In this age of digital technology, there are countless ways for brands to make themselves appeal to their customer base. From curating a following on social media, to hiring the services of an online PR company or even creating the weirdest advertisement possible just to get people talking, the options are endless.
The world of PR and the world of technology have always had a remarkably close relationship. Those in PR often see new technology as a new frontier to conquer and experiment with with the goal of reaching new people. In this age of rapidly developing technology, this opens countless doors for possible marketing strategies and campaigns. However, there are a few new rules in this brave new world:
Image Is Everything
While this is a long-established fact in the world of advertising, nowadays in a digital age dominated by social media this statement holds an unprecedented amount of power.
Social media serves a variety of functions in the world of PR. On top of allowing campaigns to reach their intended audience faster, social media allows PR managers to directly interact with their customers and can be a valuable source of information regarding customers’ attitudes and feedback. Furthermore, social media serves as The Place to collate one’s brand image and advertise products.
By and large, social media is ruled by one thing: First impressions. Whether good or bad, or worse – disinterest, the first impression that a brand makes on social media can make or break its future. In a world where all it takes is the click of a button to share a tweet or Instagram post to people all over the world, word can and does spread fast, and if done right one single social media campaign can bring overnight fame to a brand.
Originality Can Get You Pretty Far
It’s no surprise that brands have been employing this strategy to attract customers since humanity first began hawking wares. Things haven’t changed that much in a sense, brands will still use whatever means they have to catch a customer’s eye. But in this age of digital technology, one good PR stunt can have you catch people’s eyes from across the globe.
With the breakneck pace at which the landscape of the internet is constantly changing, people are always on the lookout for something new to tickle their fancy. Rather than going for flashiness, today’s youth seem to enjoy uniqueness and originality far more than any effort to make a brand look glamorous. This may perhaps be due to the phenomenon known as the ‘meme’. Today’s youths cycle through new meme templates ridiculously quickly and are always on the lookout for anything that might make a good meme template. The more original or outlandish, the better as that increases the chance of the template catching on and being immortalized in the consciousness of the internet.
Originality comes in all shapes and sizes, but ultimately whether you choose to hone in on the weirdness factor (Borat floating down the Thames), some tongue in cheek humor (Specsavers – Should have gone to Barnard Castle) or the socially impactful (Marc Quinn’s A Surge of Power statue). At the end of the day, one has to be aware that your campaign may just end up as the internet’s newest meme material.
Keep Your Nose Clean
“Cancel culture” is one of the internet’s newest buzzwords that surely haunts the nightmares of any PR team. “Cancelling” is when a brand or a public figure gets placed on blast usually for a past transgression or for less than savory tweets. Scandal’s have always existed, however with the power of the internet, what would perhaps have been relegated to the newspapers or gossip rags for a few weeks can now easily end up being dissected and discussed on every major online platform for months at a time.
Youths nowadays are generally more socially aware and see it as a duty to do what they are able to correct injustice whenever possible in whatever way they can. When it comes to public figures or brands that have been revealed to hold discriminatory practices or views (eg J.K. Rowling being transphobic), youths see it as a duty not only to possibly boycott their products but also to use the one piece of power they know they possess: their online voice.
As such, it is important for up and coming brands to keep up with the latest political discourse and also to ensure that they present a relatively unproblematic image to the public. While some might argue that cancel culture is essentially a form of over-policing or doubt its effectiveness, it is nonetheless capable of creating very large waves for at least a short period of time.
Furthermore, since whatever goes on the internet is there to stay, it never hurts to be cautious about checking and double checking the partners one works with or the organizations one supports just in case one ends up on the receiving end of any backlash should those people or businesses turn out to be problematic.
The digital age has opened many doors for the world of PR and it has also changed the approach some companies take towards their marketing approach. In this ever changing world, it is important to remember that while the principles behind PR’s roles largely remain unchanged and they are now able to reach a far wider audience, in return, companies are also scrutinized more closely than ever before. Nonetheless, as technology continues to develop the future seems to hold many exciting opportunities for those in PR.
