By Charlie Martin, Senior Communications Consultant
In a tough economic climate, clients - much like consumers - are on the lookout for value. In the latest IPA Bellwether Report, there was a surprisingly encouraging net 2% increase in PR budgets. But even then, at best, we’re standing still.
Increasingly, positive responses to campaign proposals include a dreaded ‘but’ that normally revolves around budget. With reviews of campaign work resulting in the client asking how we can achieve the same results for less money.
Originality and newsworthiness are not interchangeable terms
Originality is overrated. Journalists often look for news that’s ‘the same but different’ and taking such an approach in the current economic climate is the smart choice.
Don’t be afraid to lean on campaign ideas that have worked for you previously. It will bring you confidence when presenting and give a sense of reassurance to the client, who is more cautious than usual. A bit of familiarity is no bad thing.
When you’re in the ideation process and coming up with creative ideas, keeping the media front of mind is vital. An idea may really resonate with a brand's principles or messaging, but if you’re unsure if it will get coverage, it’s probably best to leave that one on the cutting room floor. Being ruthless at this point the campaign process will pay off later down the line.
Getting from A to Z as efficiently as possible
Now it’s time to bring your campaign to life. Process is absolutely crucial - and this is true for all things in PR, Good process will see you steer clear of pitfalls, avoidable mistakes and ensure smooth running and efficient campaigns.
But that doesn’t mean there are no good reasons to veer from the well trodden path, on occasion. Often during the ideation process, we will add all the trinkets to our campaign idea, including consumer research, a celebrity spokesperson or influencer activity and much more to show the boundless opportunities our brilliant creative idea presents.
But, much like we should kill our darlings when writing, the same goes when executing a creative campaign. Always keep in mind the ultimate objective of the activity and what helps you best achieve that. If it’s a nice to have or you can create the same story without an element, drop it.
The use of data - specifically consumer research - has become a crutch for too many campaigns. We all love a bit of data and journalists certainly do too, but it can be overkill when used unnecessarily.
If you are using data, consider if your client has existing data you could use, or perhaps an FOI request could work to source new data - should you have a long lead-time. You could even explore using publicly available data, if it’s relatively new and hasn't been picked up in the media. All these options are not only more cost effective but can provide a point of difference to your campaign.
Avoiding fairy dust metrics
Too often a PRs approach to showing the impact of their work has been akin to Matthew McConaughey in the Wolf of Wall Street. You know how it goes in a review meeting “it’s a whazy, it’s a whoozie, it’s fairy dust”, as you try to explain the value of vanity metrics that don’t have relevance to your clients. In tough economic times, not being able to effectively demonstrate value is inexcusable.
Demonstrating value to clients is completely dependent on the objective of the activity. That may seem simple, but all too often, people will point to great print coverage for a Digital PR campaign, or coverage in a red top when your key target audience was B2B.
Whilst coverage on its own isn’t enough, being able to point to ‘hero’ coverage is important. The first thing a Finance Director will ask when scouring over PR budgets is what coverage the business has earned recently. If you can point to the Times, or Forbes for B2B clients, or The Sun or Mirror for consumer, it’s likely to make a good impression on the ROI of their PR spend.
But taking this a step further, utilising metrics that can prove a tangible impact of your work is vital in making sure your client is happy with the work you’re doing. This also relies on a bit of collaboration with your client, such as being able to access sales data or their website traffic - as these are brilliant avenues to show the impact of a campaign. A 10% increase in sales or 20% increase in site traffic as a result of a PR campaign are infinitely better metrics to present than a ginormous reach figure that is several times greater than the UK population.
There’s undoubtedly a couple of extra layers of pressure when it comes to campaign activity at present - , but being able to deliver successful campaigns when client expectations are sky high, but budgets are limited, is a skill that will stand you will at any point in your career. As they say… “No pressure, no diamonds”.
