Why PR Strategy Matters More Than Just Ideas

In today’s media-saturated world there is a pressing need for new thinking about the business public image. Consequently, marketers increasingly are turning to PR specialists due to their strategic role in  business world. With the continued and ever-changing communications tactics, it is essential that your company’s PR strategy is built effectively and, simultaneously, maintains the company’s DNA.

The old model of communications where content was significantly more possible to control and manage the perception is gone. There is no denying that social media  networks changed the communications landscape irremediably. We moved from the era of value chains to a new era of value networks. Interestingly, one in eight people  on Earth have Facebook, and if it was a country, it would be the third largest after China and India.

In this context, while the flow of news shifted from bicycle race to F1 Racing  and the message has never been easier to deliver, trust has never been more difficult to accomplish. To put it more specifically, good reputation built over many years can be falling to pieces with a single Tweet.

Public relations have this importance to maintain, growth or rebuild that reputation. While advertising is more about creating the ideas and journalism that is generally very short-term business, public relations have the advantage to be more strategic and dynamic weapon to proactively shape public perception in the long-term. It has a measurable effect on the achievement of strategic goals.

PR has a massive democratic potential as a strategic communication function. The field of public relations is going to gain in importance in the upcoming years. There are few factors that may influence significantly communication function and might be important for your business effectiveness. Social media has become mainstream for PR practitioners and they will be still the key platform of communication. Moreover, due to the communication-intensive environment, the industry will need deal with content overload as piece of content doesn’t carry the same weight that is did before and doesn’t have the same impact. Other factors are: brands will get increasingly visual, real-time marketing will take off, as the social media matures, consumer and marketer behaviour will change. Clients and agencies will re-evaluate how they measure social media success and communication strategies will be less structured around the campaign.

PR practitioners are not just campaigners. They are strategic advisors. What makes PR so effective ?  In one word: authenticity. PR is not just about ideas. It’s about making those ideas reliable.

I recommend this TED talk that can help you to shape your social strategy:

Anja Rubik: from top model to role model

Challenge you assumptions. When you think about a model, what do you mean? She either eats cotton balls dipped in juice or simply nothing. Probably a dumb blonde girl? She is vain or this kind of a valley girl who should, rather, keep her mouth closed.

If you think so, you overestimate your abilities.

I’m really proud of all these successful Polish people who play the role of so-called “country ambassadors”. Let me introduce you the first one – Anja Rubik.

She breaks all the stereotypical images about models and Polish people who decide to settle down somewhere in the world and climb the career ladder there.

Source: afterparty.pl

Over the past decade, she has racked up countless covers, ad campaigns, and catwalk exclusives. As of May 2010, Anja is ranked 3rd on the Top 50 Models Women list and 18th on the Top 25 Money Girls list, which ranks the highest earning high fashion models in the industry, by models.com. As of September 2012, she is ranked as an industry icon.

She is one of those high-achieving models who are successfully becoming businesswomen. Two years ago she launched and became Editor in Chief of her own magazine, 25. She described it as a fashion magazine, “but with an erotic twist”. In addition to collaborating with big designers names  such as Giuseppe Zanotti for whom she designed a capsule footwear line, she is actively engaged in charity organisations.

She became a strong PR weapon that a lot of top designers and fashion brands can only dream of. Nevertheless, she took time out of her busy schedule to support Polish artists, designers and fashion companies.

It’s time to show you couple of Anja’s latest collaborations from her homeland that you might have never heard of.
Most recently, she launched exclusive line collection campaign for Mohito. The general idea was to take the best pieces of her wardrobe and present them on the catwalk. That’s why the collection ideally portrays Anja’s style which might be a unique selling point of this line.

Anja Rubik for Mohito, the collection will be available since 14th of November.
Photos: Paola Kudacki

Anja as a host and judge of Polish version of Project Runway produced by TVN.

Source: elle.pl

Anja has made several guest appearances throughout Top Model show, produced by TVN as well. The show was based on Tyra Banks’ America’s Next Top Model.

Source: kobieta.onet.pl

Anja Rubik became an ambassador of Apart, Poland’s  largest producer and chain of jewellery showrooms.

Anja Rubik for Apart Source: fashion.apart.pl

There were quite a lot of controversy surrounding Anja’s musical debut. She has collaborated with writer and producer Mister D to produce a track in Polish called Chleb. Mister D is the stage name of acclaimed Polish literary wunderkind Dorota Masłowska. The video had nothing to do with glamour and luxury and rapidly went viral. “I’ve been a fan of hers since her first book was published, which was a huge hit in Poland. Now, all of her writing is very controversial, and it’s kind of addressed to people who know the situation in Poland — the social situation, what’s happening in Poland when it comes to interactions between people, how we approach different things” – Anja said.

A shot from the ‘Chleb’ music video. Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1-z48cJDbc

Give Anja  a round of applause! 

Devil wears …Dior ?

I supposed to hate Jennifer Lawrence. She has everything:  people love her, she is beautiful, rich, famous and finally, she won an Oscars at age of 22. But the worst thing is the fact that… she is of my age. While I’m seating in a library, writing super boring assignments, fighting with deadlines, she is on the red carpet somewhere in Hollywood, earning millions of dollars. But you know what, even though I envy her, I truly like her.

Let’s face the obvious facts out of the way: She is young and adorably inexperienced at being a huge movie star. People like her for being natural, kind of “next-door” girl who do not need to be perfect.

Luxury brand want to work with her because she is a role model for the young generation which is becoming one a key target for high-end fashion companies. In October 2012, Lawrence was announced as the new  face of Dior. Nevertheless, the beginning of Jannifer’s collaboration with this massive brand wasn’t really good. What happened to her last year is worth to mention.

Christian Dior’s dresses seemed to be a bit unlucky for her. She decided to wear a gorgeous dark blue Christian Dior dress at the 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles in 2013. Upon receiving her award for best performance by a female actor in Silver Linings Playbook, Jennifer shocked the crowd by showing a little more leg than expected when she stood up. And it was not a case.

Source: theguardian.com

However, what happened when she was collecting her Best Actress Oscar was more spectacular. Jennifer Lawrence fell elegantly in Dior Couture. “What do you mean what happened? Look at my dress. I tried to walk up stairs in this dress that’s what happened,” she explained during the press conference. Well, nothing more to add.

Source: usmagazine.com

This fall inspired a Tumblr user to create a mock Christian Dior ad featuring a photograph of Jennifer Lawrence falling.All an all, Jennifer accidents generated a constant media coverage for Christian Dior that time.

Moreover, since October 2012 she is a new face of Dior, replacing fellow actress Mila Kunis who has been fired from Dior due to her…weight. The marketing department at Christian Dior was “furious” with Mila Kunis for putting on weight and continually appearing out in very sloppy, un-chic outfits. For Jennifer, this is the first collaboration with a luxury brand. “It’s such a dream to represent an iconic brand that is synonymous with high fashion,” she told WWD of the partnership. The Oscar-winner actress appeared in her first campaign for the French fashion house’s Miss Dior handbag line this March. Interstingly, she  has confessed for something that probably no-one in Hollywood would do. She said : “I love Photoshop more than anything in the world (…) Of course it’s Photoshop – people don’t actually look like that”. 

Source: dior.com