The Stories Behind the Stories

The Stories Behind the Stories

Most public relations majors know that one of the hardest parts of their jobs is explaining to their friends, families, etc. what they do. While “managing relationships” doesn’t sound interesting enough, “telling stories” is too vague. The art of storytelling in the PR world is often overlooked because it is not understood. Almost everything has a story.

For example, take a recent campaign from Audi where the organization provided free Wi-Fi to all attendees at the New York Auto Show. The catch? The titles of all the networks took jabs at Audi’s competitors. For example, one was called, “A4 has more horsepower than the 328i.” The witty writing and innovative idea earned mentions in Adweek, Mashable and more.

What many don’t realize, and maybe Audi is one of them, is that there are many stories to be told about this campaign. Storytelling from a PR perspective is more than just an overview of the campaign idea.

Here are some questions to be answered regarding the campaign:

1.    How on earth did they do that?

How much did it cost to provide free Wi-Fi to thousands of people? How did the New York Auto Show justify providing a vehicle (no pun intended) for one company to assert dominance over a competitor? From concept to execution, a behind the scenes look at how Audi moved a far-fetched idea into a reality would be a great way to keep the buzz going. It’s rare that people get a look at the creative planning process and the story behind the campaign would be a great one to tell.

2.    What would Audi have done if people reacted negatively?

Did Audi have a crisis communications plan in case it met negative reaction? What if BMW responded by pointing out the diesel engine crisis? Naturally, Audi would not want to point out that something would have gone wrong in its campaign. However, industry thought leaders, bloggers and trade magazines could capitalize on the buzz the campaign created and outline a proper communications plan if Audi needed to react to negative press. From the crises identification to the messaging to the cleanup, this is a great way to educate readers and establish credibility.

3.    What are the concrete results?

How successful was the campaign? How much press did it receive? How much conversation occurred on social? Was there in increase in sales? Organizations want to know that when they set out to tell a story, they will see results. Those results are a story as well. When Oreo famously live tweeted a response to the 2014 Super Bowl blackout, numerous statistics were uncovered comparing the media attention to the and social conversation at the time of the tweet to the time of the commercial. Statistics like these are particularly interesting when regarding the Audi campaign because its main function was to generate conversation. Sharing the results of the campaign and measuring its success adds credibility to the brand because of its ability to create conversations and to public relations as an art because of its ability to drive results.

Storytelling has been around for years, but recently has become a staple for describing the PR profession. In order to advance the understanding of and respect for PR, it is necessary to tell the stories behind the campaigns we create to keep people interested in PR and what its function is in the marketing communications mix. Let’s set a goal that next Christmas, no PR major has to answer the dreaded, “What does a public relations specialist do?”