to do this is through my blog. A couple times a week, I’ll be sharing guest posts from smart, savvy forward-thinking PR, social media and digital marketing pros. We all benefit from hearing varied perspectives and diverse opinions on our ever-evolving field. (Sidenote: If you’re interested in guest-posting, I’d love to hear from you. heather [at] gebencommunication.com)

To kick things off, I’ve asked my friend Jason Sprenger to take a spin writing for the blog. I “met” Jason on Twitter and met (IRL) him at PRSA a couple years ago. Since then, Jason’s become one of my favorite PR pros and a good friend. As the subject of today’s blog post would say, he’s kind of a big deal. Without further adieu …

“I’m very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.” — Ron Burgundy, from the first Anchorman movie

I think we’ve all seen just how important Ron Burgundy is the last few weeks.  Before the release of the second movie, he was EVERYWHERE.  He co-anchored a newscast in Bismarck, N.D.  He announced curling with the Canadian sports network TSN.  He even had the Emerson College Communications School named after him for a day.  These and more antics (read: movie promotional opportunities) captured attention far and wide, made people laugh and very possibly sold a few tickets for a certain new movie that debuted on December 18.

It’s a fascinating case study on entertainment PR and marketing, really.  How does a movie character, of all things, get around so much and drive so much attention? Here are a couple of key reminders I took away from the blitz.

1. Co-branding can really work.  Did anyone see Ron Burgundy’s ads for the 2014 Dodge Durango?  In the first month of the campaign, sales of the SUVs rose 59 percent.  Wow.  If you’re a company looking to boost sales of a new product, or revitalize a brand, there might be no better strategy than hitching your wagon to a hot brand and letting it roll.  Burgundy even called the Durango a terrible car on television, but it didn’t hurt one bit.  I sure hope that Dodge execs gave the person who thought of that idea a promotion.
2. Charisma is just as important – or more – as it’s ever been.  History is full of people whose strong, magnetic personalities galvanized a group of people and moved them to action.  It’s not really fair to compare Ron Burgundy to world leaders, but let’s face it: Will Ferrell is one incredibly talented, funny, intelligent, flexible, passionate, popular performer.  He draws a crowd, and his Ron Burgundy performances are already legendary.  These are all characteristics that make people look, tune in, pay attention – and ultimately become engaged and develop loyalty.  And what happens when consumers are engaged and loyal to a company, brand, product or service?  They buy – and they keep buying.  So how do you sell whatever you have, whatever it is?  Find someone charismatic to tell the world about it.  The marketing team for the sequel brilliantly recognized that its most charismatic asset was Will Ferrell in character, so they came up with a long list of media opportunities and turned him loose.  I think they’re probably pretty happy with the results.  Similarly, how can you improve your odds of success at whatever you do?  Make people laugh, have fun, inject passion and energy and lead by example.  After all, if Ron Burgundy conquered the San Diego news market by doing just that, you can use that formula to win too.

The pre-promotional efforts for Anchorman 2 were as extensive and impressive as any we’ve ever seen. $101 million in domestic grosses [as of January 4] says the movie itself is living up to the hype.

Thanks everyone for reading.  Stay classy.

Jason Sprenger, APR, is the president of Game Changer Communications, a full-service PR agency from Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN.  He’s a seasoned veteran of both agency and corporate PR, a sought-after speaker and PR expert, the current treasurer of Minnesota PRSA, a member of the PRSA Counselors Academy and a blogger himself at The Game Changer. 

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Image via Flickr Creative Commons, Hollywood Junket.