What is Public Relations | Examples of PR in our World - YouTube

Hi.

I’m Luke Armour, associate professor of Public Relations at Kent State University.

I’m going to show you a few things you’ve seen that you didn’t know were public relations

- but they are.

Public relations - or PR - is the process of an organization or brand communicating

or “relating” to its publics.

Any group of people that is large enough to matter to an organization is a “public”

- so customers, employees, residents of a city, state or country, shareholders - even

critics are publics to an organization.

These publics can get very specific - depending on the organization - for example: mothers

in northeast Ohio, students at Kent State, young people in the US who like cats…

Public relations is a growing field and the variety of career options available for PR

professionals is huge: from corporate boardrooms and creative agencies to sports arenas, presidential

campaigns and the halls of Congress, global nonprofits, hospitals, fashion runways, and

well beyond.

Our first example is a campaign that’s been around for more than 15 years - the Dove Campaign

for Real Beauty.

In 2004, research showed Dove that only 2 percent of women consider themselves beautiful.

The company partnered with public relations firm Edelman to set about changing that mindset.

Using “real” women in their marketing with no digital editing of those photos.

Creating videos that demonstrated how digitally distorted fashion and beauty images are.

Showing us all how critical women are of themselves.

Public relations is at work here because - first, we’re talking about it.

They didn’t just do these things, they told everyone.

They wanted to start these conversations with their publics.

Second, these videos and programs don’t sell or even feature products, they are designed

to change the conversations we have about standards of beauty.

Public relations is part of creating and sharing education and empowerment initiatives such

as The Dove Self-Esteem Project and #ConfidentGirl hashtag on social media - even the talking

points Dove executives use to talk about the campaigns in the media is PR.

Dove’s leadership in this area has certainly helped its bottom line, increasing annual

sales in the first 10 years of the campaign from $2.5 billion to over $4 billion.

And the campaign was named PRWeek’s 2006 Consumer Launch Campaign of the Year.

Who could forget the summer when we all dumped buckets of ice water over our heads and nominated

our friends to do the same?

The 2014 “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” was genius because it tied a competitive challenge

- the nomination - with an unpleasant but quirky dare that was super relevant to the

disease.

ALS or amyotrophic [a-MY-O-TRO-fic] lateral sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease that

affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

It has no cure.

Half of all people affected with ALS live at least three or more years after diagnosis.

The disease was unknown to many people and was hardly talked about.

The Ice Bucket Challenge started organically with people who had a relationship with this

terrible disease nominating each other and their families.

And then it took off.

A month after it started, the ALS Association got involved to help fuel the campaign even

more.

How is this relevant?

Ice water pouring over us sends a shock that numbs our senses - a feeling people diagnosed

with ALS say mirrors symptoms of the disease.

And it worked.

The viral social media campaign started a national conversation about the disease, recorded

more than 2.4 million videos, and raised more than $115 million dollars for the ALS Association

to help find a cure.

And we’re still talking about it today.

As we’re all keenly aware, we’re in the middle of a pandemic right now - and communities,

cities, and states have a vested interest in keeping us safe and healthy.

The Ohio Department of Health is challenged to inform, educate and get its public (residents

of Ohio) to comply with best practices for public health.

The organization has been doing this by sharing fact-based research and guidance.

It provides information on testing, checklists on ways to keep you and your family safe,

videos about face masks, physical distancing, how germs spread, and how to help flatten

the curve.

You can download posters and signs in English, Spanish and Chinese.

Public relations can be seen in the preparation of talking points for spokespersons like Governor

DeWine, creating engaging social media posts, working with experts to create those posters

and videos, researching and communicating with community partners and working with local

and state news sites and media to help spread the information.

It’s comprehensive, attempting to reach all Ohioans in all places to try to get them

to take actions (or in some cases stop some actions) for the benefit of all Ohio citizens.

Lastly, I want to show you how organizations can take advantage of current events to help

generate awareness of an issue, a solid public relations objective.

The World Wildlife Foundation’s mission is “to conserve nature and reduce the most

pressing threats to the diversity of life on Earth.”

The challenge of course, is how do we get people to understand something they can’t

see with their own eyes?

That requires a good PR strategy.

Well, in early 2019 came the “10-Year Challenge.”

Users of social media started posting pictures of themselves from 2009 and 2019 side by side.

Some people hardly changed at all in those 10 years, some changed a lot!

The World Wildlife Foundation piggybacked on the #10YearChallenge craze to raise awareness

about the impacts of deforestation on the planet.

The organization would show two pictures of, say the same rainforest section in 2009 and

2019.

The contrasting photos showed drastic changes that are impossible to ignore.

Inserting its own messaging into a pop culture sensation was a masterful way of getting attention

and raising awareness of its issue.

Public Relations is all around us, often in the background.

As we teach it here, it’s based on research and facts within an ethical framework.

So if any of these challenges sound interesting to you - you’re a strategic thinker, like

writing and enjoy - or think you might enjoy - public speaking, you might want to consider

majoring in Public Relations at Kent State’s School of Media and Journalism.

PRKent is the only public relations program in Ohio with certifications from both the

Public Relations Society of America AND the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism

and Mass Communication.

On top of that, we have an award-winning chapter of the pre-professional student group Public

Relations Student Society of America and a network of proud PRKent alumni across the

world.

Visit our website for more information and contact any of the PR faculty if you have

questions.

I hope to see you here.