Thanks to the overflow of information in the digital age, companies are vying to capture people’s attention. Whether via social media, email marketing, paid advertising, or offline strategies, standing out from the crowd has become more difficult and getting noticed takes a lot more than running an ad on the Yellow Pages.
We asked our PR experts to gather the best public relations examples to illustrate the basics of PR and help you get noticed.
Table of Contents
What Is Public Relations (PR)?
Public relations refers to a set of strategies and techniques used to manage how information about a company or an individual is distributed to the public, especially through traditional and new media channels. The main aim of PR is to spread information about important company events or news, maintain a brand's image, and occasionally, put a positive spin on negative events to avoid backlash.
In most cases, PR events and materials may include news conferences, social media posts, company press releases, and interviews with journalists.
Used by companies of various sizes, PR campaigns are often seen as "spins," or efforts to showcase a brand, company, or person in the best possible light, with the aim to appear more organic and generate "good press" from other news sources.
The PR industry is a fast-growing niche, with an estimated market size of $107 billion in 2023, which is projected to grow to $133.82 billion by 2027.
Types of Public Relations
Different types of public relations will often be conducted by different PR departments or agencies. Here are a few examples:
- Production relations: These PR processes are closely related to a company’s operations, supporting broader marketing plans mostly related to one-time projects, such as product launches or product change campaigns.
- Media relations: Media PR strategies aim to form strong relationships with media organizations by providing them with press releases and company news.
- Government relations: This PR type refers to departments responsible for handling communication between companies and relevant governing bodies.
- Internal and investor relations: These branches handle communications between a firm and its employees, often about employee counseling and mediating internal issues. Investor relations oversees the connection between the company and its investors, handling communication, financial reports, investor complaints, and events.
- Community and customer relations: This involves departments dedicated to building a brand’s reputation within the community, aligning with specific social groups and interests. Customer-focused PR connects the company with its customers by managing key relationships, market research, customer research, and addressing customer concerns.
Best PR Campaign Examples
Without further ado, to help inspire your next PR moves, here are some timeless PR campaigns.
- The Adopt a Keg Campaign from Carlsberg
- The Rebuild the World Campaign from Lego
- The Real Beauty Campaign from Dove
- The Jane Walker Campaign from Johnnie Walker
- The Fearless Girl Campaign from State Street Global Advisors
- The Box-Office Baton from LucasFilm
1. The Adopt a Keg Campaign from Carlsberg
The 2020 Adopt a Keg campaign from the Danish beer company Carlsberg demonstrated an innovative way to add some positivity to the challenging times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. At a time when everyone was forced to stay at home and avoid public places, the campaign enabled people to scan store-bought Carlsberg products and fill a virtual keg. Once bars reopened, customers received two free beers for every four cans they scanned during lockdown.
In addition to being a great success, the campaign also managed to build a lasting connection with the brand thanks to the commitment to consumer health and safety it demonstrated.
2. The Rebuild the World Campaign from Lego
The Rebuild the World campaign from Lego fits perfectly into the brand’s vision and mission, highlighting that we can build anything, starting from early childhood. The campaign ran from 2019 to 2021, having several iterations, with the 2021 variant promoting resilience, creativity, and hope as many people had to rebuild their lives after the ups and downs of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, the campaign highlighted the endless creativity of children with a 13-feet globe made from Lego creations sent from all corners of the world and built during the span of the pandemic.
Why is this among the greatest public relations marketing examples? It’s a well-timed campaign that fits in perfectly with the nature of the brand and its products, drawing a lot of attention and propagating a sense of unity and hope in difficult times.
3. The Real Beauty Campaign from Dove
Real Beauty is an ongoing campaign launched by Dove over a decade ago, which celebrates female beauty in all its forms. It drew on a social experiment where women were asked to describe themselves to a sketch artist, which was followed by other people describing the same person to the same sketch artist after briefly interacting with them.
The second portraits were always prettier, enabling Dove to reinforce the notion that we are all more beautiful than we believe to be.
Real Beauty allowed Dove to take a stance on trending social issues, and address society’s unrealistic and unnecessary beauty standards.
4. The Jane Walker Campaign from Johnnie Walker
Jane Walker is a limited-edition line of alcoholic drinks from Johnnie Walker, honoring women’s achievements throughout history and promoting gender equality. Unveiled in late February 2018, the product line was timed to enter the market on International Women’s Day and included a new logo that portrayed a walking woman instead of the iconic Johnnie Walker.
The brand released 250,000 bottles and donated $1 per bottle to woman-empowering organizations, while garnering wide-spread publicity and support.
5. The Fearless Girl Campaign from State Street Global Advisors
The Fearless Girl, created by State Street Global Advisors, was a four-foot girl statue staring at Wall Street’s iconic Charging Bull. The investment management firm commissioned the statue as part of their campaign to pressure organizations to add more women to their boards, symbolically standing up for gender diversity in the finance world and beyond.
While subject to controversy for some, the statue was met with a wave of support for gender equality in the workplace.
6. The Box-Office Baton from LucasFilm
Avengers: Infinity War grossed over $250 million in its opening weekend back in 2018, shattering the previous record-holder, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, from 2015. LucasFilm, the studio behind the Star Wars franchise, wasn't bitter about the beaten record.
Instead, they were proud of their partners at Marvel Studios and celebrated their success with a congratulatory post on X (former Twitter), applauding them for the huge accomplishment and drawing tons of well-deserved media attention.
Public Relations vs. Communications vs. Advertising vs. Marketing
It’s easy to confuse PR with similar marketing buzzwords, so here’s a quick overview of the major differences between public relations and related fields.
PR vs. Communications
These two departments are closely connected as both mingle with portraying company information positively to create value for the brand and the audience the message targets. However, communications can sometimes be a separate department in a company, solely handling external and internal verbal or written comments.
Additionally, PR is mostly a one-way communication channel, imposing information to create a more favorable public image. Communications, on the other hand, focuses on receiving feedback and implementing changes based on it. A good example of communications are the teams responsible for community management or brand reputation. They encourage two-way communication with customers, followers, or the target audience, often assisting them with questions and concerns.
PR vs. Advertising vs. Marketing
Advertising involves generating public attention, aiming to be in the spotlight through product promotion and other activities, such as expansion or pricing change announcements. The aim of advertising agencies isn’t necessarily to nurture relationships with your target audience, but to expand your reach and sell your products. Advertising campaigns usually involve a predetermined budget and various ad channels, such as search engines or social media.
PR, in this sense, is a more strategic approach to garnering attention, sometimes even maintaining its relationship with the public by staying out of the spotlight.
Marketing, on the other hand, is more focused on service and product promotions in order to drive sales, whereas PR centers on managing the brand’s reputation. Both branches have similar responsibilities, like interacting with customers to gather feedback.
However, marketers are more likely to use the gathered information to understand and predict product demand and sales trends, while PR uses it to ensure customer satisfaction and manage dissatisfaction issues quickly.
Strategic Examples of Public Relations
Here are nine brief explanations of popular PR strategies to help clarify the role of PR.
- Press releases: A classic PR strategy, in which departments send out carefully crafted, positive company information to news organizations in hopes for online and offline media coverage. These may be releases about company events, milestones, charitable activities, etc.
- Public events: These events promote PR efforts. For instance, a celebratory company luncheon may help boost brand image, visibility, placing the company in a positive light in the eyes of the public.
- Private events: With similar functions to public events, these are open to special guests only, for instance, employees, to build a sense of exclusivity while supporting the organization’s brand identity.
- Strategic partnerships: Companies may partner to reach a common goal, especially if they offer complementary, non-competing services or products. This can increase trust in both brands.
- Social media: PR can also leverage social media to reach many potential and current customers, along with a massive chunk of their target audience without too much effort.
- Print materials: Business cards, brochures, coupon booklets, and pamphlets may also boost public awareness and build brand trust if used strategically, providing a physical token to help remember the company.
- Video content: Preferred by most people, video content garners interest as it can showcase a brand in a fun and engaging way. Traditional media channels such as local or nationwide television are also part of this.
- Proprietary research: Carrying out and publishing unique research can be a great way to build public trust, which is essential for good PR. For instance, a company may research its users’ product preferences and publish the findings to build a more positive reputation.
- Crisis mitigation: Directly responding to crises can demonstrate the organization’s mission and values to the public. It can also be a valuable strategy if the customer demographics are interested in the organization's opinion on current events and public issues.
Public Relations Examples: The Takeaways
The main focus of PR campaigns always revolves around putting companies and brands in the limelight in a positive way. However, when done right, businesses could achieve a lot more than just awareness, visibility, positive brand perception, and a boost in sales. In some cases, excellent PR campaigns also challenge long-standing social standards and help instill hope in uncertain and difficult times.
Public Relation Examples FAQs
1. What makes a PR campaign good?
Good PR campaigns address more than just the strengths of a brand or a company. A good PR strategy will often address certain social and economic issues too.
2. Is PR marketing?
No. Marketing focuses more on generating sales and promoting services and products to current and potential customers. PR, on the other hand, manages the relationships and reputation of a company with the general public, governing bodies, stakeholders, investors, other companies, and more.
3. Can marketing teams handle PR?
In most cases, the gap between advertising, marketing, and public relations isn’t that wide, as they all aim to promote the brand, but use various tools. In that sense, well-versed marketing experts may also be able to handle purely PR-related tasks with relative ease.
