Public Relations campaigns as we know them today have been around since the creation of modern PR practice, which began at the start of the 1900s. Historic figures in PR such as Edward Bernays, Ivy Lee and Betsy Plank all influenced how modern PR campaigns are conducted. In the 1998 biography of Edward Bernays by Boston Globe reporter Larry Tye titled “The Father of Spin,” Bernays’ career and accomplishments are well documented. In addition to creating an outline for propaganda techniques, ethics for practitioners and more, Bernays was very influential in creating the eight-step process to create a Public Relations plan on which most campaigns are loosely based. This process includes Objectives, Situation, Strategy, Audience, Tactics, Timeline and/or Calendar, Budget and Evaluation.
Modern PR campaigns present solutions to one goal. Throughout history, these goals often helped change the ideas of war, persuade the masses, build brands, impact outcomes, start movements, end conflicts and much more. Broken down into measurable objectives, the tactics used to create successful campaigns are skills practitioners constantly fine-tune.
A Public Relations Campaign Is:
A PR campaign is a communication plan—a strategically chosen set of various communication media platforms—that seek to influence a specific target audience or audiences. Communication plans are simple, cohesive, power pieces of persuasion. They build a case on facts and insights that demonstrate to a client why the course chosen is the correct one to yield the desired results to the target audience.
A PR campaign is conducted to solve a problem or take advantage of an opportunity. The issue solved or opportunity gained must benefit both the organization and the public—meaning it’s a win-win. The implication is that if the resulting situation is a win-lose, the outcome is often lose-lose. In other words, an organization is not likely to thrive long term without listening to and serving its public, both internal (employees, stakeholders, board of trustees, volunteers) and external (clients, customers, members) in the short term.
A Public Relations Campaign Is Not:
A PR campaign is not an advertising blitz. Advertising is frequently associated with the word campaign, but remember that advertising is usually PAID. The PR campaign employs many methods of communication including media relations (utilizing tactical PR writing such as media advisories, media alerts, media pitches, press releases, etc.), social media, publicity and other methods, all of which are not paid forms of media. An effective PR campaign typically utilizes a range of traditional and non-traditional media and employs influence by opinion leaders and the community.
A PR campaign is not blind propaganda. In modern political discourse, there is almost always an underlying thread of propaganda and influence of mass audiences. Propaganda, at its core practice, relies on generalizing the appeal to the audience evoking collective emotions, is often devoid of facts, evidence, or reality and relies on defamation. PR campaigns require credible facts that the public can understand, evaluate and utilize. The target audience is free to choose and accept the information and therefore act or deny the information. The success of the persuasion is based on action or inaction.
A PR campaign is not spin or hype. Spin usually refers to efforts to tilt the public perception in ways favorable to a political candidate or product. Unfortunately, it has a negative connotation and is often synonymous with the practice of PR. When used, spin usually means the twisting of the truth to only highlight the positive and “dizzy” the audience. The term hype is derived from hyperbole, which is an exaggeration to impress and evoke a strong response. No legitimate PR campaign achieves successful goals and hits the marks with the objectives using spin or hype. Do successful campaigns based in hype exist? Of course. But it’s important to differentiate that in the age of digital information, flash and buzz do not create a long-term lasting campaign. Weak arguments and tools aiming to just bewilder or bedazzle are not going create a lasting impression that has measureable results in the long-term. What practitioners often see is glitz and buzz are often followed by nay-sayers and contradiction, which puts the client in the center of confusion or worse a cloud of controversy and ultimately never leads to success.
A PR campaign is also not a PR program for a company. A PR program is a long-term strategy that should incorporate the ethics of an organization, strategies for rolling-out new information, handling a crisis and sticking to a brand. Within a PR program, a company can often have one or several PR campaigns a year for various reasons—ultimately to achieve a goal. An example of this is M&M-Mars refreshing its brand in the 1990s and inviting the public to pick a new color for an M&M. The public voted to remove the tan M&M and create a blue M&M. This was an extremely successful campaign for the brand and led to another global search for a new color—purple in 2002; M&Ms characters in 2007; and in 2010 personalized M&Ms.
Types of Campaigns
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