PR Success Summer 2024

PR SUCCESS

Summer 2024

In this Issue Letter from Editor - Henry Gorsuch

The Art of Seasonal Marketing: How to Craft Effective Summer Campaigns - Isabel Mattern

Influencer Marketing Summer Recap - Anna Hinkle

PR With Purpose: 4 Lessons I Learned Working at a Nonprofit - Gigi Redinger

How Oslo, Norway creates effective publicity by being authentic - Henry Gorsuch

Letter from the Editor Happy beginning of the fall semester! It’s been a long, hot and sometimes boring summer, but many of us furthered our career path and gained new knowledge of our industry. It’s been a productive transition for me, as well, getting used to my new responsibilities as VP of Public Relations and living at my very first apartment.

I’m proud of all my peers as I watch them grow and shape their futures.

This summer’s issue is less robust with only four articles, but I believe each one is highly insightful.

These are great reads for anyone looking to find an internship and learn more about PR and advertising. Reading is also a great way to get to know your peers at PRSSA better. I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to write something this summer; I enjoyed editing and compiling your works.

Cheers,

Henry Gorsuch

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Art of Seasonal Marketing: How to Craft Effective Summer Campaigns Summer is a season of opportunity for marketers. With longer days, outdoor activities, and a general sense of freedom and fun, summer presents a unique chance to connect with audiences fresh and engagingly. Crafting an effective summer campaign requires understanding the nuances of seasonal marketing and leveraging these insights to resonate with consumers. Here are some key strategies to help brands create impactful summer campaigns.

1. Understand the Summer Mindset The foundation of any successful seasonal campaign lies in understanding the mindset of your target audience during that particular season. Summer is often associated with relaxation, adventure, family gatherings, vacations, and enjoying the outdoors.

Consumers are looking for experiences that enhance these activities, whether it’s through refreshing beverages, travel gear, or casual summer apparel. Brands should tap into these themes, crafting messages that align with the desires and needs of their audience during the summer months. For example, a brand might highlight the carefree spirit of summer in its messaging or focus on the joy of spending time with family and friends.

2. Leverage Seasonal Imagery and Colors Visuals play a crucial role in seasonal marketing. Summer campaigns should utilize bright, vibrant colors that evoke warmth and energy. Incorporating imagery of sun, beaches, barbecues, and other summer activities can help create an emotional connection with your audience.

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It’s also important to consider the psychology of color. Colors like yellow, orange, and blue are often associated with summer and can evoke happiness, warmth, and relaxation. A campaign that visually resonates with the season can be more memorable and effectively capture attention.

3. Create a Sense of Urgency Summer is a short season, and creating a sense of urgency can encourage consumers to act quickly. Limited-time offers flash sales, or exclusive summer products can create excitement and drive immediate action. Phrases like “Summer Special,” “Limited Time Only,” or “Get It Before It’s Gone” can instill a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out). Additionally, aligning campaigns with summer holidays such as Independence Day, Labor Day, or even back-to-school promotions can create natural deadlines that spur consumer action.

4. Utilize Social Media and Influencers Social media is a powerful tool for summer marketing, especially when targeting a younger audience. Summer is a season of sharing, and people are more likely to post their summer adventures, whether it's a beach trip, a backyard barbecue, or a summer vacation. Brands can capitalize on this by creating shareable content or engaging in social media challenges. Partnering with influencers who embody the summer lifestyle can also amplify a campaign’s reach and authenticity. Influencers can showcase your products in real-life summer settings, providing relatable and engaging content for their followers.

5. Emphasize Mobile Optimization During the summer, people are often on the go, accessing content primarily through mobile devices. Ensuring that your marketing efforts are optimized for mobile is crucial. This means creating mobile-friendly ads, ensuring quick loading times, and designing content that is easy to view and interact with on smaller screens.

Mobile optimization also extends to email marketing; consider shorter, more concise emails with strong visuals and clear calls to action.

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6. Focus on Experience and Engagement Summer is a time for creating memories, and brands that provide unique experiences will stand out. Consider hosting summer events, sponsoring outdoor festivals, or creating interactive digital experiences like games or virtual reality tours.

The goal is to engage your audience in a way that goes beyond traditional advertising, creating a memorable experience that they will associate with your brand long after the season ends.

7. Adapt to Changing Consumer Behavior The past few years have seen shifts in consumer behavior, with more people valuing experiences, sustainability, and wellness.

Brands that can align their summer campaigns with these values will likely see more tremendous success. For instance, promoting eco-friendly products or highlighting sustainable practices can resonate with environmentally-conscious consumers. Similarly, campaigns emphasizing wellness, such as promoting outdoor activities or healthy eating, can appeal to those looking to maintain a healthy lifestyle during summer.

Crafting an effective summer campaign requires a blend of creativity, strategy, and a deep understanding of the seasonal mindset. By leveraging summer’s unique themes and opportunities, brands can create campaigns that capture attention and drive engagement and conversions. As we move into the warmer months, it’s time to embrace the art of seasonal marketing and make the most of the summer sun.

Isabel Mattern

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Influencer Marketing Summer Recap Summer is a season filled with outdoor adventures, vacations, and social buzz. As consumers engage in warm-weather activities and seasonal trends, influencer marketing becomes a key tool for brands looking to make an impact. Here’s why influencer marketing thrives during summer and how brands can use it to boost engagement and sales.

Why Summer is Ideal for Influencer Campaigns: Peak Social Media Activity: Social media usage spikes during summer, with people sharing vacation photos, poolside moments, and outdoor fun. This creates a prime opportunity for brands to tap into trending hashtags and content, reaching an engaged audience seeking summer inspiration.

Seasonal Product Relevance: Summer is the season for swimwear, skincare, outdoor gear, and more. Influencers naturally weave these products into their content, making recommendations feel authentic and relevant. Whether it’s showcasing a summer outfit or recommending a refreshing beverage, influencers know how to seamlessly promote seasonal items.

Authentic, Relatable Content: Summer content is often laidback and relatable, featuring travel, local events and everyday activities. Influencers can create content that resonates with audiences looking for genuine experiences, building trust and enhancing product endorsements.

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Tips for Effective Summer Influencer Campaigns Partner with Relevant Influencers: Focus on influencers whose content aligns with summer themes. Travel bloggers, lifestyle influencers, and outdoor enthusiasts are particularly effective during this season, offering credibility and engagement with their target audience.

Emphasize Visual Storytelling: Summer is all about vibrant, colorful content. Encourage influencers to create visually appealing stories that showcase your products in action.

From sun-soaked videos to eye-catching photos, visually captivating content performs well in the lively summer social landscape.

Host Giveaways and Challenges: Summer is a great time for influencer-led challenges, contests or giveaways. Consider hosting a “Best Beach Day” photo contest or a summer recipe challenge to drive user-generated content and brand interaction.

Stay Agile with Real-Time Trends: Align your campaign with trending events or themes, whether it’s a summer festival, viral trend or unexpected heatwave. Staying timely enhances your campaign’s visibility and relevance.

Summer influencer marketing thrives due to the season’s focus on experiences, trends and visual storytelling. By partnering with the right influencers and staying agile, your brand can create memorable campaigns that drive engagement and growth during the summer month

Anna Hinkle

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PR With Purpose: 4 Lessons I Learned Working at a Nonprofit Public Relations demands a unique blend of creativity, strategy and storytelling. My summer as a PR Intern at I Am Boundless, a nonprofit organization, allowed me to explore all three aspects in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Stepping into the role, I quickly realized that PR in the nonprofit sector is not just about promotion or visibility; it’s about driving meaningful change, raising awareness and connecting communities.

I Am Boundless, which supports individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, provides many services, including housing, healthcare and educational programs. Their mission is heart-centered, and as an intern, I found myself continuously inspired by the organization’s dedication to improving lives. Here are the top four lessons I learned during my time working in nonprofit PR. 1. Storytelling with a Purpose Storytelling in PR is not just about sharing facts or statistics; it’s about connecting emotionally with your audience. I learned that the power of storytelling lies in its ability to build relationships with the community and stakeholders. At I Am Boundless, every article, social media or blog post had to do more than inform; it had to inspire action and empathy. Whether it was highlighting the incredible work of the staff or sharing the personal stories of those in the Boundless community, I learned the importance of presenting stories in a way that humanizes and motivates the audience to care.

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2. Authenticity and Trust go Hand-in-Hand Working in the nonprofit sector taught me that trust is the cornerstone of effective PR. Unlike the corporate world, where the focus can sometimes be on increasing sales, nonprofit PR is built on authenticity and fostering genuine relationships with the stakeholders and the community. The public needs to trust that the organization stays true to its mission, and every communication must reinforce that trust. This was especially important at I Am Boundless, where I often shared stories from vulnerable populations. I needed to be mindful of how I presented these narratives - always ensuring that I maintained the dignity and privacy of the individuals involved. Authenticity wasn’t just a buzzword but a necessity, guiding everything from content creation to community engagement.

3. Collaboration Fuels Creativity Nonprofit work thrives on teamwork. While creativity can often be viewed as a solitary process, I discovered that working closely with my team members brought fresh perspectives and expanded my knowledge of Boundless’ work. Each week, our team would come together for meetings where we shared updates, brainstormed ideas and discussed upcoming projects. These sessions were precious for fostering collaboration and aligning with Boundless’ mission. This collaborative approach enhanced the quality of my content and shifted my perspective of efficient and effective creative brainstorming.

4. Be Flexible!

The most unexpected lesson I learned was the importance of flexibility. In nonprofit PR, you often have to wear many hats, and being adaptable is essential to navigating the ever-changing landscape. My time at Boundless was filled with variety. Whether I was writing stories, designing flyers or attending community events in a mascot suit, I quickly learned that being adaptable was crucial to succeeding in this role.

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This flexibility also extended to messaging. Nonprofit PR requires careful balancing between raising awareness and being sensitive to the communities you represent. I learned that you need to be prepared to adjust your approach based on the audience and context, ensuring that every communication is effective and respectful.

Looking back at my summer with Boundless, I am proud of the work I contributed and grateful for the lessons I learned. Working in nonprofit PR has inspired me to continue seeking opportunities to use my skills to support meaningful causes. It has deepened my commitment to advocacy and shown me the impact of thoughtful, well-crafted communication on a community.

Gigi Redinger

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How Oslo, Norway creates effective publicity by being authentic Visit OSLO released a video advertisement on June 24 that went viral. Many tourism advertisements can come off as candid, portraying an unrealistic depiction of their destination. This advertisement titled “Is it even a city?” levels with its audience, depicting Oslo in an authentic way while enticing us to travel there. This use of authenticity is brilliant and is something that marketing and PR practitioners should utilize more often.

The video is narrated by Halfdan, a supposed 31-year-old resident of Oslo. “I wouldn’t come here, to be honest,” Halfdan said. “Oslo is just not… I mean, is it even a city?” He’s a cynical character and dissuades the audience from coming to Oslo with comedic anecdotes, pointing out his perceived deficits of the city. The things he doesn't like, however, turn out to be strong selling points for Oslo.

Halfdan complains about the lack of exclusivity in the city, stating how it’s incredibly easy to commute through and how museums and restaurants don’t take much effort to get into. He’s unimpressed with Oslo’s scope and interconnectivity, suggesting that this makes it unordinary and not worth visiting. But this coupled with beautiful, natural cinematography of the city and its inhabitants subverts our expectations for whatever he says.

Suddenly, Oslo becomes this magical, accessible place unlike anywhere else in the world. This is effective advertising because it allows the audience to appreciate aspects of Oslo that locals might not. It feels like being introduced to someone’s home turf and catching a glimpse of their life.

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Unlike other advertisements that plainly state a place’s benefits, “Is it even a city?” is uniquely honest, hilarious, and beautiful.

The company behind this campaign is NewsLab AS, an ad agency based in Oslo, Norway. Its director, August Jorfald, got the idea after visiting Paris, France. “I was so concerned about ‘not being a tourist’ that, among other things, I insisted on not seeing the Eiffel Tower,” Jorfald said. “On the plane home, I saw myself from the outside, and felt like a jerk.” His cynicism inspired the character of Halfdan and led to the creation of this ad.

“Is it even a city?” achieved millions of views between TikTok and YouTube. It also garnered a substantial amount of earned media, getting featured in publications like AdWeek, Travel Weekly and BBC. The public reception of this ad is incredible, with many people praising its ingenuity in the video’s comment sections.

“Literally the best commercial ever,” Commented @TheKimonov on YouTube. “I try not to watch it more than 5 times per day. I mean, is it even a commercial?”

Authenticity can build trust and connection with an audience. By being relatable, brands and services can create a stronger emotional attachment. This strategy is particularly effective with tourism and other industries that focus on experiences but can be used for anything. Funny and genuine advertising and PR campaigns are often more memorable and have a lasting impact.

Henry Gorsuch

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Acknowlegments

Anna Hinkle

Isabel Mattern

Henry Gorsuch

Gigi Redinger

Executive VP

President

VP of Public Realtions

Avery Ochs VP of Visual Communications

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