Online Promotion: PR goes digital

So what is online PR? Katy Howell, managing director of PR agency
Immediate Future describes it as "the same as offline PR in the sense
that it is promoting and guarding the reputation and communication
between a client and its audience".

Keef Sloan, director at online PR agency Way to Blue prefers to use the
term digital PR, "because in the old days it was predominantly online,
but now with WAP, 3G, iPod video and PlayStation Portable, there are
more digital channels," he says.

More than in the offline world, there is a blurring between online PR
and marketing, with many online PR campaigns incorporating third-party
partnership deals and viral campaigns, which traditionally have fallen
into the marketing camp.

Ian Williams, joint MD at Lansons Communications, a traditional agency
in that it started in offline PR, is clear about what his agency does
and doesn't offer. "We don't do ad buying, search engine optimisation or
pay-per-click, but we will do microsites, content creation and
provision," he says.

Buzz marketing

Blurring the distinction further is 'buzz marketing' in online PR
campaigns.

Craig Hill, chairman of marketing agency Digital Outlook explains how
this works: "It is based on the principle that consumers are not only
influenced by what they read on their favourite sites, but by what they
read on blogs, forums and other forms of online word-of-mouth
communication.

By giving (fans or experts) the same access to behind the scenes
information normally reserved for journalists, they can comment on your
product with more authority and, if they like it, will often act as
ambassadors on your behalf within those communities."

Digital Outlook recently applied the concept to promoting Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy. "We worked closely with the executive producer, who
knew author Douglas Adams and where his fans were," says Hill. "The art
is how you manage them."

Hitchhiker's is not the only film to have been promoted online. The
entertainment sector was one of the first to recognise the online
channel as a key route for promoting films, albums and games. Online
design agency Jam, for example, has promoted films online including King
Kong, In Her Shoes and Family Stone. "We helped them set up promotional
partnerships," says Dan Noy, account director at Jam. "For example, with
In Her Shoes, we co-hosted a web site with glamourmagazine.co.uk and
negotiated promotions with the offer of exclusive assets."

The benefits of online PR here are obvious: consumers can watch and hear
previews or demos online before the product is on general release. But
it is also fairly cheap and good for reaching niche audiences. And
consumers are increasingly using the web as the channel for information.
Research commissioned by Google found that the average web user in the
UK spends 164 minutes online each day compared to 148 minutes watching
TV.

Agencies with backgrounds in marketing, design, search engine
optimisation and PR have responded quickly by moving into online PR.
Specialist agencies have technical expertise and contacts on their side,
yet traditional agencies bring experience of integrated PR campaigns
across print and broadcast.

Alternatively, an organisation could manage all aspects of the campaign
in-house, as gadget and games online retailer Firebox does. "I am unsure
why you would hire a pure online PR agency," comments Charlie Morgan,
head of PR. "I believe that online media is, like print or broadcast,
making your campaign more cohesive, rather than relying on various
agencies targeting specific media."

The theory is the same, but the dynamics, delivery and resources online
differ to those used to target offline media. "If we are doing a big
exclusive with a web site, we might give them something in return for
promotion," says Way to Blue's Sloan. "We did a launch for The Constant
Gardener and negotiated a free safari holiday from Thomson Holidays in
return for placing the promotion on a high-profile web site - in this
case, AOL."

Word-of-mouth

Where online PR offers really interesting possibilities is through
word-of-mouth tactics and 'influencer' relations. One area attracting
attention from PR agencies is blogging.

Ashley Norris, journalist and CEO of commercial blog company Shiny
Media, recently undertook a tour of some UK PR agencies to discover what
they and their clients thought of blogs. "We were quite surprised to
find how little most knew about new media and, in particular, blogs," he
says.

Immediate Future considers 'blog relations' to be important. "As we'd
look at a newspaper's circulation, we look at the number of visitors and
see how many are contributing," says Howell. "Once we've selected our
sites, we approach the writer and declare our interest, letting them
know we'd like to talk to them."

Honesty is the best policy in the blogging sphere, as demonstrated by
the faux pas involving Barry Scott, a marketing character created to
promote cleaning product Cillit Bang. The agency behind Barry posted a
response to a blog by Tom Coates (www.plasticbag.org) in which he wrote
about not having any contact with his father for almost 30 years.

Aggrieved, Tom decided to find out who was behind the posting, which
took him to several ad agencies and Reckitt Benckiser, which produces
the product. A few days later, he received an apology from PR agency
Cohn & Wolfe, describing the posting by Barry Scott as "unplanned and an
error of judgement".

Firebox has found that blogs can be advantageous in introducing its
brand to global audiences. "Earlier this year, the Firebox wooden clock
was featured on Tech Digest, which was picked up by an American blog
site.

This led to a huge boost in sales from the US," says Firebox's
Morgan.

Other technologies that offer PR specialists new ways of promoting
clients online are podcasting and 'web chats'. Brazil PR, another
'traditional' agency has used the former to promote one of PC World's
brands, MacWarehouse.

"MacWarehouse has a monthly column in Mac Format magazine and we have
just produced it as a podcast," says director Richard Leonard. "It's an
extension of its sponsored column in the online magazine."

Meanwhile, Lansons Communications often uses web chats to promote its
clients. "We had a top mortgage expert from Charcol talking in a web
chat and promoted it on Wanadoo, the Mirror's web site, and NTL World,"
says Lanson's Williams.

Looking further into the future, Way to Blue is investigating the
possibility of 'bluecasting' - using Bluetooth technology "to broadcast
live from inside film premieres to people's mobile phones," explains
Sloan. "It would raise awareness for our client and enable us to expand
our client's message to WAP and operator sites we wouldn't normally be
able to target."

One development that many practitioners believe will occur is greater
integration with offline PR campaigns. "Integration is the way to go,"
says Paul Borge, client services director at digital marketing agency
iJack. "Some clients and agencies tag online onto the end of their
campaign.

But we're now seeing clients taking account of the online channel at the
beginning of planning."

Not to do so would be to abandon an increasingly vital channel for
promoting brands, or, at worst, an outlet for non-supporters of your
brand to attack your reputation unchecked.

EGG PROMOTES CREDIT CARD ONLINE

Earlier this year, online financial services provider Egg launched a
campaign to support its credit card. "We were promoting balance transfer
and educating consumers that they should use their 0 per cent balance
transfer not just to move their debt around, but to reduce it," says
Rachel Roe, brand PR manager at Egg.

The end result was Debtaware.co.uk - built and promoted by iJack - where
visitors could take a 'debt awareness' quiz to discover and receive
advice on getting out of debt. "We used online sponsorships to drive
traffic to the site, like competitions, and editorial on Handbag," says
Paul Borge, iJack's client services director.

"Personal finance isn't the most interesting subject," admits Roe. "So
an online quiz or game lets us target lifestyle sites, which are
normally difficult to access."

It's the first time Egg has used online PR to promote a campaign. The
results are not yet available, but Roe says: "We have been told by iJack
that it is going very well."