Top 10 PR Creative Communications in 2019

Public relations requires more creativity. I have actually said this concept many times. This is really the biggest feeling I have gained from my limited professional experience of several years. It is also because there are so few people who can do it.

But I still have to say it over and over again, in the new media era, traditional public relations routines are no longer enough. In recent years, many people have been talking about the blurred boundaries between public relations and marketing, and it is almost impossible to tell whether many things belong to marketing or public relations. Because there are really no boundaries in the Internet age.

The core of public relations is expression, and there are many ways of expression. Many corporate demands do not necessarily have to be solved by shooting a TVC, making an H5, or issuing a press release. Therefore, public relations requires more creativity, or in other words, communications requires more public relations thinking.

The following are ten of the more outstanding PR creative communication cases in 2019 that I remember. After reading them, you may find that PR really can have more imagination.

1. Didi held a "complaint conference"

This is my personal favorite PR idea of ​​the year.

Didi faced several major crises in 2017. If you observe carefully, you can see that Didi has carried out drastic "reforms" in public relations, and the top management has begun to pay more attention to the role of public relations. I think it's not just Didi. Companies like Baidu, Ctrip, and Pinduoduo, which have their own "original sin," need to have this kind of public relations awareness.

In early September, Didi found the Laugh Team behind the "Tucao Conference" and organized a talk show for itself called "Everyone Talks About Didi", inviting passengers, drivers, product managers and bosses together to complain about Didi.

But while accepting the complaints, the company also explained and optimized "big data killing old customers", "driver and passenger experience", "functional experience", etc. This is the highest level of self-deprecation.

For any company, it takes courage to accept criticism. This time, Huawei attributed the "251 incident" to black public relations, which is really shocking. A business that cannot accept reviews is terrible because it is blinded and deaf. Didi chose to accept the criticism in a funny and humorous way, finding a more appropriate way to express what it wanted to express and eliminate misunderstandings. This is very advanced.

2. Fuling Zhacai sent a box of Zhacai to a Taiwanese celebrity

You must still remember this year's "pickled radish" incident, which was caused by Taiwan's "celebrity" Huang Shicong saying "mainland people can't afford pickled radish" on a Taiwanese TV program, which triggered ridicule from netizens. Zhacai has become the new standard for showing off wealth.

Faced with this sudden trending search, Fuling Zhacai took immediate action and sent a whole box of zhacai directly to the Taiwanese Zhacai brother, and posted the delivery slip directly on Weibo. This wave of counterattack was perfect and won praise from netizens.

The special thing about the Internet age is that you think you are law-abiding and not breaking the law, but you still cannot predict when you will inexplicably become a hot topic and a national topic. But you must be able to strike at any time. This is the basic quality required for public relations in this era.

Social communication is the best weapon for public relations. In this case, the cost of just one box of pickled mustard tubers enabled Fuling Pickles to gain tens of millions of dollars in positive exposure and publicity, which is something that no amount of press releases could have achieved.

3. Corona after Shanghai’s garbage sorting

It is difficult to predict from which direction the "crisis" will come to you. It may be a "garbage classification" policy.

Adding lime to Corona has always been considered a golden rule by the public, but starting from July this year, Shanghai began to pilot garbage classification ahead of the rest of the country, so there was a joke that Shanghai's Corona has no soul from now on, because how to get the lime out of Corona has become the number one problem that makes Shanghai's Corona beer lovers worry and unable to sleep all night.

After discovering that this topic had become a hot topic on the entire Internet, Corona's public relations department acted quickly. Based on the opinions of netizens, it immediately announced on Weibo and Weibo that Corona would not abandon the lime, and also unlocked 6 ways for netizens to take out the lime. (Full version click here)

Like Fuling Zhacai, Corona also uses leveraged public relations. In fact, it is more accurate to call these two examples "leveraged marketing". Moreover, this low-cost public relations method will never become obsolete, and will increasingly replace traditional public relations methods.

4. Kindle continues to use the "Instant Noodles" idiom

There is a joke that goes like this: everyone has a Kindle that they use to cover their instant noodles. This is also the "instant noodle joke" that Kindle has been used to make fun of for a long time. This means that some people bought a Kindle and left it unused, and it gradually became a tool for covering instant noodles.

Others may say this as a joke, but what if one day even Kindle itself officially admits that it is just a noodle maker?

Kindle continued the "instant noodles joke" on this year's World Book Day. Kindle and the "Inconvenient Noodle House" opened a "Convenient Library" pop-up store, released a series of "written pairing" posters, and continued to use the slogan "Cover with Kindle, the noodles are more fragrant."

For brands, there is nothing wrong with using advertisements to talk about products and features, but what is inevitable is that they need to shape their image in a way that is more appealing to young people. Self-deprecation is definitely a very low-cost way. It’s fun to joke around, and Kindle’s brand image has obviously become more three-dimensional and lively.

5. BMW ad pays tribute to Mercedes-Benz CEO's retirement

On May 24 this year, Mercedes-Benz CEO Dieter Zetsche announced his retirement and officially stepped down as Chairman of the Board of Daimler and Global President of Mercedes-Benz. How can such an important day be complete without Mercedes-Benz’s “century-old good friend” BMW?

BMW released an advertisement on the same day to pay tribute to Dieter Zetsche.

The story revolves around "Zetta's last day at Mercedes-Benz headquarters". After finishing his last day at Mercedes-Benz and being sent home by the driver, Zetta actually drove out in a BMW i8...

Mercedes-Benz and BMW, the good friends, have "attacked each other" many times on social media, leaving a deep impression on everyone. This long-term, subtle and tacit public relations has benefited both brands a lot.

This approach makes the brand image more personalized and creates a brand image with temperament, warmth, and emotion. It is a unique approach in the social era, and it is also difficult for traditional public relations to achieve.

6. Burger King and McDonald's make peace

In addition to BMW and Mercedes-Benz, there is another famous pair of "love-hate" players, namely Burger King and McDonald's. The two companies have also had many exciting exchanges with each other. But this year, these two old enemies actually shook hands and made peace?

On September 26, Burger King in Argentina suddenly announced that it would stop supplying its signature product, the "Royal Burger," for one day nationwide. The reason is that McDonald's announced on this day that for every Big Mac a customer buys, McDonald's will donate $2 to children with cancer.

In other words, Burger King donated its customers' money to McDonald's charity. What a unique love story this is. In the end, McDonald's sold 70,000 more Big Macs than the year before.

This action of Burger King attracted a large number of netizens to become fans on social media, and the brand favorability increased instantly. This even generated more discussion than formal donations, and it was a public welfare communication that went down in history.

7. Audi & Infiniti: Accidents turn into stories

This incident last month is still being talked about frequently by many people. When Audi launched an advertisement on WeChat Moments, the content that appeared in the advertisement video was actually about Infiniti. Tencent Advertising promptly issued an apology letter, and it turned out that the cause was an error in uploading Tencent’s advertising materials.

This was originally an "accident". If it had been allowed to develop, the brand image would have suffered heavy losses. But with the encouragement of the onlookers, Audi started to play up its game. Facing the ridicule from other competitors, Audi began to let itself go.

In the end, Audi and Infiniti cooperated perfectly to end this launch accident, turning it into a carnival in the automotive industry. Accidents also become stories.

You can call it "crisis public relations" or "taking advantage of the situation", but Audi and Infiniti's performance can generally be regarded as righting the overturned car. The only shortcoming may be that they reacted a little slowly, allowing many friendly competitors to take advantage of the popularity in advance.

8. Another way to express the advertising slogan of Coco Tree Coconut Juice

I have mentioned this case before. The advertising slogan of Coco Tree Coconut Juice, "Drink it from childhood to adulthood", sparked heated discussions among the public and even attracted investigations from relevant departments.

After a week of heated discussion, Coco Tree Coconut Juice released a statement on its official Weibo account, saying that the slogan "Drink from childhood to adulthood" did not violate the Advertising Law and had been approved by the China Advertising Association.

In response to outside doubts, Coco Tree Coconut Juice quickly launched a new advertisement, reinterpreting the meaning of the slogan "Drink it from childhood to adulthood" and trying to distance itself from "breast enhancement". The actors in the advertisements were changed from all big-breasted beauties to female classmates from elementary school, middle school, and college, as well as women of the mother's generation.

The advertising style is still simple, but it is obvious that this advertisement is completely aimed at interpreting "drinking from childhood to adulthood". It also looks very direct, interpreting it from three stages: elementary school, middle school, and university, and everyone can understand it. This is also completely consistent with what Coco Tree said in its statement: "This advertising slogan does not mean that drinking coconut milk can make your breasts bigger, but refers to drinking it from childhood to adulthood, in order to promote to consumers that Coco Tree brand coconut juice is trustworthy."

This is why the core of public relations lies in expression. If the public relations behavior of the Coconut Tree Group is limited to issuing a written statement, it seems very rigid, and the subtext seems to be saying, "Even the laws and regulations allow me to say this, what qualifications do you have to question me?" It also completely "disappoints" the discussions and topic popularity of so many netizens. On the contrary, if we quickly make a low-cost advertisement, express it in a more lively way, and eliminate netizens' misunderstanding of the advertising slogan, wouldn't this result be more easily accepted?

9. KFC made a copycat alphabet

Is brand counterfeiting a common problem that is difficult to solve completely? Generally, when a brand encounters a counterfeit attack, it will simply send a lawyer's letter or issue a public statement to distance itself from the counterfeit. As the leader in the fried chicken industry, KFC has naturally been copied crazily. How does it deal with copycats?

KFC has created a "copycat alphabet list". KFC has collected all the brands that are similar to its brand name in alphabetical order: ABCD...! And the caption reads: "GUY'S WE'RE FLATTERED (Guys, you're welcome)".

Faced with a large number of copycats, KFC neither confronted it harshly nor ignored it. Instead, it expressed its helplessness in a more humorous way, which was both interesting and easy to spread quickly.
Sometimes, the spread of a picture is far greater than that of an official statement, and its effect is more obvious.

10. Alipay finds the original person

This year marks the 15th anniversary of Alipay. Alipay recently released a promotional video for the 15th anniversary, "Singularity", which was based on the true story of Alipay's first seller Cui Weiping and buyer Jiao Zhenzhong.

In 2003, Alipay was not yet called Alipay, but "secured transaction". Cui Weiping, who was studying in Japan, put his second-hand camera for sale on Taobao. Jiao Zhenzhong, who was studying at Xi'an University of Technology, wanted to buy this digital camera. The two of them became the first seller and buyer to complete the transaction on Alipay.

Nowadays, Cui Weiping's photos have been posted in Alibaba's buildings. Jack Ma made an exception and granted him a Huabei credit line of 10 million yuan. He was also invited to sit in a VIP seat at Alibaba's 20th anniversary annual meeting this year.

As for Jiao Zhenzhong, Alipay found him on the occasion of its 15th anniversary this year and awarded him the "Alipay Lifetime Honor Award" and 102's Lifetime Diamond Membership.

As a company grows, the story of its first user is itself a legend. If used well, it can produce huge effects, especially at major nodes of the enterprise. It can not only convey the sense of use that the enterprise has not forgotten its original intention, but also is a good user communication.

Final words

Zoe Chou, WeChat's public relations director, once said that traditional public relations is dead.

Because the core of traditional public relations is media and communication. However, the biggest feature of the new era represented by Weibo and WeChat is "decentralization". The traditional media empire began to disintegrate, newspapers and magazines began to cease publication, and the rise of millions of self-media and new media has rapidly weakened the influence of the media that was regarded as the core by traditional public relations. Once the channel is decentralized, the test for public relations is where to shout (channel collapse) and how to shout (ineffective communication). Effectiveness evaluation has also lost its direction. Single PV, number of press releases, media attendance rate, etc. can no longer be used to evaluate public relations effectiveness.

Therefore, I really hope that we can work together to make public relations break through tradition, and go beyond press releases, so that public relations can have more creative forms to reach the general public.

Author: Jun Xiaobao

Source: Jun Xiaobao