Of Successful Delivery of PR Tactics with Zero Outcomes

Today, we look at a seemingly simple but complicated topic. One that just about anyone can openly claim to be an expert in, go ahead to implement and succeed. After all, we are all marketers, are we not??

Marketing or sales today is as easy as falling off a log. And brands have literally fallen off the log all the time, thanks to fast-talking wheeler-dealers. Just about anyone with some communication skills can talk their way into a million-dollar marketing deal and get away with it without an iota of culpability or responsibility for the costly implications on the business.

What’s more, the advent of digital media stretched this corporate anomaly to worrying heights, giving marketing quacks free access to new tools of the trade. With little to zero regulation, anything goes when it comes to using social media and other internet-based tools of marketing communication.

YouTube Videos

How many times have you heard of such brilliant solutions: “YouTube is the best place to advertise, With a reach of over 2.6 billion people, all we need is a channel, or we can decide to do Ads, short-short clips of about three seconds to be played at the start of all videos.” Woe unto you if you buy it.

The mere reason that you have the money and some awareness about communication tools and channels is not a justifiable reason for you to use them in your routine marketing communications activities. Frankly speaking, a lot more is needed to inform the process of selecting the tools to apply in a given campaign.

Here is an analogy you can relate to; both a saloon and a limousine are good modes of transportation. However, I doubt if a limousine would be the preferred option to use to go to work daily. Now replace the limo with a 72-passenger bus. Would one person drive it to work every other day?

I know you are now saying that I am exaggerating, but we see this happening every day. Picture the following scenario between an agency and its client.

“We have an angry customer who says one of our products was defective. He has posted a detailed complaint online and everybody is talking about it. This is a big crisis.”

Control of the Narrative

In response, a solution is offered to the delight of the client: “Do not worry, we can handle that quickly. First, we need to take control of the narrative and will need to print banners, T-shirts, and flyers and distribute them to people in the streets. We also need to do bulk SMS to our clientele to put the record straight.”

“I like that idea. I think we should also do a billboard or two, target the areas with high traffic and run the same message,” offers the client. After all, he has the money to buy billboard space.

“Yes, I agree, we can target the billboards and signage at the airports and those along the road from the airport leading to various estates in the city. We should also have some in the informal settlements since millions of city residents stay there.”

Such discussions mostly lead to superbly executed strategies, bringing onboard beautifully designed billboard artworks. The team will pay an arm and a leg to procure bulk SMS software, do nicely produced TV documentaries, and spend hundreds of thousands worth of sponsored digital posts… all poured into one campaign that has zero impact on the target audience.

Bigger Goofs

It may appear as though these mistakes only affect small companies but in reality, evidence points us in a different direction. Large corporates make similar or bigger goofs with far-reaching losses and impacts than start-ups and mid-sized outfits.

A case in point is giant multinational beverage corporation, Coca-Cola, when faced with a threat from Pepsi - a smaller competitor - decided to go offensive. Coca-Cola, to forestall the market penetration of Pepsi, decided to roll out a new product to counter it. Consumers rejected it.

The silver lining is that the consumers were not going for Pepsi but the old coke, buying it in bulk and stocking it at home. Eventually, Coke reverted to the old brand and called it ‘Coke Original’. This may look like a good solution but those in management accounting will tell you what impact that had on the bottom line.

From the consumers’ side of things, such a move can lead to complete rejection of your product, along with reputational damages that may take millions of shillings and years to repair.

Leave it to the Experts

Lucky for you, I am here to open your eyes to some of these things and help you avoid similar blunders in your PR and marketing campaigns. First things first, leave it to the experts to do their thing. The more you meddle in the business of creatives, the higher the chances of throwing your company into a marketer’s nightmare.

A good marketing communications professional will know that we always follow the consumer. To succeed in any campaign, it is important to first understand the problem and then develop clear and realistic objectives which will then inform the messaging.

A key part of this process is understanding the needs and expectations of the target audience and strategically committing to provide tailored solutions.

Tools and channels will then come much later after all the initial parts are clear. When well done, you may be glad to discover that a simple phone call to the disgruntled client on Facebook or a one-on-one meeting would do to resolve the ‘huge crisis’.

Oprah Effect

Then there is the owner’s complex or what is now referred to as the ‘Oprah Effect’ where brands tend to overcommunicate and in the process over-sell a product that in some cases may not even be readily available for sale. But because the marketing division has money and targets, they run ahead of the production line and make all the noise only for the clients to be met by an ignorant sales team, who may not even be aware of the campaign in the first place.

It is for this reason that more than a decade ago, during a meeting of PR people, drawn from about 33 countries, industry players developed and adopted what we now call Barcelona principles. These seven principles remain a cardinal reminder to Public Relations professionals to constantly focus on outcomes and impacts and not only output which is synonymous with simply ticking boxes.?

Yet, even today, many of us are guilty of relying on Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) at a time when digital media has completely redefined the value of a print newspaper advertising space. PR people and Agencies, you have been put on notice. Even the Barcelona Principles need updating, especially when it comes to the measurement of digital media campaigns.

When all is said and done, the bitter truth is that we have people who continue to profit from the mess and have made this their primary source of income. I will not focus too much on them for their days are numbered.

I will leave you with the wise words of David Ogilvy: “I don’t believe in tricky advertising, I don’t believe in cute advertising, I don’t believe in comic advertising. The people who perpetrate that kind of advertising never had to sell anything in their lives.”

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