How Has PR Evolved?

Public Relations has a long and interesting history that has evolved with the world of business and industry.

There are clear examples of aspects and elements of public relations in ancient civilisations, and PR pioneer Edward Bernays argued that the three principles of Public Relations are as old as society itself:

·Informing people,

·Persuading people,

·Integrating people with people.

However, the first example of corporate PR came from the German munitions company Krupp in 1870, and it would spread into an industry of its own by the 1900s.

In the 21st century, however, we have already seen some incredible changes in how PR is approached away from standard press releases and focusing more on interacting with customers directly and digital PR.

Here are some well-known examples of how PR has evolved over the last two decades.

The Campaign for Real Beauty

Advertising, marketing, and the press often shape beauty standards through attempts to get their brands noticed, which has often taken a toll on the self-esteem of people who did not match the impossible standard set.

With this in mind, Unilever launched the Dove Campaign ‘For Real Beauty’, which was one of the earliest PR campaigns to go viral online and created a lot of discussion about body image and how society defined beauty and ascribed value to people based on this.

It was underpinned by a series of adverts that eschewed professional models and used a diverse array of people with different body shapes.

Whilst there were criticisms given Unilever also owned Lynx, a male-oriented brand that relied on precisely these stereotypes, as well as selling a skin-whitening cream, the campaign nearly doubled the annual sales for the Dove brand to around $4bn per year.

Man Lives in IKEA

An early example of viral marketing deliberately geared towards online media is when comedian Mark Malkoff lived in an IKEA store for a week and filmed his antics.

Mr Malkoff had made his name by organising a range of viral stunts like this and had gained attention by trying to visit all 171 Starbucks coffee shops in Manhattan, New York in a single day in 2007.

PR agency Ketchum were looking into ideas to produce a creative campaign, and Mr Malkoff pitched the idea directly to them.

To that end, Mr Malkoff slept in an in-store apartment and could film anything and everything in-store, the footage eventually being edited and shown on a dedicated website as well as YouTube.

It boosted traffic to IKEA’s website as well as sales for the New Jersey store he slept at, making it a huge success.

Barbie Becomes a Computer Engineer

Sometimes, the best way to garner good PR is to give people what they want. Mattel let the public vote for which career the long-running doll line would have next in 2010, having worked in nearly every industry since 1959.

A million people voted to make her a computer engineer, a voting drive powered by a desire to empower girls and a conversation surrounding women in STEM.

It was exceptionally positively received, helped by having the look designed by the Society of Women Engineers, and Mattel reported a 144 per cent sales increase for the doll line Computer Engineer Barbie was included in.

For more ideas on how to reinvigorate your PR campaigns, get in touch today and speak to one of our team.