CPG and fashion brands typically believe that a new ad campaign, fundraiser, or big sale is newsworthy on its own. They often neglect the overall media strategy entirely. A 180-degree marketing strategy falls short of achieving its potential because the best approach is a 360-degree integrated marketing, public relations, and brand communications campaign. It is important to remember that both influencers and journalists don’t serve a brand’s business objective: they always serve their readers and followers. Public relations strategies and tactics, when executed correctly, bridge the divide between corporate and editorial, generating content that is of value to media and simultaneously supports the brand’s priorities, while appealing to a much larger audience. With integrated marketing and brand communications, the marketing spend is stretched and streamlined.
Investing in a marketing program without asking how PR can maximize results, not only misses out on brand exposure, but misses out on new and return customers and return on investment. These four examples of marketing strategies show how results and ROI can be boosted with an integrated PR campaign.
1) If Your Brand Is Expanding Globally or You’ve Landed a New Retail Account
While your sales team focuses on selling, training, and retail display deployment, a strategic public relations campaign can ensure that consumers, media, and potential investors alike know where to find your products and recognize your growth trajectory. Brands often overlook the value of PR. Media support through public relations shows your retail partners that you can help drive their business and ultimately your success. To highlight brand expansion, drive traffic and sales, PR strategies can include: securing top tier media placements, partnering with celebrities and influencers through in-store events, micro-influencer location based appearances and campaigns, and of course ongoing media relations to drive traffic to your partners’ retail websites and stores.
2) Leveraging Trade Show PR
Trade show PR for your brand is an excellent opportunity to leverage the power of the trade show to generate positive publicity for your brand. Our multi-faceted, integrated CPG public relations campaign includes media training, pre-show media opportunities, and brand storytelling coordination to secure earned media coverage for your brand, before the trade show even opens. Dreamweaver Brand Communications specializes in trade show brand activations, including broadcast coverage, social media streaming, influencer meet & greets, and one-on-one interviews with industry press, enabling top executives to make an impression with media, buyers, and other individuals who are part of the “sphere of influence.”
3) Leverage Influencer or Celebrity Behind the Scene Footage
If influencer marketing is part of your integrated PR and marketing plan, there are many opportunities to offer media outlets “exclusive,” behind-the-scenes access and tease the campaign to the press in strategic stages to build buzz for the big launch or reveal. From YouTube to Instagram, to Facebook, to television, brands obtain an increased ROI since they are using footage they already have in different ways. Not to mention, the overall campaign will tell a vibrant brand story and generate many media top-tier placements, millions of impressions on social media, trending status on YouTube, and television coverage.
4) Your Brand Gives Back
Today’s population places great importance on brand values and how it can drive sales. A consumer knows an ethical brand when they interact with one. Cynthia Srednicki believes, “Great brands don’t sell their products, they sell their purpose.” A brand’s ethics must align with its mission, USP, and ethics policy. In other words “talk the talk” and “walk the walk,” and a brand’s ethics and corporate giving must be concretely described and executed. When done properly, brands tell their corporate giving and ethic stories through their own channels, such as a B2B or B2C blog, in addition to earned media.
From marketing campaigns for CPG companies, to companies that make hand-made goods, to campaigns supporting safe drinking water, Dreamweaver Brand Communications specializes in telling the stories behind the brands we proudly serve.
