25 October 2017

The Press Release Parade: Halloween Personality Profiling

Has it been this long? 

28 July 2011
The Press Release Parade
imageI’m on the list.

That doesn’t make me special by any standards. Press Releases are like virtual confetti nowadays.

Nowadays still applies. Astoundingly stupid stuff is still sent to me.

For entertainment purposes only, every so often I’m going to feature the silliest ones.  They’re so silly I don’t even have to comment. Here’s the first in a series (with pics inserted by me):

HCCan the Apps on Your Phone Predict What Your Halloween Costume Says About You?
Hi Chuck--
I'm writing to suggest a Halloween story idea for Advertising to Baby Boomers on new survey tech that can predict what your costume says about your personality.

HC4Consider this:
There are 11 personality types (or personas)—and each one maps to a different Halloween costume.

That's according to a new study by *******,  the world’s foremost mobile survey company—which used persona targeting to explore the relationship between Halloween costumes and personality. Its tech looks at the apps survey respondents have on their phones—and identifies their persona based on that information.

HC2So, what does your Halloween costume say about your personality?

HALLOWEEN PERSONALITY SURVEY
***** surveyed 1,000 Americans about their Halloween costumes and used its persona capability to match them to personality type. Note that each respondent can have more than one persona.

Image result for vintage superhero costumeCOSTUME 1: SUPERHERO
53% of respondents planning to dress as a superhero are the "musicfan" persona type (i.e. they listen to music and follow music news). "Gamers" (19%) are least likely to dress as a superhero.
 
imageCOSTUME 2: POP CULTURE RELATED
45% of people whose Halloween costumes are inspired by pop culture are the "value shopper" persona type (i.e. like to organize shopping lists and search for discounts). "Entertainment enthusiasts" (43%) are also likely to dress as pop culture icons.
(Note: That’s a Beatle.)
 
imageCOSTUME 3: POLITICIAN
There's a 43% chance people who don this costume are the "sportsfan." The "traveler" persona (39%) is also likely to dress as a politician.
 
HC5COSTUME 4: ANIMAL
38% of people dressing as an animal for Halloween are "socialites." "Sportsfans" (15%) are least likely to dress as an animal.
 
COSTUME 5: HISTORICAL FIGURE
Survey says: 51% of Americans dressing as a historical figure are "musicfans." "Productivity boosters" (41%) are also likely to dress as a historical figure.
 
For more information on *****  ability to target 11 personas in market research surveys, I'm happy to schedule an interview with ******* CEO ******. He is available for interviews by phone, email, or Skype until October 31.
 
Best,
********
Publicist, PR Hacker


I’m giving him a call November 1st.

More PR shenanigans from the past:

02 November 2011
The Press Release Parade Marches On

19 July 2013
Do PR outfits vet press releases anymore?

And something about the silliness of personality profiling:

17 January 2007
Baby Boomers and The Joy of Tech: Part Two
… There are better ways of slicing and dicing cohorts from raw data than with dubious personality profiling. Such segmentation ends up being an admixture of astrology, psychobabble, and voodoo…

* The kid with the tail is yours truly.