Whether what took place outside Manchester town hall this lunchtime was a Flashmob or not is something of a moot point.
The accepted definition involves “assembling suddenly, performing an unusual act and then dispersing quickly”.
Today’s pyjama clad group certainly performed an unusual act by stretching and flexing around Albert Square (see the video here) but the formation of the group was carefully choreographed earlier in the day – all in the name of a good cause, to launch St Ann’s Hospice annual midnight walk.
About 50 people braved the cold to meet up at Manchester Central this morning after learning about the event via social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, here’s why some of them wanted to get involved.
See more video interviews from the day here and here.
To sign up to support the Midnight Walk taking palce in the city on June 12th visit the St Ann’s Hospice page here. If you took part in today’s event please let us know what you thought and send in links to your pictures, videos or any other content below.
Dim Sum Digital 
Not a flashmob at all, LOL
If you rehearse and set it up via a PR agency then its just called a stunt. Especially as it is a promotional event. It does not even look like a mob, is that only about 40 people with numbers on? Very odd.
Commendable to raise money, but this was only to raise awareness for another event, odd. I hope they didnt waste too much of the charity money on it?
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Not a flashmob at all, LOL
If you rehearse and set it up via a PR agency then its just called a stunt. Especially as it is a promotional event. It does not even look like a mob, is that only about 40 people with numbers on? Very odd.
Commendable to raise money, but this was only to raise awareness for another event, odd. I hope they didnt waste too much of the charity money on it?
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I was there in the crowd at Albert Square and it looked like a lot of fun. I’ll sign-up!
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I was there in the crowd at Albert Square and it looked like a lot of fun. I’ll sign-up!
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I helped set this up and of course it was a publicity stunt to promote one of the most important events St Ann’s Hospice does each year.
However, I would say, to the onlooker, it was a Flashmob – they certainly were surprised and intrigued as to what was happening and once the flashmobbers left, we then handed out leaflets to promote the event.
In terms of costs – we recruited via Facebook and Twitter and the costs were pretty much the time involved to send messages, promote to students and collect people’s details.
I can definitely recommend using a PR Agency for promotion of an event such as our Midnight Walk. Golley Slater PR give us 50% pro bono and in 2007 our return on investment was over 3,000%!
In fact we try not to focus on return on investment – the net profit last year was £175,000 (the previous year was £75,000). This year we are hoping to raise around £200,000 but in credit crunch times, we need to recruit even more walkers to raise just a little bit of sponsorship each.
If anybody would like to know more about the event – please email me at cwilliams@sah.org.uk
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I helped set this up and of course it was a publicity stunt to promote one of the most important events St Ann’s Hospice does each year.
However, I would say, to the onlooker, it was a Flashmob – they certainly were surprised and intrigued as to what was happening and once the flashmobbers left, we then handed out leaflets to promote the event.
In terms of costs – we recruited via Facebook and Twitter and the costs were pretty much the time involved to send messages, promote to students and collect people’s details.
I can definitely recommend using a PR Agency for promotion of an event such as our Midnight Walk. Golley Slater PR give us 50% pro bono and in 2007 our return on investment was over 3,000%!
In fact we try not to focus on return on investment – the net profit last year was £175,000 (the previous year was £75,000). This year we are hoping to raise around £200,000 but in credit crunch times, we need to recruit even more walkers to raise just a little bit of sponsorship each.
If anybody would like to know more about the event – please email me at cwilliams@sah.org.uk
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