Examples of public relations campaigns

Reporters always need someone to comment on the latest news and often the perfect source is working for a company or organization that needs publicity. Meanwhile, savvy organizations will do their part to reach out both to traditional media and online publications. There are many examples of public relations from the CEO being interviewed on a national newscast to a local non-profit volunteer speaking on a podcast about an upcoming fundraiser.

Good examples of public relations campaigns are those that strengthen the brand and grow it by getting people talking. They should be memorable and engaging. As campaigns progress, the organizations should be able to measure success in terms of phone calls, web hits, conversions and social media engagement.

This could be accomplished through:

• Simple and provocative messaging
• Opportunity for public engagement
• Examples of effective public relations

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

One of the most memorable campaigns was the ALS ice bucket challenge. At its height, it had thousands of people from your next-door neighbour to company CEOs and celebrities dumping buckets of ice on their heads to raise money for charity. This campaign was brilliant because it maximized the impact of social media and solved a problem for the organization. Among charitable causes ALS had a low profile prior to this campaign.

Messaging

Good PR messaging will:

• Establish your brand
• Define your primary offer
• Explain why it’s different or unique

The message should be simple and concise. The person receiving the press release or pitch shouldn’t have to search for the main point. Set it out in the beginning, preferably in the first sentence. The messaging should also convey why the issue will interest the audience. Learn who the demographic of the publication or broadcast is and determine how your story relates to them.

In a marketing environment, you might make subjective statements that appeal to the audience’s emotions. These statements don’t always require facts and figures though sometimes companies will back them up with statements like “1 in 10 dentists recommend…” In a public relations environment, this proof becomes more important when crafting your message.

Making statements like the “only company that can” or the “best solution for” is not necessarily the best way to craft a public relations campaign because these types of statements are hard to prove. Reporters and editors will expect you to stick to the facts. If your story isn’t interesting enough based strictly on facts, it may not be worthy of a pitch. As well, if the statements being made in your campaign would apply equally to anyone of your competitors, it may not be worth pursuing.

In fact, if your message sounds like an advertisement, it will lose credibility. Avoid any “marketing speak” if you can. Similarly, the audience for a press release isn’t interested in your writing skills. Don’t attempt to impress with flowery language or evocative descriptions.

Some things you might want to include in your pitch are:

• Statistics
• Demographic information
• Figures
• Facts
• Financial information
• Costs
• Comparisons
• Quotes
• Testimonials

The information you provide should back up the claims you are making in your press release.

Storytelling

Common themes in fiction also make for great stories in real life. Journalists are interested in conflict, which doesn’t necessarily mean being at war. Conflict happens within ourselves, with others and with society at large. We can conquer disease, limitation, societal expectations and competitors. If your story involves identifying a problem and then overcoming it, it will have a strong narrative arc that will attract interest. Think about the narrative arc of the business or an activity of the business:

• How did the business overcome obstacles?
• How did the founder overcome obstacles?
• How have you helped a client through your product or service?
• Do you run a charitable or advocacy campaign that has helped someone or a group of people?

Timeliness

A PR representative will be on top of the news and be able to relate your issues to what is currently happening. You could draw from politics, industry news or entertainment depending on the nature of your business or the story you want to tell.

Positivity

Make your message about how you can solve problems, not about how bad your competitors are or how the government is screwing up everything. If you are reacting to a government announcement that could harm your industry, propose solutions, don’t just criticize.

Keep it simple

Don’t pack too many messages into one press release. Focus on one main message. Every detail you provide should support that message. Don’t go over one page unless it’s absolutely necessary for legal or regulatory reasons. If you need to make a longer report, write an actual report and attach it separately. Use your press release to point out the highlights of the report.

Choose your audience

You may have multiple audiences:

• Clients
• Funders
• Donors
• Investors
• Employees
• Job seekers

Choose your audience before you write your press release. Who do you want to reach and why?

Engaging the public

In this day and age, it is not necessary to limit your public relations strictly to traditional media. You can create messages that resonate with the public and post them on social media. You can start discussions with people about the issues you are promoting. You can encourage them to sign up for a newsletter on the issue, fill out a survey, perform a simple action to show support or attend a webinar or live event.

Some other types of public engagements you might plan are:

• Workshops and forums
• Petitions or letter-writing campaigns
• Social media chats such as Twitter chats, Facebook live chats, Google Hangouts or Reddit AMAs
• Videos
• Information booths at public events
• Fact sheets, white papers, downloads, ebooks
• Feedback forms

Promoting simple actions that people can perform to show support for something your company or organization supports such as cleaning up litter or talking to a friend about your campaign in order to raise awareness. For example, Community Living BC ran a campaign encouraging people to greet people with developmental disabilities called “Start with Hi.” This is a simple action that people can take that promotes awareness and the values of the organization.

Seeking public engagement is not only a great way to promote a project, it can also be necessary when proposing large-scale projects that affect a lot of people, or even small projects that affect a small, but vocal group. One of the most common criticisms that occur when organizations make unpopular decisions is that the community didn’t feel it was consulted.

A consultation process can help those affected see both sides of the issue and help to diffuse anger and tension even if compromises are ultimately needed. It’s important to not only engage critics, but also allies. A lack of balance can cause otherwise worthy projects to become overwhelmed by a vocal minority. Although examples of public engagement often relate to governments and their consultation processes, there is no reason proponents of projects or campaigns can’t also use many of the same techniques to engage people directly with their message.

Be prepared to take the public feedback into consideration and possibly adjust your messaging or even your project plans. Coming into a public engagement process with an inflexible attitude will not help overcome negative attitudes and can even cause you to lose supporters. In the reports on your public engagement process, share examples of the criticism that you received, not just the positive commentary. Otherwise, people will feel ignored. When you ask for feedback, be prepared to tell people how you plan to use it. Once the project is over let people know how you used their feedback.

Be accessible and transparent to the media, so that they will be able to write stories that show both sides of the issue. Otherwise, they may just report on the criticism. If you are relying on experts to talk to the public and media, make sure that they can speak in plain English and make any statistics or scientific studies understandable and relatable. Difficult facts can be explained using examples, metaphors, and personal anecdotes.

Examples of Social Media Engagement

It’s easy to fall into a pattern of simply transmitting messages on social media with no real engagement. Some examples of engagement activities are:

• Live chats
• Asking questions
• Polls
• Sharing other people’s links and adding your own comments
• Following back and liking people’s posts and comments
• Responding to questions, comments and criticism
• Promoting events
• Offering downloads of fact sheets and whitepapers
• Asking people to sign up for updates on your project
• Social advocacy campaigns

Using team member accounts, not just your organization’s accounts, to talk about your projects will help personalize your message and make your organization more relatable. Executives, board members, staff and volunteers can all play a role in expanding your reach.

It takes time to build an audience on social media. Engage year round, not just when you have a project to promote.

It’s sometimes hard to respond to criticism, especially since social media often gives people a licence to express themselves in a way that they wouldn’t normally in public. However, calm and intelligent responses can help promote you as a caring and responsive organization. Even extreme responses to your public engagement attempts can play a role in helping you refine your message by letting you know about biases and misperceptions that exist in the community. At the same time, public engagement can help those whose values align with yours become more connected.

A public engagement process should help you gain trust and build successful relationships with the community.

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