As a PR your goal is always to get your brand seen in the best possible light — and one of the many things that PRs can do to achieve this is through running a campaign. Creating a successful PR campaign is however easier said than done.
In the PR industry, coming up with fresh and engaging campaign concepts can be difficult — finding the spark for a new campaign isn't as predictable as a loadshedding schedule.
However, as challenging as it can be, we can always find inspiration from other brands who absolutely slayed with their PR campaigns.
Keep reading as Saads Abrahams from media update shares four lessons we can learn from some iconic PR campaigns.
What Is a PR Campaign?
The role of public relations is to overlook the brand image and how it is perceived by the public and stakeholders. A PR campaign, according to PR lab, "is the action of keeping that reputation, and maintaining a good relation and understanding between the brand and its public."
It's important to remember that a PR campaign involves more than just distributing content to the media. These campaigns encompass various elements such as content creation, public speeches, audience engagement, gathering feedback and conveying values.
What Is the Purpose of a PR Campaign?
Regardless of the many formats that a PR campaign can come in, they all have common objectives that will help impact a brand positively.
Some of these objectives are:
- increasing brand awareness
- identifying the target audience
- improving a brand's reputation
- garnering the media's attention
- increasing stakeholder relations
- evoking public reactions, and
- providing a cost-effective ROI.
Dove's 'Real Beauty' Campaign
In 2004 when a research study was conducted that showed only 2% of women globally believed that they were beautiful — Dove launched its 'Real Beauty' campaign.
The campaign was launched to challenge established beauty standards. By featuring real women of various ages, ethnicities, body shapes and sizes across all Dove's advertisements, videos and events, it promoted the idea that women should celebrate their natural beauty.
Fast forward to 2024, Dove is still running its campaign and addressing the use of AI-generated content that is spread widely online showing digitally altered women — once again affecting the beauty standards.
So what lessons can other PRs take from this long-standing campaign?
- always align your campaigns with your brand's values and purpose
- be authentic and genuine in your campaigning, and
- make use of storytelling to get your audience engaged in purposeful dialogues.
Oreo's Dunk in the Dark Tweet
During the 2013 Super Bowl, there was a major power outage at the stadium that lasted for approximately 34 minutes — resulting in TV viewers being left confused as to why the game coverage had suddenly cut off.
Because Oreo's team had a social media strategy put in place, they were prepared for anything that may occur during the game. Oreo took this opportunity to create a tweet saying "You can still dunk in the dark."
This tweet went viral and grew Oreo's social media following almost instantly. In one hour, this tweet received 10 000+ retweets, 18 000+ likes and 5 000+ shares. Additionally, Oreo had also won multiple awards for this tweet.
The main lesson that PRs can take away from this is that timing is everything — by quickly reacting to this real-time event, Oreo was able to capitalise on this moment and boost its engagement.
Oreo on X
Stanley Quencher Tumbler on Fire
In 2023 a TikTok video went viral, after showing that a Stanley tumbler had not only survived a car fire but the cup still had ice in it. Two days after the initial video was posted, the President of Stanley, Terence Reilly, stitched the video and offered the creator a new Stanley tumbler as well as a new car.
The brilliant response from Stanley can teach PR pros:
- Responding Timeously: This is vital for keeping the momentum around a brand.
- Showing Genuine Compassion: Being compassionate to your consumers will always improve your brand image.
- Put a Face Behind Your Brand: This will humanise your brand and will make every interaction seem authentic.
TikTok
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge started in 2014 to raise awareness and funds for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The campaign challenged people all over the world to dump a bucket of ice water over their heads, donate to the cause and then nominate other people to do the same.
This campaign spread like crazy over multiple social media platforms — politicians, celebrities and ordinary people all got involved and the campaign ended up raising over USD$220-million for ALS research as well as increasing the public's knowledge of the disease.
Some key lessons that PRs can learn from this include:
- simple yet catchy campaigns are valuable, and
- leveraging the power of influencers and UGC can amplify your campaign.
What was your favourite PR campaign? Let us know in the comments section below.
*Image courtesy of Canva