Is your PR strategy relevant in today's market?

With so much content in the market, it's easy for most marketing and communication efforts to drown out in the noise, especially if they fail to be relevant or have any meaning in our lives. If the message doesn't emotionally resonate or doesn't connect with our values, then not only is it just another fleeting distraction in our lives, but it's also quickly ignored or forgotten.?

This overwhelming feeling usually grips me when I walk into a bookstore with so many titles to choose from I typically struggle to find a book if it's an unknown author. I vividly remember the day back in 2012 when I was away on holidays and walked into a cute little bookstore wanting to find something to read while I bathed in the sunshine, and one title caught my eye it was called 'Start something that matters'.

Thinking it was a self-help title, I picked it up. After all, I love anything that promises to peel the layers and delve deep into your being. But this book seemed to be different, which was also why it caught my attention. There was a picture of someone I didn't recognise yet that seemed so approachable. After picking up the book, I learnt his name was Blake Mycoskie and his story instantly captured my heart. I wanted to know more so I bought the book.

Back in 2007, when Blake was travelling through Argentina while he was on the show The Amazing Race, he noticed the children's poverty and how they were without shoes. Wanting to do something, he came up with TOMS shoes - a one for one business model where a pair of shoes is donated to one of these children each time you buy a pair. Sitting on the sun-drenched beach, I found a shady spot and soon got lost in Blake's story even the stunning background I was surrounded by faded away as the almost magical words I read lept off the page and sent tingles down my spine.

The story of TOMS shoes to me is what the true essence of PR is about and his book 'Start Something That Matters' explores the power of finding and bringing your purpose to life. Its purpose is the true fuel that sparks the ignition in the PR engine and creates a powerful story that captures our emotions. It was the combination of Blake's social purpose and how PR and storytelling helped him grow very rapidly and turned this brand into one that very quickly got to be worth over $625million.?

What Blake was searching for and what he found was meaning and it was the same thing that created a physical reaction in my body. He yearned to create something more than just a successful business. He did something that gave back and made the world a better place. What is relevant here for brands, marketers, founders and PR professionals is that this search for meaning is part of the human spirit. We are all human, and we value human values, and by purchasing a pair of TOMS shoes, we fuel the human spirit because through this purchase we are making the world a better place.

If we look at the global statistics, this human need to make the world a better place is in all of us. Global research From Porter Novelli has found that 85% of consumers feel it is not acceptable for companies just to make money they must positively impact society as well. While 85% believed being a purpose-driven company drives profit. This has been the case for TOMS, and they did this well before purpose was a trend. Today it's a must, and it needs to be caked into the business strategy, the corporate culture and the PR strategy. Communications campaigns need to do more than use a celebrity ambassador, create a fun experiential experience, today they also need to serve the community, so they don't just create fleeting exposure but capture our hearts, minds, and emotions.?

The Edelman Earned Brand report also found that 2 in 3 people choose, switch, avoid or boycott a brand based on its stance on social issues. This means that your PR needs to evolve to include a bold social purpose - the one key issue you want to own and the change you wish to help make in the world. For Airbnb, its belonging, for Dove, its women's empowerment, for Ben & Jerry's, its climate change, for Qantas, its equality, for The Body Shop, it's animal welfare for Atlassian its climate change, for TOMS, it's to put shoes on the feet of disadvantaged children.??

The most successful brands are using their values to lead their PR and content strategies, and the ones that are genuine with a long term focus are turning into media superstars and capturing our loyalty and trust. The Havas Meaningful Brands Global Study, which had 350,000 respondents from 31 countries, found that 77% of consumers buy from brands that share their values, while meaningful brands outperform the stock market by 134%.

This means your PR and content strategy needs to evolve to promote a brand's values and share stories of the impact they are making in the world beyond money. When it comes to creating engaging content, consumers are looking for these three benefits:

1. Personal benefit - how brands improve people's lives
2. Collective benefit - their role in society, social and environmental benefits?
3. Functional benefit - does the product or service deliver what it promises?

So before you develop your PR and content strategy, first identify your social purpose and how you want to make the world a better place. This social purpose then needs to drive PR strategy and media material so you can stand out, get noticed by the media and create a deep emotional connection with your audience.

Your media material needs to stand apart from the competition, and it's hard to do this if you focus on your products and services, especially when everyone else has a similar offering. What you need is a social purpose of bringing your storytelling to life and capturing your audience's hearts, minds, and emotions.?

When TOMS shoes launched as a shoe brand, nothing set them apart from other brands except for their social purpose of wanting to put shoes on the feet of impoverished children's feet'.??

Because this social purpose led their PR and content strategy, they got instant and widespread attention from the media, retailers and consumers who were flocking to write about them, stock them and buy from them. Your social purpose, not your products and services, can be your most significant competitive advantage and the best way to stand out in the media. But first, you need to find and share your story that brings your values to life.

The benefits of integrating your social purpose into your PR strategy include:

• Your PR activity isn't fleeting, here one minute and forgotten the next. Instead, it has more of an opportunity to linger, inspire and be shared.
• You attract a broader and new audience, especially millennials and conscious consumers who want to know how you're making the world a better place
• You can target more publications and share more meaningful stories, especially those focusing on corporate social responsibility. But be sure to be transparent and share the social impact you have made
• You have the opportunity to create more authority and trust with the media and have the chance to be considered for more stories as you stand out and capture their radar
• You will build a reputation with the media and consumers that you are a leader in innovation that's driving purpose

My top tips for starting your social purpose journey:

1. Select an extremely engaging issue and a concern for your customers and relevant to your industry and products and interesting to media (which means it needs to be an issue that impacts a lot of people)
2. Choose a social purpose that aligns with their company mission and values
3. Once a cause is selected, you need to commit wholeheartedly and long-term. Otherwise, your partnership will be viewed as just a PR exercise
4. Also, demonstrate your commitment to your cause through your corporate behaviour, policies and practices to ensure they align with your social purpose
5. Use your social purpose journey to stay in touch with the media and share the impact you are having - How many hours have you volunteered? How much you raise? How many products or services you have given away? What difference have you made?

Remember, today's consumers have changed, PR has changed and the way you do business and communicate needs to change as today 88% of consumers want to brands to help them make the world a better place.?