Zoopla offers to help Wayne Rooney move to Chelsea in reactive stunt

A simple but effective stunt from Zoopla who offered to help footballer Wayne Rooney move house following Chelsea’s pursuit of the Manchester United player.

The property website parked a moving van outside Old Trafford with a poster that read “Looking for a home in West London Wayne?”

This sort of tongue-in-cheek stunt which reacts to sporting news has been popularised by Paddy Power and widely imitated in various forms, and with varying degrees of success this year.

Although these stunts don’t gain much national attention, they’re particularly useful for providing highly shareable content and in effectively communicating a brand’s understanding of popular culture, and thus enhancing its relatability to consumers. This is what PR is all about, so I think we’ll continue to see a rise in this sort of low-budget but engaging stunt this year.

Thanks to my football-obsessed colleagues for bringing this to my attention.

*Update* The story has since appeared on the Daily Express.

ALL Sport Topical