Seeing Beyond the Product Announcement

Working in technology public relations for the last 25 years, I've learned the most successful communications campaigns focus on counter intuitive ideas.

Many communications professionals (especially in enterprise tech) face the same challenge, business and marketing teams mostly look to the public relations team for press releases on products and services to use as a sales collateral. While there’s still a place for that as a tactic, it really isn’t the most effective use of a communications team’s abilities. There is so much more communications professionals can do to help make markets for products and services.

All too often, we view the press release as the obituary for our announcement. We celebrate the results and move on to the next one. In order to see beyond the product announcement, we need to ask ourselves some questions:

• What is the greater purpose in the world our technology is playing?
• What is the true problem the product/service is solving?
• How do we shape the issues we’re addressing in a way that demonstrates the value of your company and product/service?

In the spirit of a political campaign, issues are what candidates win and lose on, and I’d argue issues are what your organization will win and lose on. Those core issues always activate something in people to motivate them to take action. They are personal to them and relatable, and they can see how it’s impacting them and their loved ones.

Seeing is Believing

The best way to demonstrate this is via a case study. Look at the award-winning work of the Spanish eyewear brand Multiópticas for example. Seeking to differentiate itself from competitors in the eyewear space who focus on price to fashion, Multiópticas took a different approach – creating a new issue.

Multiópticas saw a rising issue around the overuse of screens and an opportunity at the same time. They decided to come into the market tackling one of the least talked about benefits of their glasses, as their lead issue –the blue light filtering feature many that eyewear firms offer now. Sure, we don’t know how effective their blue light technology was over the others – but it doesn’t matter. They never even talked about that in this campaign. They solely focused on creating a new issue, shaping it, and doing something about it.

This campaign video does a great job at giving you the whole story and you can read the full case study here:

Hopefully that video gave you a sense of the campaign including the look and feel they used to get their message across. Let me breakdown what they did for you a bit.

First, they coined an incredible term here in “Screen Pollution” which really encapsulates the issue so well. Then they sought out data to tell their story and examined the issue via a quantitative study that would produce alarming, and relevant evidence, capable of generating media and social conversation about the issue. This data would also provide a central theme for the entire campaign and legitimize subsequent actions. Now, they needed to establish Screen Pollution as new concept and raise public awareness about it.

You can see in the video some of the advertising work they did to start seeding the idea. Again, they didn’t talk about the benefits of their glasses, they just started talking about the issue. There is a great line in the advertising (this is translated), “Though our business is selling glasses we care more about your eyes.” So simple it truly captures the approach here.

They then of course wanted to start a national conversation on the issue, so they aligned themselves with eye health professional, politicians, and other influencers to start a conversation with their data as a central talking point for all of them. The striking nature of these facts is very hard for pundits and media to resist and Multiópticas was at the center of the discussions using their own eye health experts as spokespeople as well across social, earned and paid media.

Now, my favorite part of this is how Multiópticas activated around the issue and to demonstrate it was a brand capable of offering solutions to the problem. They evolved their tactics as the campaign grew, moving from Storytelling to “Storydoing” to show they genuinely cared about promoting the responsible use of screens. ?They put together an expert filled landing page with eye health experts to provide advice on how to reduce screen time. They even organized training workshops for school children to raise their awareness and give them techniques for reducing screen use.

Their Screen Pollution campaign won several awards but more importantly, Multiópticas saw the sale of blue filter glasses rise by 78% in 2019.

Looking Back for Lessons

There is no shortage of lessons here, but for me, there were four big takeaways that I’ve encouraged my teams to apply over the years:

1. Find the Real Issue - Find a core issue that is bigger than what your organization is doing. Don’t focus on the obvious issue – dig a little deeper, ask tough questions.?What is a sub-issue we can differentiate on? Then substantiate it with data.
2. Build Something Enduring - How can this roll out over weeks or months? How can this be iterative? Build on prior announcements? Look for ways to tie it in to holidays, current events, and moments that you know will happen. Think about anticipating potential moments to tie it to.
3. Storydoing vs Storytelling - Do something about the problem that isn’t just selling a product. Show empathy. Take action. Engage with people in a surprising way.
4. Take a Risk - Be prepared to inject your organization into the conversation (which can be scary!). A campaign has to have edge, some element of tension to break through the noise. Don’t be afraid to take a position on an issue. If you do your homework, people internally will listen.

Any great examples you admire or have worked on? I'd love to hear about them. Feel free to share them in the comments.