Year: 2018

Best of 2018: Top 3 Marketing Campaigns

Clairemont InternBlog, Marketing, Restaurant PR + Hospitality PR, , , ,

As 2018 comes to a close, it’s important to highlight some of the most creative campaigns within the public relations, advertising and marketing industries. Perhaps this stems from my love of food, but my top three campaigns happen to be within the culinary industry.

1. IHOP

On June 4, 2018, IHOP told the world via Twitter it would be changing its name to IHOb. After one long week of speculation in regards to what the “b” would stand for, it released that the International House of Pancakes was now the International House of Burgers. IHOP, a haven for breakfast lovers with its fluffy buttermilk pancakes smothered in maple syrup, suggested that it would be parting ways with this fan-favorite.

IHOb later reassured concerned customers that pancakes wouldn’t be going anywhere, but that the company was firing up its grills and adding ultimate steakburgers to its menu. Little did we know that the name IHOb wasn’t here to stay. It was only a marketing ploy and a genius one at that.

This campaign is extremely memorable, even to someone like myself who hasn’t been to IHOP in several years, which is why I believe it ranks as the top marketing campaign of the year. Additionally, IHOP reached nearly 4 billion social media users by using Twitter to release this campaign, and its burger sales have quadrupled.

2. KFC

Believe it or not, some of the best marketing campaigns originate from mistakes. In the United Kingdom, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) experienced a chicken shortage. Yep, you read that right; a fast food company whose menu consists of all things chicken ran out of chicken. KFC’s crisis management team responded by rearranging its letters and released an advertisement that read “FCK, We’re Sorry.”

The chicken shortage was caused by issues with DHL, the company’s delivery service. As a result, hundreds of KFC locations shut down throughout the U.K., causing major backlash from hungry customers. The hashtag #KFCCrisis was trending on social media, and some KFC lovers even tried to get the police involved.

The chicken deficiency impacted stores for a week, which warranted an apology from the company. KFC decided to publish a full page print ad in The Sun and Metro, U.K.’s best-selling newspaper. KFC fans took the apology well and praised the company for its witty response to a serious matter.

3. McDonald’s 

For International Women’s Day on March 8, 2018, McDonald’s decided to flip its famous golden arches upside down to form a “W” to recognize women around the world for all of their hard work and accomplishments.

The fast food company also pushed out this campaign by changing its packaging from displaying the standard “M” to “W”, as well as its logo on employee uniforms in 100 stores across the United States. It used social media to engage its consumers and to generate awareness of the campaign and International Women’s Day as a whole.

This campaign reached 1.6 billion people and increased sales significantly. It received some repercussions, however, regarding whether it was intended to promote social justice or only to increase sales. Regardless, this campaign sparked conversation about International Women’s Day and gave women much needed recognition.

We’ve seen some of the best marketing campaigns so far in 2018, and I’m excited to see what’s in store for next year. Bring it on, 2019.

Written by Clairemont Intern Anna Ostrowski, a senior at UNC.
All photos from Unsplash.com

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How to Avoid Being a Photo Faux Pas

Clairemont InternBlog, Professional Development, Public Relations, , , ,

Do you ever stress about the “photography skills” line of your resume? In a world of ever-improving iPhone cameras and easy access to photo editors, this seems like a must-have skill. Public relations students are increasingly expected to take courses in photography or videography, and PR professionals are often in charge of providing visual representation of their clients.

At a past Raleigh Public Relations Society’s Lunch and Learn, a panel of professional photographers answered questions about their jobs, discussed ideal client relationships and extended photography advice to the room of PR professionals.

Working with Professionals — Dos & Don’ts

Even if your client is lucky enough to have the budget for a professional photographer, there are still a few ways to help.

  1. DO figure out which photographer’s style best fits your client’s vision for the project. Kimberly Rhoades, a portrait photographer with her own business, Nine 19 Photography, said the most important aspect of the ideal client relationship is building a relationship of trust from the get-go — sounds familiar, right?
  2. DO provide useful information ahead of time to the photographer. You want your money best spent taking photos, not figuring out where to stick the backdrop.
  3. DON’T forget to give the photographer credit on social media.

Working without Professionals — Quick Tips

If your client needs you to be the impromptu photographer for the day, the panelists provided some tips:

  1. For more casual social media posts, using your iPhone to snap a few pictures will do, but an in-depth photo shoot probably warrants a better camera.
  2. If it’s a bad picture, don’t post it just to post something, especially when trying to show off your product or food. As Felicia Trujillo from Food-Seen pointed out, a chef trying to showcase his or her food won’t be successful with a bad photo.
  3. Make do with the camera you have, and learn how to use it well. Amanda English from Amanda English Photography advised not to use the auto setting on the camera; instead, watch YouTube videos, read books or ask an experienced user how to shoot the camera manually.

Five Easy Ways to Improve Your Photography Skills

  1. If you’re looking for a good lens, English recommends a 35 or 50 mm lens, which is better than zoom lenses. Sometimes you can even rent lenses if you find yourself scared of commitment.
  2. Improve composition by moving around the client you’re photographing, not vice versa.
  3. Don’t have people face the sun! Closed eyes in pictures are probably not your client’s most ideal look.
  4. There isn’t a hard and fast rule for how many shots it takes to get the perfect one, but definitely don’t settle for the first one you take. Make sure every photo looks different, even when they’re the same type of shot.
  5. When shooting an event, be knowledgeable of what the client wants before you arrive. Create a shot list. As Kim Kirchstein from Leopold Designs pointed out, it is impossible for one person to capture every moment of the event, but communication with the client is key to making sure you get the best shots!

With these quick and easy tips, you’ll improve your photography skills in the blink of an eye or hopefully, the snap of a camera! For tips translating visuals into social media, give this post a gander.

Written by Haley McDougal, previous Clairemont intern from UNC-Chapel Hill.

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AI and PR: The Magic Mix

Clairemont InternBlog, Public Relations, , ,

Artificial Intelligence (AI) sounds intimidating, I’ll admit. Whether it’s the fear of the unknown or overall lack of understanding, people often have varying opinions of AI that are best summarized in one way: awesome but scary.

Exactly how  scary is it?

Many of us use AI on a daily basis without even realizing it. Take Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Samsung’s Bixby as examples. These voice-enabled bots have made it into our homes, phones and lives. Just by talking, we can ask these bots to play music, make telephone calls and even order our groceries for us.

With all things in life, there are advantages and drawbacks of AI. While there is speculation that Alexa, Siri and Bixby are always listening to us even when we don’t want them to be, they do make our lives much easier.

AI has already made its way into our personal lives, and it’s beginning to infiltrate numerous professional industries worldwide as well. AI has secured its spot within the retail and e-commerce industries, including Amazon and China’s Alibaba and JD.com, and it’s beginning to appear in banking and in healthcare.

What about AI in the PR industry?

It’s coming, and it’ll be here sooner than you think.

AI may seem daunting to the average PR professional, but don’t fret. AI will not take away jobs in the PR and communications industries; it will only make them easier. AI machines will complete monotonous tasks, such as filtering through data and providing us with any needed results.

Perhaps in the future, we can leave it to AI devices to research a list of potential media outlets for pitches in order to generate press coverage, or AI bots can compile coverage reports based on the media coverage. Instead of manually posting to event calendars, we can rely on a machine to do it. AI may also be able to inform us of the best social media strategies to utilize on an individual client basis based on aggregating data regarding levels of engagement.

The PR industry should welcome AI with arms wide open. It will save time, but these robotic devices may take awhile to perfect. The algorithms will likely not be error-free from the start and may make mistakes. PR professionals will always need to double check the work done by AI machines.

So, what is the perfect mix?

AI will be helpful, and it will streamline several processes within the industry. It is possible that in a few short years PR professionals will be working in collaboration with AI, especially in large companies. It may take a few more years for AI bots to become implemented into small scale agencies, however.

At the end of the day, we are people convincing people to explore our creative solutions with us. AI can’t do it all; human intuition and creativity are still essential components in the work in which that we specialize. PR requires hefty creativity, strategy and ingenuity as well as intuition to assess and create the delicate strategies to address pertinent issues. AI will never have the “gut feeling” through its numbers and algorithms that a seasoned PR professional provides.

Written by Clairemont Intern Anna Ostrowski, a senior at UNC.

Cover image from Unsplash.com

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A Social Media Super Bowl

Clairemont InternBlog, Public Relations, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , ,

There are 32 teams in the NFL across 21 states. Super Bowl XLIX, New England Patriots versus Seattle Seahawks, was the most-watched Super Bowl and most-watched television program of all time with a staggering 114.4 million American viewers. This past season, 103.4 million American viewers tuned in for Super Bowl LI, Patriots versus Atlanta Falcons. You could say professional football is a pretty big deal.

The various football teams have a lot of work to do on the field, and their communication teams have a lot to do off of it. Each team has to connect with thousands of fans, and one great tool to do this is social media. Any given team will be using social to post game results, questions to fans, information on players, news about the team, the game schedule, merchandise and more. That being said, we’ve ranked the top five NFL teams who we think have done a stellar job with their social media.

1. Dallas Cowboys

The Numbers:

The Cowboys have 3.75 million followers on Twitter, 2.6 million followers on Instagram and 8.6 million likes on Facebook.

Why We Love Them:

We love that, like most teams, the Cowboys share player interviews and highlights, but the team stands out in the way it uses social media to focus on the team as a whole and the friendship between players. We also love the shoutouts the Cowboys give the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, who have 393,000 Instagram followers of their own.

The Cowboys do a great job of utilizing Instagram stories, including highlights of wallpapers, captains, events and the season schedule. Most importantly, this team makes its social media shine by never missing a birthday shoutout to the players and well wishes to fans on holidays. 

2. Carolina Panthers

The Numbers:

The Carolina Panthers have 3.01 million followers on Twitter, 1.5 million followers on Instagram and 2.3 million likes on Facebook.

Why We Love Them:

The Panthers might have the most clever and humorous social media in the NFL. Expect to see a gif blowing off a big loss or the Panthers hitting another team with lighthearted jabs on Twitter. The Panthers are also in tune with younger fans and pop culture, recently turning Ariana Grande’s hit song “Thank u, next” into a hilarious meme and sharing the Panthers players you can play in the popular video game, Fortnite.

The Panthers can also be serious. We appreciated the team’s post in solidarity with Pittsburgh after the recent shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue.

In addition to staying on top of current events, the Panthers love showing off their players off the field, their fans and their city, Charlotte, North Carolina.

We’ve also got to hand it to Sir Purr, the official mascot of the Carolina Panthers, who boasts 17,900 followers on Instagram.

3. Minnesota Vikings

The Numbers:

The Minnesota Vikings have 1.26 million followers on Twitter, 769,000 followers on Instagram and 2.1 million likes on Facebook. The Vikings have a Facebook show, The Rundown, but with a pretty small following of just 1,700 followers.

Why We Love Them:

So! Much! Purple! The team colors of purple and gold jump out at you on the Vikings’ social media but especially on Instagram where uniforms, crowds of fans and tinted cartoons make a wave of purple. This team gets fans pumped for upcoming games by putting the Vikings’ cleats up against their opposition’s footwear.

We also love the way the Vikings get their fans involved with #purplepups.

4. New York Giants

The Numbers:

The Giants have 1.8 million followers on Twitter, 1.7 million followers on Instagram and almost 4 million likes on Facebook. The Giants also have a show on Facebook, called Giants Life, that has 4,000 followers.

Why We Love Them:

The Giants do so much community service and giving that there’s an account dedicated just to community relations! We love that the main Giants’ Twitter does a great job of retweeting highlights and sharing those moments with a larger Giants’ audience.

Like the Vikings, the Giants get fans involved with #NYGiantsPup, which has been used on almost 900 posts this season. Where the Giants stand out are their fun and flavorful posts sharing healthy tailgate recipes, which are done in partnership with Weight Watchers.

5. Buffalo Bills

The Numbers:

The Buffalo Bills have 965,000 followers on Twitter, 472,000 followers on Instagram and more than 890,000 likes on Facebook. The Bills also have a Facebook show with 17,000 followers.

Why We Love Them:

The Buffalo Bills prove that the number of followers you have doesn’t always equate to the originality of your posts. We love the Fun Fact Friday posts the Bills have been doing to highlight players and make them relatable to fans.

We also love how the personal lives of the players are shared on the team page, including interviews with the wives and kids of players.

Loyal football fans get excited about the uniform their team wears. This team shows its social media finesse by sharing what combination of pants, jerseys, gloves and socks the Bills will be wearing at their next away game.

Overall, the Bills are great about connecting with fans and are giving them a look behind the scenes.

Interested in other ways social media can shine? Check out our blog about getting the most out of your hashtags.

Written by Kaitlyn Karcher, a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Thanksgiving at Clairemont

Clairemont InternBlog, The Clairemont Team, , ,

There’s a lot Clairemont has to be thankful for this year—our creative, hardworking team, beautiful home office space in the heart of downtown Raleigh, award recognition from both the Public Relations Society of America and the Raleigh Public Relations Society, and most importantly, our amazing clients.

While all of us here at Clairemont are thankful for many similar things, we each have a few aspects special to us that deserve recognition.

Anna

“I’m thankful for this amazing internship opportunity at Clairemont. Over the past few months, I have learned a great deal about the PR and communications industries through various projects and by working directly with clients. I have had the privilege to work with and learn from an incredible group of energetic and fun women who are extremely talented at what they do. I am also thankful for the Clairemont porch that has doubled as my creative thinking hub on beautiful fall days and for the Clairemont candy jar (and a team who never judges me for eating way too many Jolly Ranchers).

On a more personal note, I am thankful for my friends and family who always support me. I am grateful to be spending this Thanksgiving with my loved ones, even though they somehow convinced me to run a turkey trot race.”

Kaitlyn

“This year I’m thankful for new opportunities. At Clairemont, I’m actually getting to write and create for clients. I really feel like I’m a part of the team and getting to leave my mark. I also like being the first one in the office twice a week. It feels like a fresh start and a new opportunity to help clients and Clairemont as I unlock the door, get all the lights on and put on a pot of coffee. It seems small, but it’s refreshing. I’m grateful to start each day with optimism and enthusiasm.

I’m also grateful for my many nieces and nephews who make me laugh, build my patience and enjoy sweets as much as me.”

Cherith

“What am I thankful for this year at Clairemont? That chalkboard wall in a little room we call “The Pitch Parlor.” Truthfully, it owes its name to our love of alliteration at Clairemont, and we imagined we’d retreat into its cozy ambience — complete with heart-shaped chairs — to make media calls. It since has taken on a rather jack-of-all trades function, but it still sports its hallmark chalkboard wall. I’m thankful for what this wall represents. It almost begs to be covered in drawings — ideas, musings, brainstorms. There’s a sense of exciting possibilities and an encouragement for exploration. This quality mirrors the atmosphere at Clairemont — a team eager to spin new ideas, explore new paths, encourage bright ideas and make great things happen together. For that, I am thankful.

Personally, I’m thankful for Oreo Truffles. I’ve had some good ones. And I’m eternally grateful for a family that never quits.”

Tracy

“First and foremost, I am thankful for my family. I have a loving husband who is truly a best friend and partner, two amazing children and an extended family that I love dearly. I also thank God every day for a profession that continues to inspire me, a job that I love and that I have the pleasure of working with the most outstanding women. Friends that are family are also at the top of my list. It takes a village to raise a family with our busy schedules, and we are blessed to be raising ours alongside our oldest and dearest friends. And last but not least, I am thankful for Amazon Prime. Quite simply it just makes life easier. Especially at Christmas time 🙂 Rather than running all over town, anything I need can be delivered to my doorstep. Sometimes it’s all about the little things that make our life a little less hectic.”

Kelli

“There’s so much to be thankful for! This year, we bought our first home, moved back to our home state, started new jobs and celebrated our second kid’s first birthday. We couldn’t have done any of these things without the full support of our amazing family and friends. They helped oversee home inspections and renovations when we lived 1,000 miles away. They helped us find daycare for our kids. They helped us pack up in Massachusetts and unpack in North Carolina. They housed us, fed us, watched the kids, watched our cat and even got/gave us jobs. When we called upon them (and even when we didn’t) they stepped up and asked: ‘What do you need? What can I do?’ As I come up on Thanksgiving this year, a year that held just as many challenges as it did joys, I’m overwhelmed with the love that so many people showered over us this year and I can honestly say, I’ve never been more grateful for anything.”

Dana

“I am thankful for my son and his fearless creativity! He is a prolific artist, skilled videographer and overall talented creator. I’m always amused by how quickly he executes an idea, and I love hearing about what’s next. For example, the other night he recorded several songs that he ‘wrote’ as he was recording them. I’m so grateful that he is never afraid to explore and express his creative passions.

I am thankful for all the Clairemont team members. I’ve always heard that the key to success for a business owner is to hire people smarter than you. I have done just that! I love working with the smart, experienced, dedicated and kind people who bring their best to our clients each day.

I am thankful for having a beautiful place to work in our lovely City of Oaks. The Clairemont House, located in downtown Raleigh, has been home to Clairemont for about five years. Whether we are cranking out ideas in our ‘crank room’ or gathered around the kitchen island brainstorming ideas for a client, we find the character of this historic home to encourage positive energy and productivity.”

We certainly have a lot to be thankful for at Clairemont this year. We are looking forward to spending the holiday season with our loved ones at home and at work. Here at Clairemont, we begin each day with smiles on our faces and an optimistic outlook knowing that we will inevitably find one more thing for which to be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving from our team to you and yours!

Written by Clairemont Intern Anna Ostrowski, a senior at UNC.

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