Let's be honest: 2023 has been a wild ride! There have been some brilliant PR moments and some that have just fallen flat.
As the new year slowly rolls in, we should take a moment to look at the brands that killed it this year in PR — and maybe take a note or two on what we can learn from these epic PR campaigns.
So buckle up as media update's Saads Abrahams breaks down the top three PR moments of 2023!
Rihanna's Fenty Beauty Super Bowl moment
The Super Bowl is a huge deal in the United States of America, and 2023's halftime show was none other than Miss Rihanna herself. And to say that people were excited would be an understatement.
Rihanna has been incredibly focussed on her cosmetic range Fenty Beauty for the past few years and has been on a music hiatus for six years. So when it was announced that she would be performing at the Super Bowl half-time show, people all over the world tuned in to watch.
She knew that she would have millions of eyes on her, and being the business mogul that she is, she took a four-second break during her show to quite literally powder her nose with her makeup brand Fenty Beauty.
You may have thought, "Well, it was just a little nod to her brand and that it wouldn't do much." According to
Cosmetics Business, the Google searches for Fenty Beauty
immediately after the show had
increased by a whopping
883%.
Not too bad for a little product placement.
The Tony's Chocolonely, Oxfam and Glastonbury moment
This
campaign was honestly
incredible. Two brands who are involved in fighting poverty — Oxfam and Tony's Chocolonely — partnered up with the biggest music festival in the United Kingdom, Glastonbury.
Tony's Chocolonely is still a relatively new brand and it knew that it needed to build hype and get its brand massaging known.
So they created a limited-edition chocolate bar, and inside five of the bars was a ticket to Glastonbury. The chocolate was sold through Oxfam, and all proceeds went to charity.
This campaign was epic in creating buzz both in-store and online and in bringing in a whole lot of new customers.
Honestly, brands and PRs everywhere should look to this campaign for inspiration because it ticks all the boxes for creating a successful PR campaign.
From:
- creating a buzz
- having a focus on ethical practices
- making use of limited editions, and
- creating brand loyalty.
The Vimto to Vimpto moment
English is a really fun language, and people often debate the pronunciation of words such as 'GIF' and 'data'. Many brands often suffer from people pronouncing the name of the brand incorrectly. For me, it was the makeup brand NYX.
Vimto knew that people were adding a 'P' when they pronounced the name and decided to create a fun, buzzworthy campaign around this.
The campaign worked well because it was funny and relatable. It may have worked too well because people believed that the brand was genuinely going to change the name. So Vimto continued with the humour and made a post to let people know that they weren't actually going to change the name.
What PRs can take away from these three campaigns are:
- the importance of creating hype
- the impact of product placement
- making use of humour
- always being relatable, and
- sustainable.
What was your favourite PR campaign of 2023? Let us know in the comments section below.