I asked the students in my online Public Relations Techniques class, University of Maryland University College, to select some of the best examples of persuasive public relations that they felt measured up to “Best Practice” level. Here are some of the winners they chose:
Susan Hollman likes Amazon.com’s “Holiday A-List Campaign.” It won a PRSA Silver Anvil award. Susan wrote that “Amazon.com and UTA Dobbin Bolgla won this award in 2004 for a promotion in 2003 … The campaign was based on prior knowledge gleaned from research that indicated that customers like to get ‘celebrity promotions that incorporate exclusive content.’ A prior online event with messages from singers such as Madonna and Seal, were both successful with customers and with gaining unearned media. The budget covered the agency fees. All additional media coverage was unearned through articles, celebrity websites, etc. The celebrities provided the online messages at no cost, including a video concert by the Foo Fighters. All participants got free publicity and promotion of their products. Even publishers were involved in some cases, providing extra copies of books to Amazon.com to meet the anticipated increased demand. A real win-win situation. When the campaign was evaluated, these were some of the highlights that make me feel this campaign was a PR best practice.
-Participating celebrities agreed they would do it again.
-There were in excess of 157 million media impressions.
-Sales and site hits increased and Amazon had its “best holiday season.”
-The featured products all had sales spikes when they were highlighted during the campaign.
Kimberlie Payne cited Sears Roebuck& Co. She wrote: “For the past seven years Sears Roebuck & Co. has produced a free calendar for its customers commemorating Black History month. According to a recent press release at prnewswire.com, Sears announces that it is ‘proud to celebrate African-American history and culture through an original keepsake calendar distributed to nearly two million customers free of charge at its stores nationwide now through February.’ Since the 1990’s ‘Softer Side of Sears’ campaign, the company has been continually re-vamping and re-energizing its hardware-only image. To add to its widening clientele and to demonstrate social awareness, Sears is reaching out to its publics again in order to persuade them to view the company as a diversified and culturally open place to work and shop. ‘Every year we look forward to creating a new and meaningful calendar that demonstrates to our customers that we not only value African-American culture, but that we also celebrate it across our entire company,’ (prnewswire.com).
Mark Hurst admires the Tide laundry detergent brand. “I began to notice the company’s commitment to public relations while watching a Christmas special this past holiday season. The company sponsored a children’s movie on one of the major cable networks and used the movie to promote its own public relations campaign. During the movie, the first commercial of every series was a Tide commercial that featured a running animated story of a small-town event that was being threatened by an unforeseen snowstorm. The story was beautifully animated and beautifully crafted. In each sequence, a new family was introduced (usually from a different social demographic) and clothes played a prominent role in their family story. An animated box of Tide was always subtly placed to catch the viewer’s eye…At the end of the story, the big event turned out to be a clothing drive for underprivileged families. Of course, the story had a warm, feel-good ending and Tide used this ending to announce their own clothing drive for underprivileged families.
Tide has recently announced a new, socially responsible product line called ‘Cold Water Tide.’ This product is designed to save energy by cleaning clothes effectively using only cold water. As public awareness of the global warming crisis continues to rise, Tide is certain to garner plenty of free media attention by developing a product line that can help to ‘Turn the Tide’ of global warming. To make the product introduction interesting to consumers, Tide has developed a website, http://www.tide.com/tidecoldwater/challenge.jhtml where they invite consumers to ‘Take the Coldwater Challenge.’ By logging in and sending the link to their friends, consumers can track the impact they’ve had on the environment (through social networking) on a prominently displayed map that displays the location of people who have read their note. Tide has a built-in calculator on their website that allows families to calculate how much money they will save by using Coldwater Tide. Again, Tide is coming to the aid of poor families by prominently announcing that it will donate $100,000 to the National Fuel Funds Network — an organization that provides money for low-income families to pay their energy bills. The challenge seems to be working. So far, about a half million Americans have taken the ‘Tide Cold Water Challenge.’ For this latest campaign to help raise social awareness of the global warming problem (and also to improve the company image), Tide gets my nomination as an example of a PR Best Practice.”
Paul Hill likes SNAPPLE. In a combination of advertising and PR, Snapple latched onto an idea to solicit customer letters. The idea was the brainchild of the PR department at Kirschenbaum & Bond. “The phenomenon behind this Big Idea is that people want ownership of Snapple and they are willing to write to the company about their relationship with this drink. The first unsolicited letters related how the writers felt — that they discovered it, they want to own it, and they are driven to share the news with others. The letters gave the agency an idea for a campaign based on a Snapple employee named Wendy who receives the letters, reads them, and responds to them. The campaign features real letters from real people who have tried the beverage and love it. The television production crews travel to these people’s hometowns and film them there–a technique which could backfire when you put untrained performers on camera, or could be a stroke of genius if they project an infectious enthusiasm, as has happened. The filming also becomes a publicity event at the local level because the company involves the community in the release of the commercials. This incredible relationship evolved to the point that Snapple eventually was receiving some 20 boxes of letters a month.”
Elizabeth Henderson is impressed about how Jack In the Box restaurants turned their image around after an e-coli scare. “They are now known as a leader in food safety. Most other fast food chains followed the lead of Jack In the Box in implementing new food safety measures. They have used their new safety program to persuade customers to return to their restaurants. From the website: http://www.jackinthebox.com/aboutourco/foodsafety.php …”Jack in the Box® restaurants strive to ensure that the food we serve exceeds our guests’ high expectations for quality and safety. Our food quality and safety program has been recognized as the most comprehensive system in the industry today. In our restaurants, Jack in the Box implements a Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) system for managing food quality and safety. Critical Control Points are key steps in the product flow that affect food safety. Introduced in 1993, our HACCP system encompasses farm to fork procedures for safe food handling and preparation in every restaurant….”
And there is much more…” Chad Elliott found another PRSA Silver Anvil winner that impressed him. It is Duracell’s campaign of “trust”. “Partnering with The American Red Cross, Duracell moved away from its traditional performance-based claims in favor of the notion of trust in launching the program entitled ‘Together We Can Become Safe Families.’ Distributing more than 150,000 guidebooks and coupons to help families prepare for unforeseen emergencies, positioned the brand before the public as one it can ‘trust.’ Using the American Red Cross was brilliant, because by name association alone it gives the batteries instant credibility. Identifying with Americans’ continued concern over terrorism, the strategy launched a program tailored to preparedness. The agency PainePR was responsible for the effort.”
Anthony Tornetta thinks the “Reading is Fundamental” (RIF) program doesn’t get enough credit. “This program is a good one — children see their sports heroes and other celebrities they see on T.V. reading and telling them to read. RIF is the nation’s largest nonprofit children’s literacy organization. This program is very persuasive and subtle. It is telling kids that it’s cool to read and that they should read as much as possible. I think their commercials are the most persuasive part for children when they see sports and celebrities on television.”
Erin Bessemer acknowledges that it as much marketing and advertising, as PR, but she admires the image created by “Yoplait’s Save Lids to Save Lives” promotion. “For more than ten years, Yoplait has been associated with helping women fight breast cancer. Save Lids to Save Lives has proven effective for the Yoplait Company and is part of their larger promotion of women’s wellness. In its first seven years, they have donated more than $14 million toward finding a cure for breast cancer.” Yoplait has also been the National Series Presenting Sponsor of the Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer Foundation’s Race for the Cure since 2001. See http://www.yoplait.com/breastcancer_commitment.aspx
“I see Yoplait’s commercials all over television. You usually see a woman exercising and then taking a break to enjoy here yogurt snack. At the end, she licks the pink lid to save and send in to the company. I feel this campaign is effective because it links Yoplait’s public relations with a very good cause.“
Alison Mingo calls to our attention The American Legacy Foundation’s “truth” ads. They have received multiple awards such as International Andy Awards, The One Show, Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, and Cresta Awards. “Arnold Worldwide is the agency responsible for producing this past year’s ads that convey, through satire, the stupidity of smoking cigarettes. The messages invoke different emotions from viewers in the shocking yet realistic information provided. Most importantly, though, these ads reach the target audience of young people who may be tempted to smoke or those who have recently become addicted. The anti-smoking messages have already contributed to the public’s awareness of the hazards of smoking that have led to statutory legislation banning smoking in public places.”
June Kruse – Also acknowledging the close connection among PR, marketing and advertising, loves the “Got Milk?” campaign. “When you see a celebrity sporting a white mustache in a magazine ad, you will know that’s the famous National Milk Mustache Got Milk Campaign.The campaign is funded by America’s milk processors and dairy farmers, with a goal of ‘educating consumers on the benefits of milk and to raise milk consumption.’ In addition to ‘Got Milk’ and ‘Got Chocolate Milk,’ ‘24/24 Milk’ was launched to stay on top of the diet craze. Their slogan ‘milk your diet, lose weight’ suggests ‘a reduced-calorie eating plan that includes 24 oz of fat free or low fat milk each day may give your weight loss efforts a boost.’ These campaigns have successfully raised our awareness of the importance of milk.” You can check out the facts, ads and commercials at these sites. http://www.whymilk.com/, http://www.2424milk.com/index.htm, http://www.milkdelivers.org/index.cfm
Kandra Berry loves an award-winning newsletter, ”SAMHSA News,” published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This monthly “offers the public information about substance abuse and mental health issues on a monthly basis.” See http://alt.samhsa.gov/SAMHSA_News/index.asp
Jacqueline “Jackie” Nemes loves Dell Computers/GCI Read Poland’s campaign “No Computer Should Go to Waste.” “This international effort recently won the PR News Corporate Responsibility Award for Environmental Communications. I believe this campaign measures up to Best Practice level because it has accomplished its socially responsible mission in creating positive social change. In 1997, the National Safety Council released estimates that more than 300 million computers would become obsolete before 2004, and efforts to dispose of them would generate a wide range of toxic wastes. Socially responsible companies searched for and developed solutions to this electronic waste. For example, Dell Computers began offering an online service called Dell Exchange, where customers can trade in, donate or auction their obsolete computers. In partnership with the government of Malaysia, Dell and GCI succeeded in their global campaign to raise public awareness of recycling/donating options for unwanted computer equipment and persuading public action. In 2004, informed citizens throughout the world recycled more than 100 tons of computer equipment and donated more than 850 tons of computers.” Pauleta Gumbs admires the American Red Cross Blanket Days for the Homeless program. See http://www.semredcross.org/blanketdays/
“This campaign was established to provide blankets for homeless and disaster victims. The campaign encourage groups, families, individuals to hold blanket drives in their hometowns and claims to collect more than 7,000 blankets each year. One of the reasons I feel that this campaign is effective because it plays on the audience emotions.
“Take this paragraph: ‘Your Help Is Needed. When temperatures drop, local shelters fill with thousands of homeless people- teenage runaways, victims of domestic violence, substance abusers, and the mentally ill. The cold weather also intensifies the suffering of people whose homes have been destroyed by home fires or other disaster. A warm blanket wrapped around the shoulders of someone who has lost a home is a comforting reminder that someone cares. How You Can Help. Your new twin-size blanket donations will be provided to local homeless shelters and disaster victims; financial donations will pay for additional blankets if needed, comfort kits, and also will support other vital Red Cross services in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.’ ‘Good Deeds’ are published on persons who went beyond their call of duty to ensure the campaign was and remains a success. Check out the feature story on the Warren Couple http://www.detnews.com/2005/macomb/0502/10/B05-85577.htm.
Margo Ochoa notes that Baker Winokur and Ryder have over 25 years of connecting the consumer with entertainer and she feels their work hooking celebrities to non-profit causes is the stuff of legends. There is plenty of unearned PR that can be accomplished with a popular celebrity Angela Gaines likes Lee Denim’s creation of the community/fundraising event Lee Denim Day, raising money for breast cancer research. See http://www.denimday.com/
“Lee Jeans sponsors Denim Day on the first Friday in October annually. Organizations across the country participate by allowing employees to contribute $5.00 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation and wear jeans to work. The organizers of this effort were ingenious in utilizing the desire of a casual workplace environment to help find a cure for a disease that affects millions of people every day.”
Brian Harrington feels Southwest Airlines’ Adopt-A-Pilot Educational Program http://www.southwest.com/adoptapilot/?sr=PR_pilot_020105 deserves some PR recognition. “This program encourages students to research potential careers as it simultaneously encourages achievement in school and self-esteem. Throughout a month-long program, Southwest pilots volunteer their time as they visit classrooms around the country, correspond with students while traveling, and encourage interest in math, science, and a wide variety of other genres. Since the program was introduced in September 1997, the program has involved over 65,000 students in its efforts to increase awareness in a myriad of areas relating to scholastic achievement. Additionally, this program has been cited for its impact on schools faced with a lack of funding due to budget shortages (this especially includes many classrooms in areas that are considered ‘disadvantaged.’ This year alone, the Adopt-A-Pilot program has engaged nearly 15,000 schools from around the country. Southwest Airlines, due in part to this program (and a variety of other factors), has come to be known as the ‘Luv’ airline.”
