It’s easy to imagine the PR benefits of getting into the Guinness Book of World Records. After all, how fun is it to see someone eat a record amount of hotdogs in three minutes or run the most consecutive miles or harvest the biggest onion in history? The media surely would be interested! Guinness even has a section of its website dedicated to using the records for marketing purposes. 

The truth, however, is it is hard to become a Guinness record-holder. We’ve had many clients go down this road through the years. First, they (and we!) get excited about an idea (longest ribbon cutting, most candles on a birthday cake, biggest disco party, you name it), and then we find out how challenging the feats actually are to accomplish, how precise the rules are and how much you have to pay Guinness to certify the record (tens of thousands of dollars). We have abandoned many fun ideas out of practicality. 

So when a nonprofit organization came to us earlier this year to promote its attempt at the longest softball game in history, and they had already committed and signed the paperwork with Guinness, we were thrilled. Finally, we would get to do PR for a Guinness Book of World Records record!

Did it live up to our expectations? 

The answer is… yes! 

MOST stands for Men Opposing Sex Trafficking. Founder Bruce Deel, perhaps best known as the founder of City of Refuge, started MOST to empower men to help stop human trafficking and support victims.

Deel organized the first softball attempt in April. Though the group didn’t make it long enough to beat the record due to injuries, we secured extensive media coverage, created compelling content for social media and raised money. So from a PR standpoint, and a fundraising standpoint, the attempt itself was a win.

Deel decided to try again, this time with more players and better preparation. We reached out to our contacts in the media, hoping they would find this second-attempt story as compelling as we did. We also convinced MOST to add a livestream. (Pro tip: If you decide to go after a Guinness record, do a livestream. Journalists loved it.)

Deel and his team of volunteers ultimately broke the world record last week, playing softball non-stop for five straight days. As adjudicated by Michael Emprick from Guinness World Records, the new standard set by MOST is 120 hours and 59 minutes. Players were required to sleep in shifts by the dugouts, have all their meals in immediate proximity to the field and could only step away for five-minute bathroom breaks once every two hours. Organizers estimate over 800 energy drinks were consumed, 200 chiropractic adjustments were delivered, 100 ice baths were taken and 80 massages were given.

From a PR standpoint, it was an absolute homerun. By working hard to create a good experience for journalists, we secured massive local media coverage, and the stories were picked up in 102 markets across the country. In total, we count 350 television stories reaching more than 7 million viewers. This Atlanta News First story is one of my favorites.

We also took over the social media feeds for MOST. Our content has been viewed more than 130,000 times with more than 40,000 engagements. One of our Instagram reels got more than 30,000 views. MOST added hundreds of new followers, which means more people will be engaged with this relatively young nonprofit and its important content going forward. 

The softball game ultimately raised more than $500,000 for MOST, as well as a lot of awareness.

So do I recommend you go after a Guinness record? Maybe. It is indeed a big commitment that requires a lot of effort by a lot of people (just ask the guys who played softball for days on end), but the PR payoff can be huge if you know how to leverage it.