PRWeek reports on the outstanding PR initiative by the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania to host an Office party. No, I mean The Office. NBC’s show. A party for the show. The Office Convention runs this weekend, October 26-28. Headline:
“Fans of NBC’s The Office will descend upon Scranton, PA, for a weekend of activities, thanks to a grassroots effort by the citizens of the former coal-mining town-turned Dunderhead hot spot.”
This is a great coup for the small city of Scranton. A native Pennsylvanian myself, I have a soft spot for the PA lifestyle – as well as the Wilkes-Barre Scranton baby Penguins, of course. Sidenote: I just saw on the WBS Penguins website that Brian Baumgartner (Kevin) and Angela Kinsey (Angela) are attending Friday’s game. That rocks.
The PRWeek story has a minimal coverage on how the city of Scranton pulled this off, although they cover many of the details of what was done. It’s an outstanding idea, pulling together so many organizations from the tourism board to the NBC network. I’d love more information on this. Maybe I’ll get someone to give me The Rundown after the event.
Other towns have done the same thing. Oakley, Kansas hosted Jerichon, during which they renamed their town Jericho for a weekend in honor of the fictional town Jericho (for which the CBS show ‘Jericho’ is named). Oakley rests at the intersections of I-70, Hwy 40 and Hwy 83 – almost exactly where Jericho is said to lie. [disclosure: BTR takes credit for pushing that movement to keep Jericho on the air, case study here. Jerichon had a BlogTalkRadio day in our honor that opening day.]
Wikipedia even mentions that Northern Exposure fans descended upon Roslyn, WA, the filming grounds of fictional Cicely, Alaska, for Moosefest.
So my point is that with a great idea, cities and towns featured prominently in television shows can really take advantage of that notoriety and generate some tourism revenue. A good campaign, some good communication and some vibrant outreach to rabid fans could be key. Anyone else have any examples of these events? Event management is a unique beast, would love to hear some stories.
Filed under: Event Management, Public Relations | Tagged: scranton, television, The office |
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Luke Armour - Digital Marketing and Public Relations Observations, Commentary, Frivolity 
How fascinating! I wonder who came up with the idea for the convention, the television network or Scranton. I’ve heard of movies hosting premiers and events similar to this. Most recently, The Simpson’s Movie held a contest this summer to determine which Springfield (I believe there are 13 states with a Springfield) would show the movie premier first.
Scranton should put on a citywide scavenger hunt for contestants to win The Office memorabilia. Maybe local businesses and restaurants could use this as an opportunity to have a special promotion or sale.
Personally, I would have loved to have gone to the Northern Exposure Moosefest!
[…] by Luke Armour on February 16, 2008 Many moons ago I posted about a PRWeek article involving a great initiative by the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania to host […]