The digital age we recognise today has considerably changed the way news and information is published, and it is evident that the way PR professionals are seeking attention nowadays is online. In particular, social media has seen an increased number of available communication channels, helping to establish relationships between companies and customers.
It is the job of PR professionals to ensure companies are communicating with audiences, and social media can be an essential tool for fuelling PR campaigns. If you are already engaged in social activities, use those platforms as extensions of your brand and maximise your company’s publicity as much as you can. Here are five great examples of effective PR on social media…
1. Real Beauty Sketches – Dove
In April 2013, Dove launched their ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ campaign. Fundamentally, Dove wanted to generate more sales by making a more positive social impact, and so their marketing team closely focused on women – their biggest consumer group. Dove’s research found a problem within self-perception of women and therefore intended to create a campaign that encouraged beauty as a source of confidence.
Dove hired a forensic sketch artist to illustrate real women and produced a video documentary of the whole experiment. The artist produced two portrait drawings of the women without seeing their faces, one as described by the subject of the portrait and another as described by an acquaintance of the subject. The difference between each sketch was astonishing. Whilst the women focused on their physical flaws, the new acquaintances saw and described the beauty in them.
This completely moved the women and the viewers of the campaign. To date, over 114 million people have watched the video which went viral on social media outlets.
2. Super Bowl Tweet – Oreo
Oreo are a key example of a company that took advantage of an opportunity to promote their brand via social media. During the third quarter of the Super Bowl in 2013, a power outage at the Superdome caused a 34-minute delay in the game, encouraging Oreo’s social media marketing team to get innovative.
Oreo’s comical tweet dominated social media as over 100 million viewers were tuned into their TV screens sharing their outrage at the power cut. Oreo immediately took to Twitter, tweeting “Power Out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark.” Within minutes, the message swept across social platforms, gaining more than 16,000 retweets and more than 20,000 likes on Facebook. The message itself was simple but effective as it was executed at precisely the right moment.
3. 15 Days of Beauty Thrills – Sephora
Sephora marketed an online campaign extremely well last year, ‘15 Days of Beauty Thrills’. The brand is very savvy when it comes to the digital and social world, and wanted a way of driving traffic to their website through effective PR techniques and social media. Sephora rolled out their ‘15 Days of Beauty Thrills’ sweepstakes, with ‘thrills’ such as small gifts, shopping sprees and even more were given away to those who participated via Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
On Facebook, fans were encouraged to ‘like’ the page to find out the next day’s thrill at midnight, an incentive for exclusive information. The campaign showed to be a huge success, with the fan base growing six times the normal rate and a significant increase in web traffic.
4. Batkid Saves Francisco – Make-A-Wish Foundation
‘San Francisco Batkid’ demonstrated how the power of social media could win the hearts of the entire city of San Francisco. The campaign was planned by the Make-A-Wish Foundation for a little boy whose wish was to become Batman. The young boy had been battling Leukaemia since birth and asked for an innocent desire to portray a superhero we have all grown to love.
The campaign went viral with the hashtag #SFBatkid and thousands of people took the time out of their busy routine to volunteer and take part in the heart-warming quest to make the boy’s dream come true. This campaign showed everyone how social media marketing can bring the community together to accomplish a wonderful cause, and demonstrating the tireless efforts of the charity, encouraging the publicity that they consistently work for.
5. Do Us A Flavour- Lay’s potato chips
Lay’s potato chips created a campaign where they invited users to generate ideas for a new potato chip flavour on the Lay’s Facebook page. The campaign was called “Do Us A Flavor” where the winner could win $1 million. Lay’s saw everything from Bacon Jalapeño to Grilled Cheese and the three best flavors were actually sold in stores. Fans could also vote on their favourite so it could stay on shelves permanently.
By the end of the campaign, ‘Do Us A Flavor’ had generated 3.8 million submissions, 4.9 billion PR impressions, over 1 billion Facebook likes and 12% increase in sales – proving, again, the success of a PR campaign via social media that promotes and publicises the company.
By Content Assistant – India Minns – @IndiaMinns
