Pretzel Crisps Does Public Relations Right

On Monday, I got a knock on my door and opened it to find a woman standing there with a bag full of Pretzel Crisps. I wasn’t surprised, since I knew they were coming sometime this week, but I was all giddy and excited none the less.

Let me share the story…

A few weeks ago, the public relations department of Pretzel Crisps started hand delivering large bags full of their products to bloggers. They didn’t ship them, they didn’t mail coupons, they actually showed up in person at the doorstep and handed over a complimentary bag full of the entire product line. Bloggers I know were tweeting, posting and Instagramming all about it… and I was like, “huh?”

I had never tried Pretzel Crisps. I know, I know… I’ve been hiding under a rock. But seriously, why wasn’t I in tune to a snack product that my kids would probably love (and one that I would probably buy and have to hide deep back in the cupboard)?

I ended up tweeting the company this simple tweet…

And they quickly answered back that I should DM them with my address and they would take care of that. I did. And they did. And the rest is Pretzel Crisp history.

Despite the fact that I’ve now been introduced to a new, very addicting snack… I find the bigger lesson here even more interesting. Pretzel Crisp did something that most companies don’t do… they literally put their product into the hands of consumers. For free. There was no agreement that anyone would talk about it. Or write about it. Or tweet about it. They just wanted everyone to try their delicious snack product. And in doing so… they are organically moving to the head of the line in terms of great PR. And here’s the real kicker… they do ALL their own PR in-house. Who can sell a product better than the employees of the company? Not all PR firms are as invested in a product or brand as the company employees themselves. To them, it’s another job. If you are a business and can handle your own PR and actually do it right? That’s pretty cool.

Pretzel Crisps… you made a fan out of me. And look here… I’m talking about it. Writing about it. Tweeting about it.

YOU ROCK!