At Flow PR we pride ourselves on offering cutting-edge, insightful and tailor-made communications solutions designed to achieve our clients’ business objectives. We also constantly seek new ideas in order to maintain this cutting edge.
To that end, we recently researched award-winning PR campaigns – awards, after all, are usually given by our peers and fellow agencies, and being aware of current thinking in the field serves to make sure we maintain our phenomenal service.
Although Flow PR doesn’t enter awards, we still believe in treating each and every campaign as if it is destined for entry – that way we ensure that our clients get the best possible campaign, one that meets their objectives and is recognised within the industry.
Here are some insights from our research:
Channels are numerous
In the past, there weren’t all that many tools to take an organisation’s image, products and services to the public; we were reliant on mass media to build a strong reputation, help the organisation get noticed and, ultimately, attract new customers, thereby improving its bottom line.
Nowadays, our options are much broader. We now use a range of communications tools, including various social media accounts, company websites and newsletters, to communicate an organisation’s message.
At Flow PR we cut through the noise and possibilities by dividing media channels into 3 types: “owned”, “earned” and “paid”:
- “paid” refers to advertising and other paid for channels
- “owned” is where you completely control the message, such as on your company website, or your newsletter and
- “earned” is PR gold
To use Twitter to explain how this works: you can tweet a message, you can pay for the message to be a “sponsored tweet” but it’s when that message gets spontaneously re-tweeted by the Twittersphere that you know you have earned the publicity – extend this metaphor to cover all possible media channels and you have an award-winning approach.
And getting the above right, in essence, is why public relations is a critical tool, and what makes an award winning campaign. Using PR helps an organisation cut through the noise to stand out in a crowded marketplace.
So what are the cool tools, as determined by awards?
Research
Firstly, it’s clear that developing a winning PR campaign means spending time researching. We always want to know the following from our clients:
- Who are you as an organisation?
- How do you want to be perceived?
- What key messages do you want to communicate?
- To whom do you want to communicate?
- What communication tools are realistic to use (within budget and time frames) to accomplish the set objectives
- When would it be most effective to activate the campaign, and how long should it last?
- What are the measurables and deliverables? These should be linked to business objectives
The analysis of who the organisation is provides opportunities and/or challenges that the campaign should address. How the organisation wants to be perceived is important because it assists in decoding key messages that will be communicated to the target audience.
For example, KFC – overall gold winner in the Prism Awards 2013 – had a firm and to the point campaign: “One man [Adventurer Riaan Manser] and one brand [KFC] proved that R2 can make a difference in filling a hungry tummy; and that if multiplied by many, a hungry nation can be fed daily.”
KFC’s campaign succeeded in making people feel that, by ordering KFC, they weren’t just feeding themselves – they were assisting in feeding the nation, thereby removing some of the guilt that people feel when ordering fast food.
Carefully define your target audience
A winning campaign clearly defines who the target audience is, then formulates the best communication tool to deliver the message and uses platforms that will gain coverage in communities, as well as regionally and nationally.
One winning formula implemented across the PR campaign winners of 2011, 2012 and 2013 was using celebrities as ambassadors, influencers who live the big idea of the campaign and can reach thousands of targeted audience through social media and other media platforms.
For example, the campaign to get Table Mountain declared one of the New7Wonders of Nature (a 2012 Prism Award winner and one on which Flow worked) used Nobel Peace Laureates (former president FW de Klerk and Archbishop Desmond Tutu) as well as media personalities and celebrities to convince South Africans to vote for Cape Town’s iconic mountain by using mobile voting platforms, and online facilities.
Additionally, the campaign persuaded Mxit to allow people to vote for free, thus ensuring the target audience was moved to action.
Planning a winning campaign should not focus only on securing coverage for the campaign, but must also have a strong storytelling or content strategy that will gain credible coverage.
Attention to detail
Execution of a winning campaign also involves attention to detail.
We develop schedules to generate daily conversations about a campaign’s big idea in traditional, digital and social media. This includes driving key messages through social media schedules; rolling out regular media interviews with major breakfast and afternoon drive radio shows; and media events to distribute media press packs to encourage journalists to interview the ambassador or campaign spokesperson.
Any campaign must meet all the above milestones, and more, to exceed the expected objective and gain media coverage regionally and nationally.