A successful PR effort should leave a positive impression. The coverage needs to scream "ground-breaking," "innovative," and "memorable." The media will refer to it as "the best marketing stunt ever" if you do it extremely well, as Red Bull did with their world-beating Stratos campaign.
Some companies, however, completely miss the mark with their PR initiatives and make headlines for the incorrect reasons. Do you recall the time the skincare company Nivea unintentionally propagated white supremacy? Their "White is Purity" campaign, which was tone deaf, disrespectful, and poorly thought out, led to widespread condemnation and long-term harm to the business.
In light of this, let's examine a few well-known PR initiatives that succeeded and the PR lessons we can draw from them.
SPACE JAM
When Michael Jordan starred in the 1996 film Space Jam, Nike seized the opportunity by creating apparel and footwear with a Space Jam theme. This allowed them to permeate popular culture and the streetwear market.
It is hardly surprising that Nike's revenue increased significantly from $6,470.6 million in 1996 to $9,9186.5 million in 1997 as a result of its increased brand awareness.
After acquiring competitors Converse and Reebok, Nike eventually gained the highest market share in the sportswear sector by 2022.
Nike had no way of anticipating Michael Jordan's star power in 1984. However, they were aware of his athletic potential and wisely decided to sign him to represent their company; the rest is history.
Dove
Dove, a health and beauty brand owned by Unilever, launched another well-known PR effort to alter attitudes about women's appearance in 2013.
The company launched a social change campaign that was both original and creative, with the goal of empowering and inspiring women to feel good about themselves.
It was created in response to market research by Dove that found that only 4% of women worldwide were satisfied with their appearance and self-esteem.
The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, which aimed to alter how women saw themselves by contrasting their own self-perceptions with those of strangers, included the release of a short film titled Dove Real Beauty Sketches.
#LikeAGirl Campaign
What exactly does it mean to act "like a girl"?
This question was posed in 2014 by the well-known hygiene goods brand Always, a division of the American corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G), to alter the way that term was perceived.
The #LikeAGirl initiative was created to increase understanding of and encourage dialogue on the problem of sexism toward women. Additionally, it sought to transform the phrase's negative connotations into an affirmation that young girls might use to express their happiness.
The campaign was successfully delivered using a mix of video, social media outreach, and celebrity involvement. It received 85 million views across 150 countries and eight D&AD Pencils in 2015, including the prestigious black Pencil in the category of "Creativity for Good."
Conclusion
Maintaining Public Relations and building a brand is a very daunting task. However, with the right campaign and messaging one can easily catapult their brand to success as we saw in the above examples.
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