PR is here to showcase how we can do amazing things on a low budget
Advertising, marketing, and PR help build brands and communicate with target audiences. What differentiates PR from other communications tools is that it is low cost, yet its results generate high credibility in brands.
We have all seen great campaigns with high budgets behind them, but we know we can do amazing things on a low budget, and these two PR cases demonstrate exactly that. Spinning the conversation and intercepting are two ways to drive attention to what we want to communicate, without spending much money or resources on it. Volvo and the public Library of Troy, in Michigan/USA, are the perfect examples of what you can do using these two techniques.
Starting with Volvo, the Superbowl is known worldwide as the biggest event in the United States and is watched by millions across the globe. As for the sports, it is a decisive night, for the brands, the commercial break is their time to shine. So, on the night of February 1st, 2015, while car brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Nissan, and others spent around $60M combined on advertising for their latest models, Volvo stole the attention for themselves by running a contest using other brands commercials (and resources). Volvo “Interception” was a socially driven campaign, alternative to traditional TV ads, that is now known as ‘The Greatest Interception Ever.’
Basically, Volvo, the Swedish automakers, asked their followers to Tweet using the hashtag #VolvoContest whenever any car commercial was aired during the big game. All people had to do was nominate a loved one for a chance to win a new XC60 Luxury Crossover, Volvo’s priority model in the U.S. market. It was low cost, but it was well prepared. Two days earlier, Volvo built awareness by donating an XC 60 to “Jimmy Kimmel Live” that was given away during the show. This spread the word.
To say it worked is probably an understatement — what truly happened was that the social conversation shifted completely. There were up to 2,000 #VolvoContest-tweets sent per minute whilst the other car manufacturers’ advertisements aired. The results? Over 55,000 tweets sent, 200 million dollars’ worth of social media impressions, a hashtag that became a trending topic on Twitter, both nationally and globally, and a 70{aa2bd0515941f502f1857e541b1c703dd7e1b9788e8ed1b2172c31ca4a64f54a} sales growth of the XC60 model in the month following the Super Bowl.
Now, back in 2010 after the recession hit, in Troy, Michigan, like in so many municipalities, there were some major cuts on public spending, and the Public Library was not an exception. Even though it was considered, a year before, one of the top ten facilities in the city, in that year, the residents had voted down a tax increase that would have saved its funding. The building was given just enough money to function and the closing date was set June 30th, 2011.
As it was causing indignation in a part of the population, in May 2011, the city council delayed the closure long enough to let residents cast one last ballot. The vote was scheduled for August 2nd. This time the proposal was a 0.7{aa2bd0515941f502f1857e541b1c703dd7e1b9788e8ed1b2172c31ca4a64f54a} tax increase — enough to fund the library for the next five years. What follows is what makes this case interesting.
On the opposite side of the anti-taxes group, there were the Troy Citizens United, whose idea saved the library. The plan was joining their opposition by a committee called Safeguarding American Families, which was rooting for the vote to lose so it could throw a book-burning party once the library closed. They printed up signs that said: “Vote to close Troy library Aug. 2nd, Book burning party Aug 5th,” As well as a Facebook page and a Twitter account. The campaign went just like they thought: people got angry, left comments on the committee’s social media sites, local leaders took notice, then newspapers, then TV stations. Everyone filed the story under fact. However, it was a hoax. Safeguarding American Families was an invention of an agency, which had been hired to create a blitz media campaign that would encourage voters to turn out and approve the library-funding proposal. Just before the election, Safeguarding American Families revealed its true message: “A vote against the library is like a vote to burn books.”
The goal was to change the conversation from taxes to libraries and the result was that 58 percent of the voters approved the tax increase to save the library.
These two cases show how we can do incredible things with a low budget, just by having great ideas. Public Relations deliver value both directly and indirectly, by creating a favorable brand environment shaped by positive, prominent, and highly visible media coverage to provide a lift for every other form of communication. All we need is creativity.
