100 Do something outrageous

100

DO SOMETHING OUTRAGEOUS

It’s not as easy as it used to be to get into the Guinness Book of Records; they’ve banned all the silly things that might hurt people. But it’s not impossible. There are other things that get you noticed, as well as record breaking.

It’s got to be something that would make people think, “Wow, fancy doing that!” and not “Blimey, that was stupid.”

The idea Sir Richard Branson has carried out a series of publicity generating events. He raced across the Atlantic ocean in his speedboat, the Virgin Atlantic Challenger, to win the Blue Riband speed record in 1986. He and Per Lindstrand were the fi rst people to cross the Atlantic in a hot air balloon.

When he got old enough to pick up his bus pass, he scaled down his adventures a little and has had a couple of disasters, such as crashing into a wall while abseiling down a hotel building and tipping himself and his beautiful passenger off a jet ski into a Las Vegas lake. He also had to abandon his 2008 Atlantic crossing in a yacht named Virgin Money, at about the same time as when the recession kicked in.

The story of one of the most outrageous acts was made into a fi lm, Calendar Girls, and changed the image of the Women’s Institute forever. One Yorkshire branch of the WI modelled for their own calendar, naked except for strategically placed tea, cakes and

fl ower arrangements, to raise money for leukaemia research. Lush once held the record for the world’s largest soap.

In practice • Make it a team effort, rather than a solo performance. Get your people involved. That way, even if it goes pear-shaped it will have been good to take part. • Choose something that will fi t beautifully with your brand values. It doesn’t have to be dangerous. If you aren’t an outrageous organisation, you could organise a knitting festival, or the world’s largest yoga class. It doesn’t have to break a record, just get noticed. • Raising funds for a good cause at the same time will help to get media coverage, at the same time as doing something positive.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarah McCartney is a writer and brand strategist. After studying too much maths, she worked in the analytical side of advertising, moved into marketing at the Guardian newspaper, left to study for an MA in corporate strategy, then set up Little Max.

When she’s not at her computer she teaches yoga (Iyengar™ Method) and makes her own perfumes, jam, tie-dye T-shirts, jewellery and hand-knitted socks. Her obsessions are good coffee, beautiful stationery, fi ne fragrance, fabulous shoes, reducing landfi ll, saving energy and using things until they wear out.

You can fi nd her at littlemax.co.uk and 4160Tuesdays.com.