Public Relations Campaign

         Good morning readers, I hope this week’s blog finds you well during the holidays.  Have you ever thought to yourself, why do companies have campaigns?  Are they effective? What are they trying to accomplish?  How are they made?  Luckily for you we are going to be focusing on Public Relation campaigns this week.  First, we will discuss what a PR campaign is and why it is important for organizations.  Secondly, we will look at some helpful tips for creating a campaign for your company.  Lastly, we will study the importance of measuring the effectiveness of a PR campaign.    

What is a PR campaign?  Sandford answers that question in their article here, “A PR campaign is a series of planned and organized activities that run over a period of time to positively promote the perception of a business and communicate key messages. There are many different types of PR campaigns, but most will consist of several types of activity, including both traditional and digital PR, that all support the overarching business goals and objectives.”  A PR campaign can take as much time as an organization deems.  There are vast reasons that a company would like to run a PR campaign.  One reason is that a new company is trying to reach new customers.  A PR campaign shares the organization’s goals and values.  An example of a PR campaign that worked well was from IKEA.  During the pandemic we all found ourselves spending additional time in our homes sitting on our couches.  Their “Stay Home” campaign was very effective because it reminded people that their homes were a safe place that you can make memories in.  Press Farm wrote in their article here, “The reason why this campaign worked is because of the corporate social responsibility that IKEA presented to its public.  IKEA created a campaign that highlighted the coziness of people’s homes and gave these people a sense of responsibility to stay home. Rather than being upset about having to stay home, IKEA helped us to embrace social isolation as a way to reconnect with loved ones at home.”  IKEA had a goal to keep the community safe by convincing people to stay inside admis of an epidemic.  They connected their consumers by allowing them to focus on the positive side of an epidemic. 

                In this Public relation guide we will first discuss how to build a PR campaign and what that looks like.  Adrian Falk writes in his article 10 ways to build a PR campaign here, “1) Begin by understanding your company’s mission, 2) Keep your messaging clear and concise,  3) Communicate with the media, 4) Be ready to defend your position, 5) Get organized and create a publicity calendar, 6) Keep track of what you’ve accomplished by documenting your progress regularly, 7) Know your data, 8) Set your goals, 9) Do your research, and 10) Develop a public relations plan for your brand.”  These 10 steps are a fantastic starting point for anyone developing a PR campaign within an organization.  First you need to understand the company’s mission and vision.  The mission statement will guide you in the right direction and the vision statement will help you understand where the company is heading in the future.  Something I have said before in my blogs is to keep the message simple.  Simple tends to stand out to me personally as well as communicates the message clear and concisely.  Obviously during a PR campaign, you will have to communicate with the media and that comes with its own set of challenges.  What medium you choose to communicate with can impact the campaign.  The rest of the plan is pretty self-explanatory, you need to know what you are talking about, and you need to evaluate how you are doing.   

                Measuring how the campaign is doing can be a daunting task.  Luckily for us many platforms have analytics built into them that can aid in the evaluation of the campaign.  James Spillane writes in his article here, “When it comes to measuring the value of any PR campaign, guesswork and ambiguity are a thing of the past. The digital age has ushered in an era of new tools and technologies that facilitate the sharing of information and ideas and have the capability to track and report on useful data beyond circulation.”  In today’s world measuring an effective campaign is easier than ever, but what are we looking for when evaluating the outcome of a PR campaign?  Kinga Edwards wrote in their blog here 6 PR must use metrics for media monitoring, “1) Mentions, 2) Sentiment, 3) Share of Voice, 4) Website visitors, 5) Earned Backlink, 6) Impressions.”  After reviewing these six must-haves you can adequately assess your company’s PR campaign.  Emily Mcgowanphoenix writes in her article here, “By measuring and evaluating PR, businesses can, Show the value of PR, Improve PR effectiveness, and Prove ROI.”  It is imperative that any organization reviews the metrics of their campaign in order to improve their relationship with the consumer. 

                In conclusion PR campaigns, if done correctly, are an extremely valuable tool that organizations must use to reach their customers in new ways that can grab their attention.  It is important to understand what exactly a Public Relations campaign is and how to use it to benefit your company.  PR campaigns align with a company’s goals and visions in an effort to bring new consumers to the brand.  We looked at some helpful tips on how to build a successful campaign.  Then we looked at how to measure the effectiveness of your campaign to find out what works and what does not.  It is also important to remember that even if a campaign works once, it may not work the same a second time.  It is imperative that companies continue to think outside of the box when it comes to PR campaigns.  No one wants to see the same campaign twice or for a company to steal another company’s style.  What do you think are you ready to get out there and build your very own PR campaign?