Standing out from the crowd is not an easy thing to do for companies especially in this digital era where consumers have knowledge at the touch of a button. If you’re attempting to position your company or product as a category leader, you’ll need to tell interesting yet believable stories that make your demographic consider a new perspective. Reaching out to the right audience is key to building a successful PR campaign.
When executed successfully, PR can offer a creative, results-driven approach that will help tell your brand’s story and generate engaging media placements that talk directly to your target audience. We look at some of the methods and strategies our award-winning teams deploy to gain cut-through and deliver results for our clients.
Influencers
In today’s age we are bombarded by choice. So, it’s no surprise that influencers hold a lot of power in validating our decisions. These are real people who we trust and respect, a vital tool in marketing a product given that their opinions can, and do, impact the behaviour of their amassed following.
In December, we were briefed to generate widespread press coverage for The British Library to showcase their membership scheme as a must-have Christmas gift for the season. To achieve this, one of the key activities was to work with a range of digital influencers, based in London. Partnering with key influencers including Liberty London Girl, Not such a Model Mum and Boo & Maddie was important to produce impactful content for British Library Membership and supported the campaign to position a membership as the Christmas gift for the imagination.
The British Library said:
The PHA Group supported us with our British Library Membership Christmas campaign. They were a delight to work with – super organised and results driven! We gained some great coverage in a short period of time.
Events
Product launches
Organising an event to launch a new product or range can be daunting. PR agencies can effectively promote your event encouraging media to cover or attend it through excellent relationships and contacts, as well as creating a buzz of excitement by generating awareness and increase the number of attendees.
JML came to us with a clear goal in mind: to become the ‘go-to’ brand for household products. As this was a crowded market, we needed to ensure that each new product was launched to the press as the number one product of its type showcasing their unique selling points. To do so, we planned and implemented a series of events to launch their products to a UK market. These events were a perfect opportunity to educate the media on the functionality and superiority of the products and build relationships with key journalists and influencers. The events attracted over 150 journalists and the subsequent coverage saw the products featured in publications such as the Metro, Daily Express, OK, Style at Home, New!, Best and many more.
Press conferences
Not too sure if a press conference is required for your brand? A press conference is a meeting, organised for the purposes of officially distributing information to the media and answering questions from reporters. The advantage of a press conference for your brand or business is that the announcement made during the event will have a maximum impact by being in all the media at the same time. From organising the press conference, to practicing speaking in public or answering journalists’ questions, we help our clients make sure they are as prepared as possible for the big day.
We worked with American based AIDS Health Foundation to help it stage a London press conference as part of its on-going campaign to bring about change with the UN agency focussed AIDS worldwide, UNAIDs. This conference in London was crucial as it was calling on the UK government to act in its role as chair of the committee which oversees UNAIDS’ work. PHA had a week to first research, secure a venue as well as constructing the format of the press conference, issue notices to main media outlets, and commission the creation of banners and other materials for the press conference. The press conference featured four speakers and saw a great panel of attendees including The Guardian, The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Independent and the Associated Press. This resulted in strong coverage in those four main titles, each of them reporting AHF’s call on Theresa May and International Development Penny Morduant to act over the scandal.
Pop- ups
Pop-up stores are fast becoming a familiar feature of the modern cityscape across the UK and businesses are embracing the concept. The UK’s pop-up industry is estimated to be worth £2.3 billion, accounting for around 0.76 per cent of total retail turnover, according to EE’s Britain’s Pop-Up Retail Economy report. In 2016, 3000 pop-up spaces were counted in London alone. When opening a pop-up store, you can maximise your brand awareness. You’ll face your customers and therefore will be able to test your products or services directly in front of your key customers.
Disney wanted to launch a new video game called Epic Mickey 2. Celebrating the forgotten characters of Disney, this game had the potential to appeal to both older and younger generations. To capture the imagination of our audience, we decided to bring the Disney magic to life through a once in a lifetime event. Taking ownership of a coveted space at Westfield, Stratford, we planned an event designed to cut through the noise of our competition. We brought an official Disney illustrator to draw the iconic characters and a virtual graffiti wall to complete the two-day event which was hosted by TV presenters Dick and Dom, ensuring entertainment for adults and children alike. With over 2,000 attendees, many of which were young families, the pop-up event was a huge success.
Digital
Social media and digital assets
Whatever your industry, segment and audience, a big portion of your customers and leads have a digital footprint. Whether it’s to re-enforce your image, create a stunt or promote a new product, social media should always be part of your strategy. From animated GIFs to cinemagraphs and motion graphics, we provide a complete digital solution to create impactful campaigns to engage with your audience.
RED Driving School wanted to be regarded as the leading driving school in the UK but faced poor brand perception and recognition which was limiting their ability to attract both learner drivers and instructors. Our campaign sought to make RED relevant to a younger audience by building a social presence whilst establishing them as an attractive proposition for driving instructors in the media. This resulted in 13 million social impressions in the first few months of our campaign, RED has an online presence that continues to grow with celebrity posts generating tens of thousands of likes, comments and shares across social platforms.
Community management
Our dedicated in-house specialists work with you to develop your strategy, and then manage every aspect of all your channels, from weekly content plans and content creation, to daily posting and scheduling through to news agenda or event reaction.
We worked with Cauli Rice, to manage their online presence. We used social media as a way of gaining exposure for the brand whilst competing in Virgin Media’s Business Start-up competition, hosted by Richard Branson. From paid advertising on social media to follower growth and animated GIFs, we looked after their entire strategy. As a result, they received 685,000 votes and 2,500 entries! Cauli Rice was one of three start-up businesses to be crowned and receive a 50k marketing budget from Branson.
Thought-leadership
Establishing yourself as an expert in your domain can be vital to gain potential clients and customers who will inherently trust you more – and equally beneficial, bloggers and reporters will also respond to you more warmly if you’re seen as an industry leader. Thought leadership is a great way to achieve that cut-through, by sharing high-quality content that will help your audience understand you and your business.
We recently worked with Down’s Syndrome Association (DSA), the only organisation in the country that focuses solely on all aspects of living successfully with Down’s Syndrome. Their goal was to claim their rightful place as the leading charity for individuals and families living with DS. To do so, we created a structured, hard-hitting campaign that incorporated the charity’s ethos and utilised their existing assets. To help them we created thought leadership opportunities to bring focus to the organisation. Our media coverage had a combined reach of over 6 million with 68 pieces of coverage generated and DSA were cemented as an authority on the condition.
A PR agency can help you engage with the right audience helping you to create and implement a communications strategy for your business and brand. Get in touch now to see how we can help you.