Читать книгу The PR Campaigns Worktext - Maria Elles Scott - Страница 11

What brings about a campaign in the first place? It is often the desire for change or the result of a needed resolution after an issue or problem comes to public light. These are marvelous opportunities to advance the organization. Some changes are sweeping and incorporate thousands of people, such as the suffrage movement in the 1920s to approve the amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote. The spark can ignite a fire or a flame; either way, all PR campaigns follow a similar path from inception to execution.

Before any of the PR campaign is created, it’s imperative that everyone understands what type of campaign is being built. The most common categories for persuasive PR campaigns are commercial, educational, political, reputation and social change.

Commercial campaigns roll out a new product or service for sale to the public, or it revitalizes awareness of existing products or services. PR campaigns can precede an advertising blitz through media channels. The PR campaign often educates the public to the product and/or service and informs members of the public of key words needed to discuss this product and/or service properly. At the time of the launch, the public already understands the term smart phone as opposed to cellular phone and the differences. The public knows what a touch screen means and has already had their concerns recognized and addressed through the PR campaign messaging. By this point, all the advertisers have to focus on is the cost and where to purchase the product. Commercial PR campaigns create tactical PR materials, pitches, demonstrations, events and trials for the press to deliver third-party reviews and analysis of the product and/or service.

Example: In September 2009 Starbucks broke successfully into the $21 billion global instant coffee business by introducing VIA within the cafes. This was rapidly followed by pep-rallies, a cocktail mix-off, a nationwide road trip, taste tests and much more, including PR materials educating the public on ethically sourced products.

Educational or informational PR campaigns seek to raise public awareness of issues, organizations, products, or services. These are also known as public awareness campaigns due to the level of awareness it offers on a specific subject. These campaigns are often utilized by nonprofit organizations to help people better understand, relate and activate. Most of the public has a loose understanding of the term learning disabled. But through a PR campaign, an organization can work to replace harmful words used in spoken lexicon, explain the various types of disabilities and shift attitudes and behaviors. These are among the most common type of PR campaign because elements of education and/or information exist in ALL PR campaigns—efforts to help people better comprehend the underlying causes and how that might connect to their beliefs and so on.

Example: In 2010, the U.S. government began nationwide educational initiatives to combat the rise in incidents related to bullying: National Bullying Prevention Campaign. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau targets tweens—those ages 9 to 13 years of age—and the adults who are responsible for these tweens. The multiyear PR campaign included bullying prevention resource kits, a national launch event, advice for young people, PSAs, a website filled with data and other materials and more. The campaign used animated characters to depict bullying scenarios in entertaining webisodes and PSAs. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) launched a parallel PR campaign driving home to parents that it only takes 15 minutes of time talking and listening a day to have a positive effect on behavior. The PR campaign raised awareness, recommended action and created talking points for parents to start conversation and red flags for them to watch for to prevent bullying behaviors or outcomes.

Political campaigns are something of a horse of a different color in that most of these are either focused on the candidate or the issues and then have an element of persuasion, education and/or information and salesmanship layered on top of the base. Political campaigns are best when handled by a team of people, which includes a PR expert, but where strategy and political connections and/or adeptness are equally important. The candidate’s ability to appear capable, relatable and genuine seems to be crucial to the voters with the integration of various mediums that are largely on 24-hour news cycles. People are able to obtain information from these sources with little-to-no understanding of validity of facts.

Reputation PR campaigns center on a brand and aim to change the reputation of that brand through a series of strategic messages, PR stunts, positive press, social media banter and more. Not all reputation PR campaigns are aimed to polish a tarnished reputation. Some are created to breathe life into a wilting brand, shift the demographics of a once-loved but forgotten brand, or realign the values of a brand. Reputation PR campaigns are often best used for well-established organizations and are also interested in long-term results. It is implausible to believe that reputation adjustments are made in short spans of time; rather, it is more likely that these campaigns have steps measures.

Example: In 2014, the relatively young brand of Air B&B launched a reputation PR campaign introducing The Bélo, which asked users to interpret the logo or symbol by adding colors, decorations, backgrounds and so on. The brand wanted users to interpret the symbol to something meaningful to them, which is a way to connect the brand to each user. This moved the user base from those who viewed Air B&B from the youth-based market to something for everyone, which was not part of the reputation the brand had previously.

Social change PR campaigns are movement-based and are aimed to target large segments of the public and push for something bigger. Social change PR campaigns often incorporate large percentages of education and information-based PR campaigns. Most of social change is compelling a person or groups of people to take action, it also requires that the person or group of people believe to some extent in the action they are taking. It is difficult to harness thousands of people to march against ___ for the right to ___ if that group of people doesn’t believe in what they are literally marching for. Social change PR campaigns are unique in that they can be quick and from inception to execution can happen in 60 days or they can be something that builds for years.

Example: In January 2017, the Women’s March was a worldwide protest in Washington, D.C., held the day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. During the campaign, tensions rose following statements made by Trump and his camp that many considered to be anti-women and offensive. The Women’s March on Washington was streamed live on social media platforms and drew more than 200,000 people to the nation’s capital. Other marches were held worldwide and in cities throughout the United States with an approximate total of more than 4 million people participating in marches. It was the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.