Developing a PR Strategy
3. The Strategy
3.2 Planning
of a year should be examined and the results group into positive, neutral and negative categories. The media audit will give an indication as to the current image of ‘brand Italy’ and inform the strategy as to the angles are required and the direction it should take. The media audit will also indicate if a reputation management campaign should be implemented prior to the launch of the promotional strategy (for details on reputation management, see Chapter X on Crisis Management).
i) Introduction:
The introduction should offer an overview of the organisation along with a summary of the results of the SWOT and PEST analysis along with the media audit findings from your research stage. The introduction should explain clearly how this information has been used to inform your strategy and identify the goal of the strategy.
ii) Target Audiences:
As we have seen in earlier chapters, target audiences or publics should be segmented into various groups to enable messages to be tailored towards each group. For example, the target audiences for the ‘Travel to Italy’ campaign could be business people, families and young couples. Each of these groups will have a different message and will most likely acquire their news or information via different channels. For example, young couples might be most likely to read or engage with an influencer who posts details of a holiday to Italy on Instagram. A business-person might prefer to receive news through the business pages of an online or print news paper and a 35 year old mother might receive her information
through Instagram and the lifestyle pages in the various publications she follows online. The messages for each of these groups might be different as is evidenced in the Mind Map figure earlier in this chapter.
iii) Objectives:
Clearly defined objectives or goals that are closely aligned to the tactics and evaluation strategy are the key to the production of an excellent and efficient PR strategy. The Barcelona Principles are a set of international guidelines developed by the PR industry to assist PR professionals worldwide in delivering metrics for their clients or organisations. The Principles state that objectives should be SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time-bound) (AMEC, n.d.). Key to the formation of a successful strategy is the setting of SMART objectives and it is critical that the objectives are related to communications. For example an objective such as: ‘to ensure everyone wants to travel to Italy by the end of the campaign’, would be a very difficult objective to measure. Firstly ‘everyone’ would need to be quantified and secondly how would it be possible to demonstrate that? A more specific and measurable objective could be ‘to ensure an x% increase in the travellers to Italy in the summer period.’ This is an objective that could be measured by analysing the trends amongst this demographic before and after the campaign.
iv) Key Messages:
The purpose of segmenting the publics into various target audiences is to identify and develop messages specific to each audience and to enable that message to be
communicate through relevant media channels. For example, one message might resonate with a male audience but not with a female one or a message communicated through social media might reach a younger audience but not a senior group. In a PR strategy, each audience should have a message developed specifically to communicate with the group and to reach the media that this group engages with. Ideally a PR strategy should have a
minimum of three key messages and no more than five to ensure the strategy is clear and concise.
v) Tools & Tactics:
The tools and tactics are sometimes referred to as the activity of the strategy. These are the tactics you will use to execute your campaign and deliver on the objectives. A PR strategy should be viewed as a holistic communications campaign and should take into account all elements of the PESO Model (Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned media) as these areas tend to overlap in modern communications programmes. The strategy should outline clearly how the earned media tools and tactics will complement, lead or support the Paid, Shared and Owned media strategies also. Examples of tools and tactics include a launch event, a press conference, a media announcement, video production or a photoshoot for example.
The Chapter on Content Creation contains detailed information on applicable tools and tactics to use in a PR strategy. In addition to the content generation tools, there are other tactics also available to the PR strategist. This is particularly important to note in the case of public affairs campaigns or activity where relationship building rather than media coverage is the main objective.
Figure X – PR Tools & Tactics
(This is in design. Stakeholder relations and speeches are being added).
In addition to the content creation tools available, the PR practitioner also has other tools at his or her disposal including surveys, stakeholder relations and speech writing. These are common tools used in public affairs and political PR (see chapter X).
In reputational campaigns in particular, surveys are excellent ways to ascertain public opinion and to draw a conclusion on the image of the organisation. They also provide an excellent evaluation tool for the PR practitioner at the end of a campaign enabling the organisation to study public perception prior to the campaign and compare it to the public perception on completion of the reputation building activity. Surveys can also generate content for future use in press releases for example. Surveys such as these however can be expensive and time consuming to produce and conduct and organisations can be slow to invest in them as a result. Surveys therefore tend not to be performed therefore as often as they perhaps should be.
Many public relations professionals will have developed relationships or contacts for political representatives or civil servants working within government. These professionals may also have a good knowledge of the workings of they systems and processes of local government.
They are often hired by organisations to help with relationship building campaigns or campaigns that aim to effect policy change. This activity is referred to in public relations as stakeholder relations. Stakeholder relations involves the briefing of policy makers on the issues affecting the organisation involved. It is a common tactic for example if a brand is entering a new market in which they wish to try and communicate with local officials prior to a wider opening.
Press Release Statement.
Media Pitch, Diary Note,
Photocall Notice.
Surveys, Case Studies Media Drops,
Experiences.
Launch, Press Conference, Media Event.
Videos, Blogs, Podcasts.
For example, in 2017, the Cork Chamber of Commerce in Ireland won a Public Relations award for its campaign entitled: ‘Delivering Transatlantic Connectivity from Cork to Boston.’
The chamber received the award in recognition of its successful campaign in which it lobbied for an airline to commence transatlantic flights from Cork to Boston. The lobbying campaign achieved success by implementing a highly success stakeholder communications
programme in which businesses and political representatives in Ireland and in the United States were met and briefed to ensure political and commercial support. This is very often a key public relations tactic that is requested by organisations.
Speech-writing is another tactic of the public relations professional that is also common in public affairs campaigns. Often political representatives may call on an organisation to send briefing notes to them for a speech they might be making as part of a launch campaign in corporate or consumer communications or as part of a public affairs campaign. In this instance, the public relations professional can weave in the key messages of the organisation and ensure consistency of message throughout all communication.
Figure X details all the tools and tactics available to PR practitioners, including the content creation tools. For more details on tools and tactics for content creation, see Chapter 12 (Content Creation) in which the tools and tactics specific to content creation for PR purposes are outlined in greater detail.
vi) Budget
Public relations activity can be billed on either a retainer or a project basis. A retainer involves monthly payments to cover activity based on the hourly input of team members.
Retainers tend to be the preferred choice for agencies as they offer financial security and certainty. A project fee is a generally a once off fee that is paid in one lump sum or in instalments to cover a specific campaign. This can be a preferable option for some
organisations and particular smaller ones as there is less commitment involved by all parties.
The strategy should provide an estimate as to the cost of the PR activity and identify the payment options that are available to the potential client. In an ideal situation the prospective client or organisation will have provided a budget guideline in the brief to assist the
consultancy in compiling the brief.
In addition to consultancy fees, the strategy should provide the prospective client with an indication of third-party costs that they might expect. Third party costs are costs that the
consultant may have to incur on behalf of the client such as the hire of a photographer, a videographer or a venue for example. In these instances, agencies generally would pay these suppliers out of their own revenues and add a handling fee or a mark-up to the cost and rebill it to the client. The figure below is a sample of a public relations budget.
Figure X – Budget Sample
PR Strategy Sample Budget
Campaign to launch a new car on the market over a 6-month period Payment options
1. Project fee (in Euros)