When considering a social media strategy, video is likely to be front of mind. However, using video for your PR campaign may not be the first thing that comes to mind – but that shouldn’t always be the case. Video content is a creative and standout way to engage your target audience to highlight key messages and is becoming more and popular with online media outlets – making it a tactic that should be considered for your PR campaign.
Here we’ve taken a look at five recent PR campaigns that have included a video as part of their strategy, looking at why it was included and what it helped achieve for the brand
EE – GayVAR campaign
Mobile network giant EE company recruited former England international footballer Joe Cole and comedian Tom Allen to highlight the rising homophobic hate speech in football.
In recent weeks, the number of reported homophobic attacks and verbal incidents has gone up in the Premier League. This, following research that 71% of people surveyed agree that homophobia remains a problem in sport, prompted EE to create ‘GayVAR’. A pun on video assistant referee (VAR) now available in Premier League games, EE with the support of the celebrities listed above will be ensuring homophobic hate will not go unchecked. The campaign launched alongside Football v Homophobia (FvH), an international initiative which challenges discrimination at all levels in football.
VAR is a huge presence in modern football and the assistance of video technology to analyse fouls and decisions remains a huge topic of debate. It only makes sense then, to use this ‘video technology’ to creatively highlight the issue of homophobia. The decision to do so by EE is not only creative, but its also topical in the sport and got a lot of people talking – proving a hit with the media.
The Prince’s Trust – #ChangeAGirlsLife
To mark International Women’s Day, youth charity The Prince’s Trust launched the Change A Girl’s Life campaign. Following the alarming research that found 60% of young women feel fearful for their future due to the pandemic, the Trust has begun working with a number of UK businesses to come together and raise money to help young females who face disadvantages and adversity in their current situations, in order to build their confidence and skills they need to move into work, training and education.
Getting to work ahead of #IWD and building on their previous charitable support in this area, The Prince’s Trust has already started to help young women tackle their adversities with incredible funding and educational support too. To highlight the work and the benefit of supporting Change A Girl’s Life campaign, the Trust launched the announcement video, alongside various case study videos, fittingly on March 8th. The case studies highlight what the work is setting out to achieve by revealing how it has already touched the lives of women facing a variety of issues in their lives. This style of video gives the charitable work a real, personable feeling and helps the audience emphasise on a deeper level why the work is so important – which resonated well with the media.
Led By Donkeys – Ukraine
Just recently, we marked exactly one year since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. To mark the anniversary of such a sad occasion and as a direct message of opposition against Russia, activist group Led By Donkeys helped to paint a huge Ukrainian flag on the road outside the Russian embassy in London.
The stunt was orchestrated to ‘remind Putin that Ukraine is an independent state and a people with every right to self-determination’. The activists cleverly filled the roads with blue and yellow paint, allowing the passing vehicles to act as the paintbrushes and complete the image of the bright, Ukrainian flag.
The video content helped increase awareness of the campaign, bringing the stunt to life by showing the cunningness of the protestors followed a giant reveal of the flag. It was the video content that ultimately gave Led By Donkeys earned national coverage in the likes of The Telegraph, The Sun and the Daily Mail.
Surreal: Celebrity Endorsements
UK cereal brand managed to partner with the likes of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Serena Williams and Ronaldo – without paying them a penny.
The catch is, the celebrities named above aren’t exactly who you think. Surreal thought outside the cereal box to find regular people in the UK with famous names, and allowed them to enjoy a bowl of their cereal. Ronaldo was keen, Serena not so much.
The campaign went viral on social media with images of various billboards dotted around the country featuring the ‘celebrity endorsements’. The video helps maximise the story even further by showing you the ‘infamous’ names, such as Ronaldo and Serena, while portraying Surreal in a very humorous light. The video content helped maximise the success of this campaign, as it was featured in various online outlets.
McDonald’s – Raise Your Arches
Household brand McDonald’s recently launched Raise Your Archers, promoting ‘the universal invitation to grab a Maccies’. Capitalising on its iconic ‘M’ logo, the fast-food chain launched an advertisement across TV and social media, showing an office building marching to McDonald’s for lunch after just one worker ‘raises their arches’, also known as raising their eyebrows, synced in time to the beat in the song ‘Oh Yeah’ by Yello.
In doing so, the employees eyebrows mirror that of the McDonald’s logo, a simple yet brilliant observation by their creative team that was then transformed into video content. The quirkiness of the video dovetails brilliantly with the music choice to reveal just how iconic the McDonald’s brand really is, making for a brilliant marketing strategy with a clear message – grab a Maccies. This went down a treat with the media.
At Prohibition, we work with a range of brands across all sectors, B2B & B2C, to create compelling videos that help to achieve a business goals and objectives. Get in touch today to find out how we could help you.
For more interesting articles from us check out these posts:
- Why You Should Utilise Video Content as Part of Your PR Strategy
- How brands can utilise TikTok to support PR strategies
- Best Practice When Using Video Across Different Social Media Channels
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