Events MarketingWeek 5 – Public Relations, Relationship Marketing & Brand Fans

Today’s session

• Introduce the concept of public relations and explore how PR can be driven

• Discuss relationship marketing in the context of PR – including co-creation, social media strategy and brand fan management

• Note that we will discuss event branding and experiential marketing in the coming weeks

Public Relations

“Public relations is the art and science of how and event communicator can defend, manage and change the reputation of their event. It can be both a ‘loud’ tactical tool, designed to draw attention to an event, especially among potential attendees. At the same time it can be a quiet strategic tool, designed to shift opinion of an event, typically that of both attendees and influential non attendees.”

(Jackson, 2013:117)

Public Relations Channels

How is PR generally implemented/delivered? TV & Radio Magazines & newspapers Marketing Events/Flashmobs Corporate hospitality CSR Sponsorship (and sponsorship events) Digital Personal contact Word-of-Mouth

Role of PR

Public – stakeholder group - common issue Opinion – expression of an attitude on a topic Influencing opinion is the main goal of PR

Most PR programmes are designed for one of the following purposes:

To persuade people to change their opinion on an issue, product or organisation

To crystallize uninformed or undeveloped opinions

To reinforce existing opinions

Approaches to Public RelationsApproach Purpose Tools Type of eventGrunigian Mutual understanding

Mutual benefitSymmetrical two-way communications based upon feedback

Political eventsNon-profit events

Persuasion To inform and then change attitudes and behavior

Media relationPromotional campaignsLobbyingCommunity affairs/CSRIssues ManagementUses both rational logic and emotional messages

MPR based, such as product launches, CPR, such as building reputation amongst key audiences

Relational Develop influential relationshipsMutual benefit

Target key influencersBuild networks Personal interactionSponsorshipCSROnline PRMedia relationsLobbyingCorporate communicationsQuanxhi

CPRConsumer based relationship building

Influencing public opinions Public opinions/attitudes can be

Positive Negative Non-existent

Small percentage of people have strong positive or negative attitudes, most of them are “middle of the road” – passive, neutral, indifferent – “the silent majority”

Which group should you be trying to influence with your PR activities and why?

Influencing public opinion

Power of persuasion

Persuasion – getting another person to do something through advice, reasoning or forcing

Different people are persuaded by different things, most commonly:

Facts Emotions Personalising & appealing to “you”

PR Toolkit What types of PR coverage could you be

aiming to get? Press articles (news, features) Editorials / Advertorials TV/radio segments Interviews (spokespeople and experts) Readers offers and competitions Social media interaction and co-creation

How would you go about obtaining it?

Successful/Unsuccessful PR stunts

• http://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/09/04/coca-cola-doesn-t-think-it-has-sugar-problem-despite-jamie-oliver-s-call-clampdown

Public RelationsWhat could you provide as a basis for your event communications / PR?

ProductsPeople

Participants with achievementsCelebrities

Programme or Line-Up (e.g. exhibitions, conferences or music festivals)Brand experience (Jolly Green Giant – Event)Partners

Opportunities

News

Social Media

What makes news?

• Prominence• Proximity• Currency• Timeliness• Conflict• Impact• Human interest• Odd or unusual

Long and Short lead

Long lead:• Publications which take longer than a week print

cycle e.g. weekly, monthly, annual publications. • Stories and features are gathered over a longer

period of time

Short lead:• 2-3 day life cycle• Breaking news

Advertising vs Public Relations Cost? Consumer attention? Control? Repetition? Credibility? Attractiveness?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwynne/2014/07/08/the-real-difference-between-pr-and-advertising-credibility/2/

Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM)

– ‘initiate and develop, close interactions with selected stakeholders for mutual value creation through cooperative and collaborative efforts’ (cited Masterman & Wood)

– Focus on Customer retention: communicate benefits rather than features, higher levels of customer service, aim for long term customer involvement, commitment, trust, loyalty, personalization

Relationship marketing, brand fan management and co-creation are not new phenomena

• Have long existed in some form

Time Magazine, 2006 person of the year - you

• Today, co-creative activities are reshaping our understanding of media work

• Producers and consumers roles are constantly changing • Critics say that the labour market for professionals gets

diminished • The Time article said that creative consumers are ‘working for

nothing and beating professionals at their own game’• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkXVM6ad9nI&list=

PL501CA12E38536E7C• pewdiepie

• These shifts are occurring across all major media content industries

• Affects everything from production of content, distribution and access

• Overlap between producers and users• Shift of labour from the professional to the

amateur

• Critical academic scholars view user-created context as a form of free outsourcing

• Consumers how work for free are being exploited by big companies

• The livelihoods of professional creatives are under threat, and wages are being pushed down

• Contributes to the blurring of leisure and work

• User-created content disrupts the traditional relations of cultural production

• Unsettles expertise, employment, and identities of traditional media and knowledge professions

• Co-creation can be seen as carrying growing benefits and opportunities for all involved

What are the motivations for consumer participation?

• Potential to reinvent work – the way we view work• Consumer empowerment• Fandom• Terranova (2004) points out that co-creation is not

directly produced as a response to the needs of the capital, but should at the same time not be understood as an incorporation of an authentic fan culture

• Critical positions often depict consumer participants as unaware that economic value is extracted from their participation

Producer / consumer relationship – mutual benefit

• Same motivations behind consumer co-creation as for media professionals – peer review, reputation, authenticity

• Gill and Pratt (2008) suggest that we should look at the meanings cultural workers gives to these activities – look beyond categories such as work and labour

• Personal, social and cultural values, not just economic. ‘Passionate labour’

Fan labour – fans willingly work uncompensated, but regard their loyalties as resting with the text rather than with the company (Milner, 2009; Yang, 2009)

Social media – dependent on user content

• Most social media sites have a policy that allows them to use any uploaded material as they see fit for free

• 30% of American adults get their news from Facebook

• News valuation increasingly being done by codes (computers), rather than news editors (humans)

Companies use of social media strategies to create and maintain relationships

• #Waitrosereasons - I shop at Waitrose because …• "I shop at Waitrose because it makes me feel important

and I absolutely detest being surrounded by poor people”• "I also shop at Waitrose because I was once in the

Holloway Road branch and heard a dad say 'Put the papaya down, Orlando!‘”

• "I shop at Waitrose because I think food must automatically be better if it costs three times as much."

• "Thanks for all the genuine and funny #WaitroseReasons tweets. We always like to hear what you think and enjoyed reading most of them."

Conclusion

1. Reputation is important even for one off events2. Identify and prioritise the event’s three or four core

publics and3. Consider their importance at different stages of the

event4. Don’t rely on one public relations tool - mix them up5. Consider the role of relationship marketing in

relation to PR and6. Don’t underestimate the Fans!