As most of the connected world knows, Paris Hilton was arrested with her boyfriend on August 27, he on misdemeanor DUI charges, she on felony drug possession charges.
In a September 1 tweet to fans, Hilton said: "These rumors going around are so ridiculous, untrue and cruel. I'm not going to even pay attention to them, because I know the truth."
Whatever.
Wait. There's more. What I absolutely love about this story is that a few days later, Wynn Resorts Ltd. spokeswoman Jennifer Dunne told The Associated Press that Hilton is barred from Wynn Las Vegas and Encore.
Real-Time drafting off breaking news
What Dunne did was absolutely brilliant! Now the media has another news hook. That the party girl is "banned" is now a story in its own right. And a huge one. I'd guess that this is the biggest PR bonanza that Wynn has ever received.
Hey, isn't Hilton a hotel heiress? Yikes how delicious a story..
A quick Google news search for Paris Hilton Wynn brings up a remarkable 5,286 stories from news outlets around the globe. Now everyone is talking about Wynn Resorts!
This tactic—finding something that the news media is talking about and then drafting off of it in real-time—is something I talk a lot about in my new book Real-Time Marketing & PR: How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now. Amazon affiliate link. The book releases November 1, 2010.
And it's not just consumer-facing companies that can use this technique. In this post from a few months ago I show how B2B companies can use the same method to own quotes in a breaking story that wasn't even about them in the first place. Real-time blog post gets Eloqua CEO tons of B2B ink.
Is PR dead?
Hell no! PR is not dead. It is alive and well and can be a blast to work in... if you think in real-time.
PS: I've always wanted to do a post about Paris Hilton!
Are we having fun or what?