Okay, Okay, so Christmas may seem a wee way away yet (two hundred days to go, folks!).
But we were already feeling the festive spirit with the UK’s leading toy retailer, Argos as we pulled together a cheeky little story that fired the starting gun on the run-up to the busiest trading period of the year.
With the need for a story over-and-above a list of ten or so toys (interesting, but not that interesting), we declared it 2018 a “Unicorn Christmas” as the list was dominated by the horned rainbow horses that are very much the fantastical beasts of the moment (at least according to the media).
The results were stunning.
We awoke to cracking pieces – including a page three and a couple of full page pieces – across as diverse a range of media as the Daily Star, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, The Sun, METRO. Not a bad national print haul. That was almost immediately joined by a trio of national broadcast pieces as the list found its way onto BBC Breakfast, Lorraine and This Morning – a perfectly splendid clean-sweep of breakfast TV.
Then the nationals came crashing through as stories hit the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, The Sun, Evening Standard, Daily Mirror, iPaper, METRO, HuffPo, Hello, Prima … and went nationwide with a stunner from the PA team.
It’s a good thing when you can tick 250 pieces of coverage and fifteen pieces across national print, broadcast and online off the Christmas “to do list” well ahead of season.