5 tips for creating a successful PR campaign

03 Aug, 2017

Ever wondered what makes a PR campaign successful?

Be Unique:

Come up with your own ideas that other people haven’t done. It is important to bring something fresh and new to the table when creating your campaign which is going to grab people’s attention and get them interested in what you are advertising. People love to be shocked, surprised and excited, so think along these lines. Imagine what you would want to see and what you would find interesting. The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign from Coca Cola is a great example of a campaign which increased brand awareness. The company encouraged consumers to purchase personalised Coke bottles to give to their friends and families, making them feel as though the brand was catered specifically to them. Consumers were also given the option to order the classic glass Coca Cola bottle online, personalised with a name of their choice, which resulted in over 730,000 being personalised online. This was such a successful campaign because it allowed consumers to feel a connection to the brand. When seeing a bottle of Coke in the shop with your name on, you would feel excited and you knew you ‘just had to buy it’.

Know your outcome

Know what you want from your campaign. Do you aim to shock people? Perhaps to get people excited for a new product that you are introducing? Whatever it may be, it is important to start with ‘why’. Why are you doing it? Why do you want to do it in this way? These are the sorts of questions which will create a stable foundation for your campaign. Nescafe based their ‘Hello Bench’ campaign on the idea that they wanted to start shortening distances between people and allow them to ‘spark a real connection’. The ‘sensor bench’ was exhibited during the Salone de Mobile in Milan earlier this year, and aimed to bring people closer together over a cup of coffee. The bench cleverly became shorter or longer depending on how many people were sitting on it, thus literally bringing people closer together. This was a successful PR campaign because it was very unique and because Nescafe had a goal in mind which they were able to build the idea upon.

Know your target market

You should create your campaign for your target audience. Know who is interested in your brand and cater the campaign to them. Once you have an idea of who your customers are and what will interest them, you can start coming up with ideas for your campaign. The McDonald’s chain in Spain created their own WiFi network by changing the signals name into a message offering customers discounts and offers. Not only did this increase the number of customers in the chain, but it also stopped a problem the franchise was having with nearby restaurants using their free WiFi. This was a clever move on McDonald’s part as people of all ages use WiFi, particularly students and young people who are looking for fast, affordable food and are always on the hunt for discounts and offers.

Get ‘tech savvy’

Technology has become an essential part of creating and promoting a successful PR campaign. You can’t get very far without using social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The first step is to make sure you are using all of these platforms to promote your brand, with a Twitter account, Instagram account and a Facebook page. Not only is everyone using social media, but mobile apps are becoming increasingly popular. Once you have increased your brand awareness, you can team up with different apps to help promote your brand even further. Recently, Lyft (a popular app allowing you to book a shared taxi journey) teamed up with food franchise Taco Bell to introduce ‘Taco Mode’. This feature allows users of the app to book a stop at a Taco Bell restaurant on their way home, which has proven very popular after a night out! This is a great PR campaign for both Lyft and Taco Bell, as everybody loves a quirky app feature and by creating a brand partnership, the two companies have been able to double their customer reach. It is also highly likely that more people in the US are now choosing to use Lyft over Uber, its direct competitor.

Reach out to bloggers

Reaching out to bloggers is a great way to promote as they can push your brand out to sometimes thousands of followers, which is an easy and efficient way to increase awareness of your product or business. Bloggers can be found on a number of social media platforms such as Twitter and Pinterest, and will often have an email address on their profile or website for brands to contact them regarding collaborations. Most companies will work with bloggers at some point as they are experts in promoting your brand and usually for a reasonable price. Innocent regularly work with bloggers to promote their brand and most recently the company invited bloggers to plant seeds with their children to promote the seeds which were being given away in smoothie packs – a campaign known as ‘Sow & Grow’. The company had seen huge business growth since increasing communications with mums and kids, so decided to run this campaign with a focus on mother-child bonding through planting seeds. A large number of bloggers were involved in this successful campaign, and would have pushed the Sow & Grow idea out to thousands of people.