A successful PR campaign can put a brand on the map and play a huge role in increasing awareness.
Having clear objectives, a focus on the audience and how to reach them are all important elements to forming the basis of a successful PR campaign.
Sounds easy? It’s not as straightforward as it sounds. You need to plan and plan a little more and will dismiss countless ideas and concepts before you land on the one.
Here’s Motive tips on the things to to consider when planning a PR campaign.
Setting the objectives
What does your brand want to get out of the PR campaign? Is it about getting quality links to your website to boost SEO? Is it about your brand name becoming recognisable and increasing brand awareness? Or could it be about your new product in front of as many journalists, influencers as you can? It could be one of these, all of these or more. Being clear on what your brand wants to achieve and having measurements in place to assess its success at the end are vital.
Interrogating the brief
Any good agency will interrogate the brief. They’ll ask questions and get under the skin of what a brand wants to achieve to ensure the campaign developed will meet and exceed the objectives.
Ideation
Ideation is at the heart of a creative PR agency. Not all ideas make the final cut so this is an important element of any campaign. Allow plenty of time - it’s very rare to take and run with the first idea a team comes up with and all campaign ideas will need rigorous development before they’re put in front of a client.
Timings
When does your brand want the campaign to land? Is it to tie in with a product launch, an event the brand is planning or can you be flexible on timings? Certain times of the year, for example Christmas, are always busy with product placement and brands launching specifically for the gift buying season.
Audience
Who is your campaign aiming to reach? Is your campaign business orientated and hoping to reach investors? Or new recruits for your company? Or are you consumer focussed and keen to reach a very targeted demographic? Alternatively you may want your campaign to reach a mass audience.
Platform
There are multiple platforms to choose from and by identifying your audience, you’ll have a much clearer idea on which platform to use. Many campaigns will run across multiple but some may work better on just one or two.
Pitching / placement
Once you’re clear on the objectives, audience, platform and have the assets for your campaign ready, it’s time to make the magic happen. Be tenacious with pitching, be clear on who you want to reach and have fun doing it and reaping the rewards of all your hard work.
Results & measurement
Once your campaign has landed, record results, measure success and feedback to the brand client. Setting the KPIs and agreeing what success looks like at the outset will make this much easier.
To find out about some of our campaigns at Motive, take a look here.