A PR campaign that has it all

Those who know me know that I am a woman with an engine as a heart. I am passionate about everything that transports: bikes, trucks, planes, boats, and of course motorcycles. I keep up-to-date with almost everything in communication campaigns within the transportation industry.

Source by meh.ro

Today I bring attention to a PR campaign that has impressed me over the years, not only because of the message it portrays, but also by how well thought out and developed it is. The campaign has received more than 10 international awards, including 2 gold awards at the Cannes Lions Film Festival of Creativity 2014. It also doubled the production of units and sales of the latest edition of the promoted product, and earned about 40 million media worldwide.

How did they do it? Let’s look at what I believe to be one campaign that has it all: information, persuasion, and memory.

Source by blog.bbt4vw.com

In September of 2013, after 63 years of production, Volkswagen announced the discontinuation of one of their star products. The body of the “VW Kombi”, a mystical German mark van that was produced in Brazil, did not meet the new security requirements for airbags and ABS established by the Brazilian government.

Source by theinspirationroom.com

Timely
The timing was perfect. A personified flagship product would say goodbye to her followers, and the brand wanted to do it in style. Volkswagen announced they would produce 6000 units of a special edition that would terminate the career of this vehicle.

The Message
Before leaving, the Volkswagen Kombi had one last wish: to thank those who had developed a relationship with her and gave her so much affection over the years, making her one of the most endearing vans of all time. In a mature and tender voice, Kombi recalled her stories from her lifetime and reported to have written a “will” to those who gave her the most love.

Source by unfinishedman.com

The emotion with which the message was transmitted touched the hearts of even the most hardhearted of people. This was a clever strategy to achieve a unique connection with the followers of the brand.

The Strategy
The concept was to create the first campaign that ‘unlaunched’ a car that was a true legend in the automotive industry; and to engage the people. This was achieved by storytelling, and interacting live with the people through digital channels.

Source by www.advertolog.com

Volkswagen invited people to visit their website so they could check out the ‘Kombi Last Edition’ model, and send purchase intentions. People were also invited to share stories of their experiences with the Kombi.

The Kombi-Last-Wishes strategy was immediately successful. Large numbers of stories were submitted, and used to create the ‘Kombi’s Will’ advertisement. The strategy involved interacting with those who already knew the vehicle, as well as those who intended to acquire the latest edition model. Online sources, including a website and social media, as well as traditional media channels, were perfect for carrying the message of the brand.

Source by www.advertolog.com

During the campaign created by BBDO Brazil, “Kombi Last Wishes” compiled a series of stories with those who had developed a relationship with her over the years. This was an essential element for connecting with the public.

Source by oman-collective-intelligence.com

In conclusion, Kombi-Last-Wishes was a campaign that gave a deserved farewell to a product whose importance goes beyond the brand. A vehicle marked by generations of people that is part of the pantheon of the global automotive industry. The Kombi-Last-Wishes campaign certainly made its mark in the industry’s worldwide PR and marketing standing.

Please leave your comments about what you feel about this multi-awarded campaign in the section below.

If you haven’t connected with me on social media yet, check me out on Twitter and Google+.

Other articles:
Sex plus Cars, a successful formula.
A bus stop heated by a tweet.

The Power of Recognition

Jack Welch (former chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) for nearly 20 years) had unusual procedures. He personally sent their employees congratulation notes that they were highly valued. The notes were written by the leader of the organization and recognized the work done. In his 25 years as head of GE, he always knew the importance of recognizing their employees’ work. Mr. Welch was sure that by giving recognition where it was needed could instil motivation in their employees, thus achieving the company’s goals.

Source by nelson-motivation

Recognition is something that we have kept in mind, always. Giving credit to colleagues and teams members has been a key point in my work. I can say with confidence that recognition is one of the most important factors in employee motivation, and (in many cases) is even more valued than salary or promotion.

 Source by izquotes.com

Despite the evidence that recognition motivates employees and increases their performance, many managers do not practice this skill. I always ask it to myself, “Why not?”

Source by growthengineering.co.uk

Many managers feel that giving recognition is not an important part of their job — but this has to change. Managers have to understand that recognition is a tool for reinforcing the company’s relationship with their employees, and it creates positive changes within the organization. When managers give recognition to an employee for their efficient/effective work, they are also reinforcing the organization’s preferred actions and behaviours to prolong.

Source by cartoonstock.com

Another reason is managers do not feel that employees value the recognition they have been given in the past. Managers need to understand that even though they don’t see the value in giving recognition, it is part of their role that all workers receive recognition periodically. Nothing motivates like success, and recognition is the result of this success. Therefore, when a worker receives recognition for what he does, their performance improves.

Source by mcfrecognition.com

Lastly, typically leaders focus more on telling people when they do something wrong instead of showing that they recognize their work. Positive feedback lets employees know they are valued and appreciated by their coworkers and the organization.

When you effectively give recognition, you are reinforcing the actions and behaviours you want people to repeat the most. An effective employee recognition system is simple, immediate, and powerfully reinforcing.

Source by mcfrecognition.com

A leader makes other people feel important and appreciated. A leader excels at creating opportunities to provide rewards, recognition, and appreciation to his or her staff. A leader creates a work environment in which people feel important and appreciated.

Source by hrzone.com

A simple “thank you” counts as employee recognition, but you can also make employee recognition as elaborate as your imagination can conceive. Recognition is not a scarce resource.

Remember: if you do not begin to meet with those who compete, improve, and innovate within the company, do not expect positive change. Reward the work of your employees. After all, an act of recognition does not have to be expensive to be memorable.

Share in the section below how you recognize the work of your employees, team members and the people that surround you.

Remember: if you do not begin to meet with those who compete, improve, and innovate within the company, do not expect positive change. Reward the work of your employees. After all, an act of recognition does not have to be expensive to be memorable.

The Truth About Public Relations, UNVEILED!

“PR is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. PR is the discipline, which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.” The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR, 2013).

By bayt.com

Even though this definition is clear and does not have space for ambiguity, almost everyone has their own idea of what public relations is all about.

Source by Max bolton

Most of the time those people have the misconception that Public Relations (PR) is just about spinning, parties, and travelling around the world with celebrities or political personalities. However, in reality Public Relations could not be more opposite.The PR profession involves an ample range of roles and responsibilities that are ignored. While correcting every misunderstanding about PR would be impossible, it is every PR practitioner’s duty to ensure people understand the value that PR can add. It is also important to enforce the reality that PR is a crucial part of the entire marketing strategy, and cannot function independently.

The origin of public relations goes back to the beginnings of civilization. Human always, anytime, and anywhere, expressed the need to communicate with other human beings and this has since been perfected. It is known that the primitive art of this discipline was developed in the field of political science. Indeed, when humans began to perceive that there were other more effective methods than force to convince others, was when the foundations of public relations took root.

Source by image.frompo.com 

Public relations career, in my opinion was created because a variety of organizations could not do without it; they recognized that the understanding and acceptance among its main constituent elements were prerequisites for survival. They accepted the concept of performance and behaviour, along with communication and interpretation as equal to reputation. They recognized the fact, that at some point this combination is a need for specialists with specific skills.

The essence of public relations is informing and persuading the public through newspapers, radio, television and the web. It is the work to build long-term relationships among individuals and institutions and create effective communication between an organisation, person, or product and its target audience. In simple words, the role of a PR professional is to find the stories within a business and to provide these stories to the media at the right time, in the best way possible.

Public Relation in Action

Picture edited
Original source by clickmedix.com and referenceforbusiness

According to the University of North Carolina, there are three general kinds of PR activities:

1. Publicity. Focuses on managing and promoting the relationship between the company and its customers and the general public.
2. Event management. Focuses on creation, development and promotion events such as product launches, press conferences, corporate meetings, etc.
3. Publication design. Involves conception, writing, layout and production of a wide variety of presentation media including promotional, brochures, manuals, flyers, websites, logotypes, branded packaging and so on.

Characteristic of a PR Professional

To be successful in the world of public relations, there are certain essential characteristics that one must possess to fight adversity, capitalize opportunities, maintain a positive image, and build strategy.

• Ability to use the language correctly. High quality writing helps communicate client messages, but also conveys professionalism to both clients and the press.
• Relationship builder, in PR, relationships are everything. A PR person must understand that the market is a conversation, and that building and maintaining healthy relationships is the foundation of any strategy.

By peterjtonkin.com

• Active listening. Part of the job as a PR professional is to “fix” things. PR professional can more effectively serve their clients if they listen to what the customers, media, influencers, analysts, employees, and community are saying. Being attentive to their message, and providing thoughtful feedback.

By keepcalm

• Value truth and transparency. Today, audiences are not only global they’re also connected 24 hours a day.  We are inundated with information through various channels and it is very easy to notice when someone is not telling the truth. For public relations professionals, truth can define a career, a client relationship, and certainly the level of audience engagement.

Source by trademarkia.com

Credibility is preceded by trust. The efforts to increase trust would also benefit source credibility of PR practitioners and the organizations they serve. However, trust has also been tied to the deeper function of building relationships, where communication and credibility are also essential.

Public Relations and Marketing

Marketing and public relations are similar in that both use all available communication tools (advertising, publicity, direct and relationship marketing, etc.) depending on their objectives. The difference is in the level of the objectives of each.

Source by acrpq.com

The main objective for marketing is to reach consumers and make them believe and purchase one product or service. Essentially it focuses its strategy on selling one product or service. While public relations is more about promoting the images of the company or brand through positively managing the communication channels. Overall, marketing activities are trying to achieve direct revenue, while PR is trying to drive a positive reputation through an effective PR strategy.

Despite the misconception people often have about public relations, its role is crucial because every one wants to express and retain their own nature. Messages can have a global impact—their integrity must be preserved during transmission, and that is where PR professionals will have to prove their value, in the organization and in society.

Please leave your thought about what you think PR is in the section below, and if you haven’t connected with me on social media yet, check me out on Twitter and Google+.