Young PR Pros: Episode #101 - The Best PR and Communications Campaigns

This week, our hosts Kristine D'Arbelles and Julia Kent welcome on the show for the second episode in the row - Ross Simmonds. Ross is a communications and marketing strategist and entrepreneur. You might know him as @theCoolestCool on Twitter. Ross has agreed to join us from Halifax as a superb guest host to help bring new views and opinions to the show.

For episode 101, we discuss the best PR and communications campaigns. A few weeks ago, our host and roving reporter Kristine attended the University of Ottawa Public Relations Association (uOPRA) conference Connect 2 Success. The one-day conference brought together professionals from all industries of PR and communications to talk about what young professionals need to be successful in their future careers. At the conference she interviewed speakers, experts and panelists and asked them to share the best PR or communications campaign that has resonated with them throughout their careers. You can find video footage of all the interviews mentioned in this episode on our website, or on our YouTube channel.

The examples ranged from the great Tylenol crisis communications taught in all PR classes, to Dear Future Mom a campaign promoting Down Syndrome Day, to an award-winning campaign that aimed to make tea more popular than coffee, and even the Obama presidential campaign. Kristine, Julia and Ross added to the list. Here are a few campaigns we think are the best campaigns ever:

West Jet's Christmas and April Fools video campaigns

The Old Spice rebranding campaign

McDonald's Our Food Your Questions campaign

The hosts then discussed what made these campaigns memorable, what do they have in common and why do they resonate with so many people. The top three things we found were:

Each campaign included some elements of good storytelling

Campaigns with a human touch or emotional touch resonated more with audiences

And finally, all these campaigns followed the first commandant of communications: know thine audience

Listen to the full episode and then share your opinion.

What is the best PR or communications campaign you think should be added to our list?

Share your opinions by writing a comment below, or on our Facebook Page, or on our Google+ page, or send us an email at [email protected], or send us a message on Twitter @youngprpros, @kristinedarbell, or @kentjulia.