Learning Audience Behavior for Better PR Strategies

Editor's Notes

• #4: We’ll start with a short definition of IMC, just to get everyone back on the same page. Then we’ll learn why behavior is so much more important than demographics. I’ll give you 5 takeaways throughout the presentation that you can start using right now as well as tell you some stories about the best IMC behavior targeting. We’ll also talk about incorporating personas into your PR practice, which is another way to get you moving your PR practice with more IMC flavor.
• #6: What we’re going to focus on today is how an understanding of behavior underlies the strongest foundations of your PR practice…alignment between your messaging and good strategies and tactics. There’s an excellent blog series on IPR’s site by christopher graves and dr. terry flynn in which they discussthe concept of “behavioral communications.” I would highly recommend you read it. I think communicators are incredibly well positioned to take advantage of the power of IMC, and Christopher really nails it in this blog. You don’t have to become a neuroscientist to understand behavior, and a lot of the behavior you need to understand is sitting right under our noses. This is a huge topic, that’s understood. What I’m going to try to give you is just a taste today, along with a handful of things you can start using right away to help make your communications campaigns more successful.
• #9: Prior to big data, we used demo and psycho . I would argue that demo don’t even matter anymore The steps behind the behavior you need to understand. Before you can really know your best customer, you’ve got to understand how they buy. Every single buyer, whether B2C or B2B follows this protocol. You need to understand what your best customer does in each of these situations. For buying behavior give the form example Finally decision – car dealers are most active here. Repeat buy is where you see a lot of loyalty programs Content marketing brings us closer to being a player during the information searchj But knowing your best customer puts you in the forefront at the problem stage because you understand their mission, their values, etc. Tell the story of share the love how it got started.
• #10: end result was a near landslide victory for the BJP and BJP allies. As far as IMC results go, you don’t get a much grander or spectacular example than winning a nation!
• #11: What CF did really, really well is they didn’t stray from their core statement, even down to the brand itself. One characteristic of IMC as you remember is that you have a consistent message across channels. This doesn’t mean it’s the SAME message, but your core statement provides the foundation for that message. I do this all the time with my ongoing campaigns. Once you get going, it can be challenging not to get mixed up in a bunch of wordsmithing, or if you’re working in digital, get lost in the numbers. Really, alignment is key and you have to be aligned to the first step in the behavior cycle which is the identification of a problem. Write down the primary, main statement of your problem and the premise. Stick it in front of you as you work throughout the day. Review your messages through that lens and things will become much more clear.
• #13: What CF did really, really well is they didn’t stray from their core statement, even down to the brand itself. One characteristic of IMC as you remember is that you have a consistent message across channels. This doesn’t mean it’s the SAME message, but your core statement provides the foundation for that message. I do this all the time with my ongoing campaigns. Once you get going, it can be challenging not to get mixed up in a bunch of wordsmithing, or if you’re working in digital, get lost in the numbers. Really, alignment is key and you have to be aligned to the first step in the behavior cycle which is the identification of a problem. Write down the primary, main statement of your problem and the premise. Stick it in front of you as you work throughout the day. Review your messages through that lens and things will become much more clear.
• #15: end result was a near landslide victory for the BJP and BJP allies. As far as IMC results go, you don’t get a much grander or spectacular example than winning a nation!
• #17: Good messaging is a strategy all by itself. For Vail Place, because we’re raising awareness messaging is extremely important. But for other types of goals, you’ll have a different set of strategies. Before I go into common IMC strategies, there are some key characteristics of strong strategies I’d like to share with you. Strategy is the one piece that many people forget about. They jump from objectives to tactics. And that’s a bad idea, and you’ll find out why when we move into discussing tactics Client that quadrupled web traffic. Can also be used as combinations within different pieces of a channel like different social media accounts or with different buyers within the same geographical region \ Radio/social media for awareness Print/digital campaign within a small geographic target for specific services Billboards and digital for sales promotions
• #18: What CF did really, really well is they didn’t stray from their core statement, even down to the brand itself. One characteristic of IMC as you remember is that you have a consistent message across channels. This doesn’t mean it’s the SAME message, but your core statement provides the foundation for that message. I do this all the time with my ongoing campaigns. Once you get going, it can be challenging not to get mixed up in a bunch of wordsmithing, or if you’re working in digital, get lost in the numbers. Really, alignment is key and you have to be aligned to the first step in the behavior cycle which is the identification of a problem. Write down the primary, main statement of your problem and the premise. Stick it in front of you as you work throughout the day. Review your messages through that lens and things will become much more clear.
• #19: This the IMC magic worked by the Bharatiya Janata Party of India. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was formed in 1951 as an “Integral Humanist” party, which basically means the BJP strives to create an economic model (indigenous to India) that places the human at the center of all concerns. BJP’s presence in India is significant – it’s the largest party represented in parliament and the second largest represented in individual states. For example in a given election year, that audience includes a significant youth presence, as the BJP aims to motivate youth to vote. Some of the strategies the BJP utilized for these goals included rallies (some rallies even had 3D hologram components), animated videos, mobile games and extensive social media marketing including a Google hangout in 2012. If you go look, there’s a slideshare of their campaign that talks about how they modeled it after the various plans, their tactics also included: Print adsTV adsCampaigns in WhatsApp (mobile messengerRingtonesYouTube videosViral memes…and the creation of a song intended to inspire hope in voters, which was distributed through many online and offline channels. What makes the BJP’s campaign such good IMC is not just that they utilized a lot of different channels in harmony, but that they first identified and organized their audiences, and then clearly defined messages to appeal to each demographic. Then, the channels they used to spread that message were tailored to the audience. Appealing to youth through messages in WhatsApp or funny memes is nearly guaranteed success. They also branded the BJP politicians heavily, such as Prime Minster candidate Narendra Modi, who has his own Facebook page and got his own mobile app (the “Modi Run” game). They hit Facebook and Twitter particularly heavily with relevant hashtags and creative messages, generating more following and positive sentiment than their opponents, overall. The end result was a near landslide victory for the BJP and BJP allies. As far as IMC results go, you don’t get a much grander or spectacular example than winning a nation!
• #20: Importance of personasHow many of you have worked with persona’s before? Can you explain the context of how you did that? What’s the most famous persona you can think of? Betty Crocker. What goes into a persona? Simple vs. robust personas. Archtype personas Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers. They are based on real data about customer demographics and online behavior, along with educated speculation about their personal histories, motivations, and concerns. Demographic Psycho
• #22: What CF did really, really well is they didn’t stray from their core statement, even down to the brand itself. One characteristic of IMC as you remember is that you have a consistent message across channels. This doesn’t mean it’s the SAME message, but your core statement provides the foundation for that message. I do this all the time with my ongoing campaigns. Once you get going, it can be challenging not to get mixed up in a bunch of wordsmithing, or if you’re working in digital, get lost in the numbers. Really, alignment is key and you have to be aligned to the first step in the behavior cycle which is the identification of a problem. Write down the primary, main statement of your problem and the premise. Stick it in front of you as you work throughout the day. Review your messages through that lens and things will become much more clear.
• #23: Good messaging is a strategy all by itself. For Vail Place, because we’re raising awareness messaging is extremely important. But for other types of goals, you’ll have a different set of strategies. Before I go into common IMC strategies, there are some key characteristics of strong strategies I’d like to share with you. Strategy is the one piece that many people forget about. They jump from objectives to tactics. And that’s a bad idea, and you’ll find out why when we move into discussing tactics Client that quadrupled web traffic. Can also be used as combinations within different pieces of a channel like different social media accounts or with different buyers within the same geographical region \ Radio/social media for awareness Print/digital campaign within a small geographic target for specific services Billboards and digital for sales promotions