Creativity in PR

The PR industry is often criticized for not being creative. We take issue with that. Creative story-telling through earned media requires an art and science that many of our marketing and advertising peers still underestimate and, sometimes, value. The truth is you’re only as good as your client and your interagency model. By which we mean, you need a client/agency structure and spirit that is open and willing to allow PR ideas to really fly.

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Tips on Integration

"Truly integrated PR, comms and marketing campaigns are not common enough, says Angie Moxham, founder and Arch Angel of Integrated comms agency The Fourth Angel. However, she says there are huge benefits to be reaped if you can deliver true integration. The most important thing is that everybody is involved from day one. The best work comes from clients brief out all the agencies and say: “May the best idea win!” In effect, they want the best ideas – regardless of the agency’s core discipline – to be looked at in an integrated way.

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How data driven marketing can kill a brand - perhaps even on TV!

Dark patterns is the catchall for interface-driven influencing techniques. They’re designed, of course, to make users to do things they wouldn’t normally do. It’s the disreputable side of the glossy, psychology-driven nudge revolution that leapt from academia into marketing and political campaigning around 2008. But dark patterns aren’t hidden, like the dark web. They are entirely familiar to anyone who shops on e-commerce or travel sites – which is basically everyone, everywhere.

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PR, short for public relations, is your marketing tool for talking to consumers, be this directly through social media or events, or through third parties such journalists/media, celebrities, influencers and brand partners.

Here is a great analogy:

1. A girl walks into a bar, a guy walks up to her and says “I’m amazing, you should date me!” Would you immediately say yes?
2. A girl walks into a bar, a guy walks up to her and says “See that guy over there? He’s my mate, he is amazing, you should date him!” – Would you be more convinced to date him now?
3. A girl walks into a bar, another girl walks up to her and says “See that guy over there? He is my ex-boyfriend, he is the best boyfriend ever, you should date him!” – Now you feel more like you want to date him? Because you trust her opinion the most, tried and tested and all

The first is an example if advertising, whilst impactful and attention grabbing, you aren’t just going to take a brand’s word for it that they are the best in the market. The second is an example of direct marketing, it’s not quite them telling you, but its still obviously in their favour. The third is an example of PR (and now influencer marketing), a third party endorsement of someone who and tried and tested the brand and telling you they like it because they genuinely do.

The beauty of PR is there are no rules of what you can do. Yes, there are the standard PR ideas that always work, survey stories and broadcast days, celebrity partnerships, product reviews, competitions, etc. But there is so much more that can be done. PR works best when used as part of the marketing mix, to build on advertising campaigns, to work with your social media, to create content that is truly engaging and shareable.

PR is about those watercooler moments. The aim of PR is to get people talking, because third party endorsement from a friend, or someone you don’t know, is far more powerful than advertising.

PR is often the last thing to be put in place, but actually it needs to be considered more in advance. Editorial opportunities in monthly magazines are written 3-4 months in advance, even more so for the likes of Christmas, Christmas in July is a key focus for PR. Weekly magazines and supplements work six weeks in advance, TV and radio shows two weeks in advance, newspapers and online features a week in advance and news stories a day in advance. So we can be telling the same story over several months to different media. This is why PR needs to be always on.

PR isn’t just about getting you great press coverage, its also about stopping or smoothing negative coverage. Brand reputation, crisis & issues is equally as important. From a frustrated customer who has gone to their local newspaper, to the recent Coronavirus lockdown. Brands use their PR agencies to help draft statements, media train their staff that will be interviewed by the press

• PR can help you tell your marketing story, it can knit together the spaghetti to tell the perfect story
• PR is a fraction of the cost of advertising, so you don’t need to spend lots to get great results, many spend 5-20% of their advertising budget on PR
• PR works best alongside other marketing, especially if your advertising, social media, CRM are all telling the same story
• PR can build your brand awareness, drive press and influencer coverage around specific products and also create memorable moments

PR can reach all audiences. We can either target everyone, or be really targeted in our outreach. We can call on influencers to share their audience demographics and only work with those who’s audience matches your target audience. We can use your media buying data or your audience segmentation to look at the media consumption of your audience and only target those media.

Online media is key, where we can drive click throughs to your website to ultimately help with SEO and driving sales.