Coverage of the Month: Joey Essex and his Golden (Dough) Balls
TOWIE’s very own Joey Essex was used for a savvy and effective photo stunt earlier this month to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the introduction to the menu of the now-famous Dough Balls from PizzaExpress. To promote a competition where a lucky diner will win a genuine, solid golden dough-ball (worth an impressive £5,000) after ordering the classic at one of their restaurants, Joey swapped the fake-tan for a more bling-bling look – turning himself completely gold.
The piece featured shot’s of Joey juggling the doughy delights, along with interviews with the TOWIE mainstay – Joey talked about the competition, his favourite pizza, and his love for dough balls. Now, this isn’t a campaign that is going to win any prizes for it’s stand-out innovation, however, it was a very successful stunt which generated significant branded coverage and was picked up across national and digital outlets and caused a bit of a storm on Twitter. It was a very simple, yet effective stunt that was targeted and strategic; the patronage of Joey – who was fresh off the plane after his exploits on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here – drove interest in the competition and was very successful in raising the profile of the product.
This stunt was carried out by Third City on behalf of PizzaExpress – Gemma Shaw, PR Manager at PizzaExpress said of the activity: “PizzaExpress is famous for its Dough Balls so it made perfect sense to celebrate their 45th anniversary and create some excitement during an otherwise dreary January. To that end, we launched a competition to find two Golden Dough Balls made from solid gold and worth £5,000 each – one for our restaurant guests and one for our supermarket customers. Fresh from his time on I’m a celebrity get me out of here, Joey Essex added fun and personality to the competition by agreeing to be photographed wearing little more than gold paint and a cheeky grin.”
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About the Author: Lorraine Barker
