Join Grace Leong for “Bringing the Power of PR to Brand Marketing” on Sept. 25, 2012 noon–4:30 p.m. EDT, and learn how to build brands with public relations insights and strategies.

What do the brands Chipotle, Chrysler and Nike have in common?

If you answered that these three brands are seeing strong growth in their sales, and consistently maintain top spots on the lists of the world’s most admired brands, you would be correct.

However, even more interesting to me as a marketer and a public relations professional, is the fact that each of these brands has recently won a top national or international award in an advertising competition for a campaign that was not led by advertising, but rather driven by a public relations insight and powered by traditional public relations techniques.

Yup, it’s true. As several bloggers in the communications industry have already noted, these brands, and dozens of others, are winning advertising campaign awards by embracing public relations practices and using our principles to drive deeper levels of engagement and connect more completely with consumers. An examination of some of these award-winning programs clearly shows that public relations ideas are serving as the foundation for best-in-class, 360-degree marketing campaigns.

What’s happening here? It’s simple really. These brands have evolved into a new era of marketing by adopting a values-driven approach. Simply put, values-driven marketing is based on the premise that brands can spark the emotional connection that leads to engagement by focusing on the values shared by both the brand and consumer.  

Continue reading " PR’s Influence in the New Era of Values-Driven Brand Marketing "

As someone who travels all the time, I watch a lot of TV. As CEO of a technology public relations firm, I love all that is “fast” and “new,” but somehow I gravitate toward series that take me back in time. One of the things I love most about retro shows is when I realize that the language, clothes and culture may change, but so many things stay the same.

For example, awesome ideas are timeless. I’m a rabid “Mad Men” fan, and Peggy Olson is the kind of risk taker we love at Airfoil. In her shellacked 1960s bouffant, twin sets and cone bras, she’s come up with campaign concepts I only wish I could have thought of myself — today.

But after reading an article about what life was really like for 1960s-era “Mad Women”, I understand the show doesn’t necessarily reflect the significant number of women who were actually moving-and-shaking on Madison Avenue in the early 1960s. Without the incredible social networking resources women in business have access to today — not to mention a decidedly greater social emphasis on gender equity — this is a real testament to the brains and guts behind these mavericks. I wonder if Peggy would have stayed at Sterling for so long had she been able to put out feelers for opportunities via LinkedIn, demonstrated her industry expertise through Twitter or broadcast her creative ideas and process on a blog.

Even with the assistance of social media, Peggy’s skills would earn her those opportunities (just more rapidly). Her ad concepts work because they speak the truth, plainly but powerfully. She would have no way of knowing, but a Peggy classic — the straightforward “Take it. Break it. Share it. Love it.” for Popsicle — is the essence of a great social media discipline:

• Take your message.
• Break it down into digestible chunks.
• Share it with people who care.
• And love it.

Continue reading " The Sweet Popsicle-Social Media Connection "

Taking a page from reality television, brands have been using non-actors to engage their audiences in television commercials. We’ve seen this in the likes of Mitsubishi’s “Ride the Storm” campaign, Domino’s “Show Us Your Pizza” campaign and Chobani’s “Real Love Stories” campaign. However, this isn’t the first we seen of reality commercials — even if they weren’t labeled as such. Remember the “Pepsi Challenge” or McDonald’s Big Mac commercials?

Continue reading " Using Reality Advertising to Engage the Latino Community "