Public Relations in Practice
I will be sharing some work that we went through during the course of my module and some questions that have got me thinking further and examples where PR concepts can be observed. I will also be looking at some PR objects from the PESO model and doing a detailed analysis on them. Just scroll downwards!
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For the second part of my Individual Assignment as part of my module, I will be selecting two PR objects featured below to improve. Click here to read more about it!
What is Public Relations?
Public Relation is the practice of helping organisation and its stakeholders understand each other, and to allow the organisation to be perceived as positive through various communication channels.
In short, PR is the upholding of a company's reputation by establishing relationships with publics and influencing their opinion of the organisation.
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"Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organisation and their publics."
Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
Lecture 1
What is Public Relation
Public relations management process
Role and functions of public relations
Ethical issues in PR
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In this lecture, we learn what is PR, what exactly it entails, and how to PR.
So, how to PR?
PR programmes are formed after going through a 6-step process, in short, ROSTIR. The ROSTIR model brings us from the start of the process, where we find a problem, diagnose it, and coming up with an objective for the PR programme, then determining what the BIG IDEA and STRATEGY for the campaign will be, and how to establish them with our public, and lastly, after implementing them, evaluating our campaign and the successes for analysis.
Self-Thinking
What is my initial impression of what Public Relation is?
My initial impression of PR was that is serves as an emergency strategy to cover up a company's mistake and recover its reputation.
What I think of PR now?
I have come to realise that PR is more than just building a brand's reputation, it is about building a relationship with a company's public.
What are some famous PR agencies and what they do?
Some of the famous PR agencies include Edelman, an American public relations firm, and the world's largest by revenue, and ranked first on the Holmes Report. Some of Edelman's recent notable clients include Dove, HP, Asics, and KFC. One example will be Dove, more specifically Dove Men + Care. One issue that have always constantly slowed sales of men's care product was traditional stereotype around masculinity, so Edelman decided to go about addressing this, by addressing men's right, and paternity leave. The campaign was so successful, Dove earned quality coverage generating over 2700 placements and 2.8 billion impressions, as well as over 40,000 Pledge signature.
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Another famous PR agency is BCW, ranked second on the Holmes Report. Some of BCW's notable clients include Carlsberg, Hotels.com, and the Eurpoean Commission. A good example will be Carlsberg's campaign, Sorbeer. A few years ago Carlsberg started manufacturing non-alcoholic beer, which received mix reactions from people, as Carlsberg claimed that they retained the same classic Carlsberg taste, but without alcohol, but people find the drink taste weird, while lovers of the classical taste hates it because it does not have alcohol, and therefore will not be able to give them the same feeling. What Carlsberg wanted to do was to appeal to people's love for unique, so BCW decided to build on that concept, but do something different so that people can understand Carlsberg. As such, they came up with Sorbeer, a unique ice-cream taste designed in collaboration with Sweden's top ice-cream makers, which became such a big hit for its taste and timeliness, considering that it was summer at that time, and anyone and everyone will want to buy an ice-cream at anytime of the day. Sorbeer turned into such a big hit, they brought forward the launch of the Sorbeer by two-months, and generated over 10 million reach through earned media, and saw 33% increase in sales.
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Last example, FleishmanHillard, third in the Holmes Report. Some of FleishmanHillard's recent notable clients include Philips, Olay and Energizer. A good example is Philips, Light Up The Dark. It was winter at the time of the campaign, and Sweden experiences almost 9 months of darkness. Philips goal was to make lives better, so FleismanHillard had just the plan for it, which was to light up the dark, using Philip's own LED CityTouch lighting system, at playgrounds. This got kids from the kindergarten and nearby neighbourhood to all start coming out to play in a well-lit environment. Because of Philips, it is found that 37 percent of children spend more time in the park, 43 percent of parents reported a positive impact on their children's sleeping patterns and 57 percent of parents reported a noticeable improvement in their children's mood, improving the image of Philips in the mind of people, reinforcing Philips as a brand that seeks to make lives better.
Tutorial Activity!
After every lecture, we will actually be having a tutorial, and in some cases, we will be using real life examples to analysize and understand how PR concepts are put into practice.
For this week's tutorial, my team have been tasked to develop a PR plan for Singapore Science Centre (SSC)
Click here to see the brief presentation deck we have done.
What we came up with included press release, print promotional materials and social media publicity. Considering that this was done during our first tutorial, we did not know much yet, especially press release. Our plan for the press release was to release them to The Straits Times, and on Singapore Science Centre (SSC)'s website. We were also planning to send pitches to journalist from Straits Times and Mothership, as well as get publications companies to release the information 3 weeks before the event, aimed at raising awareness about SSC.
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At the point of writing this reflections, I am most critical of our press release segment as I have learnt more about press release by now. Looking back at our plan, I see many incorrect perceptions about press release. We initially stated our reason as to why we chose press release is because "Press releases are essentially free advertising that you write for your own company. This is great because you don't have to worry about someone misinterpreting anything or leaving out the most important parts. Nor do you have to worry about someone else's bad writing being associated with your brand."
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Press Release is part of media relation. Press Release is the message we are conveying to the media, but what the media writes or distribute to the public, is out of our control. In addition, they can also choose when to publish them, or even to publish them at all. For press release to work well, we must first develop a good relationship with media organisations, so that they understand us better, and have lesser misconceptions about us, as well as giving us more positive publicity. Therefore, we should instead choose press release because 'press release are credible, and adds value to a certain product or situation.'
Lecture 2
Diagnose and Research
Why opinion is the core of PR's effort
In this lecture, we learnt more in-depth about what is research in PR, about how it is all about listening, and what are the things to ask during PR research. This lecture also talked about the different stakeholders, why they are known as 'public', what is public opinion, and most important, how public relation exist because of public opinion.
Self-Thinking
What are some strong opinions I have and how does it affect my choice in brands?
Some common opinions, I have that affect my choice in a brand is 'fake premium'. What this means is that, I see the price difference between premium product and regular product as a hoax, and that the quality difference does not give reason enough for the price difference.
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One example will be buying shoes. As a regular user, and not an athlete, I will rather purchase an $18 sports shoes from the regular store as compared to a $200 sports shoes from a popular sports store. This is because I value durability more than aesthetics. If my $18 sports shoes can last 2 years, while the $200 sports shoes can last 5 years, I will still make a saving even if I have to purchase a few more of my $18 sports shoes. Additionally, I am satisfied with the $18 sports shoes, therefore there is no need to purchase a more expensive shoe even if it feels better.
What are some organisation with a bad reputation but have managed to change it with a PR campaign?
Some examples of organisations that got into trouble but managed to change it with PR campaign will be Starbucks and Hershey's. Starbucks' situation can be considered quite serious, considering it concerned racism and happened in America, but Starbucks did very well to turn it in their favor. A summary of what happned was that a Starbucks manager had mistakenly called on the police to arrest 2 black men when they had stayed in the store for some time without making any order, when they were waiting for their friends. Because of what happened, there was negative impression on Starbucks, and perception of them being racial bias.
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What Starbucks did, was that they announced they are going to close more than 8000 stores for half a day to conduct a racial bias training, to around 175,000 employees. Not only that, Starbucks had engaged more than 30 diversity and inclusion experts to create a guidebook for the training. Starbucks' swift action shows that they view this situation very seriously, and that it definitely does not reflect Starbucks' vision, proving that Starbucks values their customers, and their commitment to the racial bias training that losing millions of dollar in revenue is less important than the training. They also made the effort to change its policy, such that the store is open for anyone to stay or use the bathroom even if they have not made a purchase.
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The next example is Hershey's, where they faced criticism on sical media on the imperfect logo on Reese's Holiday Tree. Hershey's then came up with a campaign, revolving around #AllTreesAreBeutiful, replying to negative tweets with positive responses such as beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and using emojis to make the reply fun and lighthearted. Hershey's and Reese's was able to make a positive redirection, with thousands of engagement and people using the hashtag.
So what is Singtel's Hawker Heroes Challenge?
It was a campaign that got Singaporeans to vote for their top Hawkers, who will then pit against world-famous celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, who is known to be extremely blunt and a hot temper coupled with his incredibly high standards for culinary.
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Why Hawker Heroes Challenge? From our analysis of Singtel's background and the nature of the challenge, we believe as the nation's leading telecommunications company, Singtel needed to connect more closely with Singaporeans, by inspiring them to be more involved in expressing their personal and national pride in our local dishes.
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Initially, when analysing what I think the company is trying to do with this campaign in terms of Public Relations, I had thought that it was to change the public opinion of Hawkers as 'low-class', 'commoner food', to perceptions that they are 'world-class', 'top grade' and 'praise-worthy'. However, after deeper analysis, it is more than that. The real purpose is to increase the positive perceptions of Singtel's communications, enhancing their brand image to show that they 'care for customers' needs', and that they are 'a brand that enhances people's everyday lifestyles'. This message is put across by featuring very good network and broadband capabilities when Singaporeans' are voting across different platforms and devices, and showing Singtel's connection with users.
Lecture 3
Identify the key elements of the public relations planning process, in relation to current technological trends and practices
Apply key elements of the PR planning process to a brand or organization
Self-Thinking
Which is the most important step in the ROSTIR in my opinion?
In my opinion, every step in the ROSTIR is equally important. For example, if we are to do well in the research and setting of our objectives, but we chose the wrong strategies or tactics, then no matter how good our idea is, our public will not be able to receive the message. If we do well in the choosing of strategies and tactics, but have not done well during the research and objective setting, we will not be able to transmit the correct message to our public. Additionally, implementation and reporting are equally important as well, because without implementation there will be no result, and without reporting, a company cannot measure results.
How do we ensure a good mix of PESO tactics in a campaign?
It is impossible to ensure a perfectly balanced mix of PESO tactics because there are many public and people in the public relation team also have their own individual ideas, preference, and strengths. However, while it is not possible to ensure a perfectly balanced mix of PESO tactics, it is still very much possible to have a good mix of it. This can be done through having a good management system, and teams are equally focused at each step of the ROSTIR model, so they know exactly what is needed, and how to do it, and then influence a good mix of PESO tactics.
What is National Night?
National Night was a successful PR campaign by Mentos in 2012. The campaign seeks to address its declining sales and competitive market after research. As such, Mentos had a clear objective, which was to raise brand awareness and increase its market share, by making Mentos the most mentioned brand on National Day. As such, considering Mentos' target audience are those aged 18 to 32, the strategy they developed was 'National Night', to freshen and bring in unique elements to Singapore's National Day Celebrations, and leverage Singaporeans' patriotism and using music as a way to convey the message.
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Under the tactics of the ROSTIR model, Mentos activated a number of PESO tactics. The first, they had their own digital collateral, having made the 'National Night' song, going under owned media. With 'National Night' gaining popularity, Mentos was given free tv and radio coverage on over 200 blogs and websites. These are under 'tv and radio', and 'media relations' of earned media. These are not classified under paid media as Mentos did not have the budget to pay for them initially. However, Mentos did do social media advertising, specifically Facebook advertising. Lastly, share media, specifically influencer relationships, and social media channels. The 'National Night' song was seeded to Singapore's top blogs and was hosted across major video platforms, and made available to download on Facebook.
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With a limited budget of $50,000 and a lead-time of only six weeks, Mentos have done well to achieve over 400,000 viewership of the song, and received coverage on over 200 blogs and websites, including CNN and The Wall Street Journal, and having 79% sales uplift.
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Personally, I have learnt that some risks are really worth taking because while there were a clear outline and objective to Mentos' 'National Night' campaign, I believe the team from mentos was still not fully confident in the result of the campaign, as after all, Singapore, as with many Asian countries, are generally conservative by nature. Sexual or racy content is also seen as risky in terms of publicity, because while the controversy may generate good results, it may also damage a brand's reputation. However, in terms of the ROSTIR model, Mentos have done well, such as using music as a medium to convey their message and riding on National Day's wave of patriotism in Singapore. Lastly, while Mentos have done well this time, it definitely does not mean it will be so in the future, and their concept, example, is also not applicable to other brands or industries. By following the ROSTIR model, the concepts are designed to fit the particular occasion and brand, and not something that can be used as a classic or template.
Lecture 4
Plan appropriate tools and approaches in managing the media
Apply media relations principles to a chosen brand or organisation
Identify the characteristics of various traditional and emerging media channels
Explain the concept of news-worthiness and news angle for publicity
Explain the importance of cultivating good media relations
Lecture 5
Outline the steps in dealing with a crisis as it occurs
Explain image repair and reputation strategies
Explain the role of public relations in managing conflicts
Identify the stages of the conflict management life cycle
As part of my Individual Assignment (IA) for PR, I will be featuring 5 PR objects to discuss the concepts featured.
1. Man Lives In Ikea
Digital video, free media
In 2008, in a bid to increase sales and increase awareness and traffic, Ikea approached Ketchum, where they came up with an idea, 'Man Lives In Ikea', along with Mark Malkoff. Through this campaign, they wanted to put forward and prove two messages, that 'Ikea has everything you need to live and make a home', and 'home is the most important place in the world.
As part of the campaign, Mark Malkoff lives in Ikea for a week, documenting his experience, and interacting with Ikea customers. His videos are uploaded on ManLivesInIkea.com and he garnered so much positive attention he became a hit, making him a celebrity.
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The campaign was so successful, with ManLivesInIkea.com receiving more than 15 million visitorship, and Ikea's home0related blogs increased visitorship by 365% and generating over 382 million positive media impressions. Sales also increased by 5.5% and Ikea's website increased visitorship by 6.8%.
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Man Lives In Ikea is a good example of a PR campaign, with good ROSTIR planning and the use of digital video under the PESO model. Each step of the ROSTIR model can be clearly seen. Ikea had a problem and diagnose it, having low sales and low web traffic. With that, their objectives are clear, to improve sales and drive traffic. Their strategy was to convey the message that 'Ikea has everything you need to live and make a home', and 'home is the most important place in the world'. Their tactic was then to make a series of digital video, and the way they did it was having Mark Malkoff spend a week living in Ikea and documenting his stay. They kick-start the implementation by announcing publicly that they were having Mark Malkoff stay in Ikea, garnering attention and build-up to when Mark Malkoff moves into Ikea. Lastly, reporting and evaluation. This can be seen from Ikea conducting media monitoring and analysis, and measuring their success, including exposure, engagement, and action.
2. Alibaba: To the greatness of small
Alibaba's video campaign is a great example of good digital collateral, under owned media, showing good public relation as they convey the message of the brand's vision.
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Some context - This video was created in 2018, during the Winter Olympics, in support of Team Kenya of the Ice Hockey game. Why is this so speicla? Because there is no winter in Kenya, so how could there have been a team from Kenya?
It all started from when a child watched the Winter Olympics Ice Hockey game, and got inspired to play Ice Hockey. He held on firmly to his dreams, using makeshift roller skates and a puck to train ice hockey with his friends, and eventually reaching the global stage and getting to participate in the Winter Olympics. The entire achievement stems from that one child's dream, and Alibaba relates to that in the sense that they are ambitious as well, and they support small business and young people around the world in the same way.
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Personally speaking, Alibaba is a large MNC, possibly on par with Amazon, but not many pople know them globally. As such, the purpose of this PR campaign was not to address a problem, but to increase awareness on a global stage, by releasing this video during the cocasion of the Winter Olympics. Alibaba's objective is also observed to not be to drive sales, but to drive awareness from the video. Thus, their strategy was to convey their vision, and how they are an ambitious, supportive organisation of small business and young people, and the tactic was through a corporate video, digital collateral.
3. Moxie 莫邪
Social Media Channels, Influencer Relationships
Moxie is both a chinese influencer and a social media entertainment brand, present on Instagram and Tiktok.
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She makes uplifting video contents, focusing on her friendhsip with her friends, as well as funny ways they deal with problems. Her video contents are also value-centric, focusing on filial piety, kindness and gratitude.
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She is also able to cleverly advertise products and brands in her videos, without off putting her viewers, using emotional as well as humor elements, using the products as part of her videos. Because of this, viewers are able to easily understand more of the product, understand how it works, and where to get the product from, as compared to a product review by influencers. Some of her clients include Wang Bao Bao, a healthy cereal brand, Chanel, Apple iPhone, cosmmetic brands such as More Cosmetics, Nike sport shoes, Adidas basketball jersey, and even BMW.
As such, Moxie is a very good partner for companies to work with for influencer relationships, falling under the earned media of the PESO tactics, because of the positive image of Moxie, the fun and emotional elements that is part of her brand personality and her method of conveying message.
4. Lays
In 2012, due to a decline in sales and to revamp their image, Lays introduced 'Do me a flavour' campaign, where they got the public to pitch in ideas for a new flavour they wanted from Lays strictly through the use of social media, and even developed a Facebook application for millenials, their target audience, to submit their flavours. The submission processes were creative and easy to us, allowing many people to share their ideas and suggestions, resulting in this campaign to be on the best on social media.
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This campaign shows good public relation through the use of social media through its public engagement, getting them involved in their own comfort zone, social media, and that Lays value their customers, building trust and rapport, implementing their ideas. The campaign ran over a 10-month period, garnering more than 3 times the expeted submissions, receiving 3.8 million submissions. Lays' social mention also increased by 4700%, 4.9 billion social media impressions, and the annual sales increased by 12%, as well as data on their target audience.
Therefore, this is a good social edia example of public relations, having generated a positive and long-lasting impact for the brand, with good execution of the ROSTIR model. In short, Lays had a problem and researched, which was the decline in sales and poor relationship with millenials. From there, Lays has a clear objective, which is to build a strong relationship, and improve sales. Thus, Lays' strategy and tactic was to engage with millenials, specifically through social media, falling under the shared media of the PESO tactics, and expand the relationship btween the brand and the target audience. Lays then implemented this campaign across 10-months, and finally reporting and evaluation, where they measured their success.
5. Airbnb - Olympics Sponsorship
