Waterstones turned an embarrassing situation in to a fabulous and reactive PR move! American tourist, David Willis, was browsing in the Trafalgar Square branch of Waterstones when the staff closed the shop at 9pm and left him locked inside!
On realising his predicament and seeking help from the outside world, to no avail, the resourceful American tweeted the store’s social media team. The tweet went viral and the hashtag #WaterstonesTexan began trending world wide.
After David was freed from the bookstore, Airbnb, the holiday rental company, used twitter to suggest to Waterstones that it hosted a sleepover as part of Airbnb's 'Night-In' initiative - a book-lovers dream, surely?!
Waterstones agreed to hosting a sleepover on Friday 24th October at its flagship store in Piccadilly! How Brilliant is that?!
A competition opened, attracting over 1000 entrants, offering 10 lucky winners (and a friend) the chance to sleep in the Picadilly Waterstones. Each applicant was asked which book they would read on the night, and why, if they were to find themselves locked in the bookshop.
But the conversation on Twitter wasn't just between Waterstones, Airbnb and 'would be' participants... Innocent Smoothies, Graze and Weetabix also joined the conversation, agreeing to supply food and drinks at the world's first 'book worm' sleepover!
Airbnb’s ‘Night In’ initiative seeks to unlock places around the world where it has not been thought of as places to spend the night. In August, for example, Airbnb offered people in Australia the chance to spend a night in three rooms in an IKEA store... Maybe this calls for a follow up blog post?
But the conversation on Twitter wasn't just between Waterstones, Airbnb and 'would be' participants... Innocent Smoothies, Graze and Weetabix also joined the conversation, agreeing to supply food and drinks at the world's first 'book worm' sleepover!Airbnb’s ‘Night In’ initiative seeks to unlock places around the world where it has not been thought of as places to spend the night. In August, for example, Airbnb offered people in Australia the chance to spend a night in three rooms in an IKEA store... Maybe this calls for a follow up blog post?
Here's the statement from Rik Mcshane, Waterstones' retail director:
"We were overwhelmed by the support on social media for David Willis when he was unfortunately locked in our Trafalgar Square bookshop last Thursday. So, when Airbnb got in touch we leapt at the chance to give them what they asked for, with the promise that we’d let them out first thing in the morning." - Rik McShane, Waterstones’ retail director.
(Nice taking of a PR opportunity there, Rik!)
0 comments:
Post a Comment