Archive | Campaigns

In Honor of the 45th Anniversary of Earth Day, Companies Launch Impactful Campaigns Online

By Paramount Public Relations on April 24, 2015 in Campaigns, Paramount Public Relations, Social Media

This past Wednesday, April 22, the world celebrated its 45th Earth Day. Every year, communities come together to demonstrate their support of environmental protection by putting together events that help encourage public awareness. In addition to individual efforts, research from the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) indicates that “over the past five years both U.S. consumer awareness and consumer attitudes toward sustainable or ‘green,’ brands have increased to an all-time high.”

Many companies and brands participated in Earth day this year by using social media accounts to showcase their “pride for the planet.” On a variety of social media platforms, companies inspired one another to launch campaigns focusing on their sustainability efforts reaffirming their commitments to the environment. A sense of community and public pride was evoked having companies across the globe provide tips for environmental protection to their networks.

Neutrogena was one brand that stood out among many others this year. For its annual Earth Month campaign, the brand choose to dramatically change how it targets its audiences by launching a digital-only campaign that promoting water conservation in addition to a new line of environmentally friendly makeup wipes with actress Kisten Bell as the brand’s spokeswoman. The efforts of this new campaign center around the #WipeforWater hashtag to inspire consumers to use Neutrogena’s wipes for seven days which would save about 35 gallons of water per person. Neutrogena will also be donating $1 (up to $50,000) to the Nature Conservatory for every person who pledges online to Neutrogena’s Earth Month cause.

Inspired by Neutrogena’s engaging campaign and creative thinking, how can we as consumers start holding ourselves at a higher standard and become actively conscious of our environmental responsibility in our daily lives?

Watch Kristen Bell explain Neutrogena’s campaign here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4ScVY-hZJ4&feature=youtu.be

Meerkat: SXSW’s Breakout Video-Streaming App

By Paramount Public Relations on March 27, 2015 in Paramount Public Relations, Social Media

From March 13 – 22, the South by Southwest Conferences & Festivals, commonly referred to as SXSW, hosted its annual festival in celebration of unique music, independent films and emerging technologies. Often over-shadowed by its musical showcases, SXSW is a breeding-ground for new media presentations where the most innovative and creative industry leaders come to showcase new products with the festival’s numerous audience members, many of whom are tech enthusiasts and early adaptors in addition to music and film aficionados.

While performances by popular artists such as Stromae, Best Coast and Miley Cyrus were highly anticipated, according to an article by Time, it was Meerkat, a new iOS livestreaming video app that “stole the show away.”

Recently launched on February 27 by a local startup tech company from San Francisco, Meerkat connects users on Twitter to broadcast themselves through video capabilities. Meerkat facilitates conversation between audiences in a simplistic manner. This new technological avenue is creating an enormous opportunity that brands should take advantage of in order to help promote business and create buzz. Meerkat is an example of the “massive shift in the way people will consume news, sports or entertainment.”

The app lets users “like” follower videos, see how many people are viewing their posts and send comments that show up on-screen in real-time connecting to both Twitter and Meerkat accounts. Another feature of this app includes viewing other users to see which individuals have a high-level of watch frequencies and schedule embargoed streams to notify followers at a later time.

Many attendees at the SXSW festival used Meerkat to livestream their daily activities and location to keep their social groups constantly updated on their experience. Celebrity endorsers, such as Jimmy Fallon, are also using this app to connect with fans.

With Twitter’s recent acquisition of Periscope, Meerkat advocates will have to wait and see how it will differentiate itself from competition. Will Meerkat reach out to other social graphs to maintain popularity with users?

To read the full article, click here: http://time.com/3742746/meerkat

Will Social Media Predict This Year’s March Madness?

By Paramount Public Relations on March 20, 2015 in Paramount Public Relations, Social Media

The month of March is an indicator that spring is right around the corner and with it, the frenzy of March Madness. Each year, college basketball fans spend copious amounts of time reviewing team statistics in hopes of accurately selecting and predicting a winning bracket. According to a recent article published by CNBC, social media users’ bracket should have the best picks:

“This is what the data folks at Prime Visibility are suggesting. According to their research, the company has accurately predicted 74 percent of games in the last two years, based on the public’s positive comments toward each team. It’s a better performance than simply picking the favorites according to gamblers—who win 71 percent of the time. Prime Visibility is a full-service digital marketing agency with experience in various channels including social media. The results for its March Madness bracket came by combing through Twitter and Facebook, looking for positive mentions throughout the entire college basketball season for each team. The company has analyzed 4.25 million positive mentions—ignoring neutral or negative ones, such as ‘Kentucky is playing a game today.’”

David Neuman, Director of Social Media Services for Prime Visibility states that, “while social media mentions aren’t 100 percent accurate in predicting outcomes of a game, it can certainly provide insight into which team is more likely to win, as it factors in all of the positive things a team has done throughout the year.”

After Thursday night’s upset with Iowa State and Baylor losses, perhaps before next year’s season, you might want to think about looking through your social media feeds before finalizing your bracket. To add insult to injury, Prime Visibility has correctly predicted 13 out 16 games so far this season, and are currently ahead of 98.7 brackets at ESPN. Last year, they were perfect in their Final Four prediction including a seed eight and nine team, which is historical rare for the Final Four.

Time will only tell who will be this year’s winner leaving us to wonder, is the public voice a better predictor than the experts?

Here is Prime Visibility’s full 2015 bracket:

Read more of the article here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102519662

Is McDonalds Really Showing Some “Lovin?”

By Paramount Public Relations on February 6, 2015 in Campaigns

McDonalds Pay With "Lovin"

Recently, McDonalds’ launched its new campaign that focuses on “lovin.” This is a step in the right direction for the brand that has recently suffered multiple setbacks in the media, including criticism about its employee wages as well as speculation around the sourcing and nutritional value of its food. The new promotion known as “Pay With Lovin’” invites customers to pay for food with an act of love that is thought up by a McDonalds’ employee. While the campaign is only temporary, strong reactions both negative and positive are already trending.

This past Monday, hundreds of customers paid for their McDonalds meals with actions ranging from high-fives to taking selfies. An article on Business Insider highlights the many positive reactions posted by customers and McDonalds stores on Twitter, including photos of couples hugging or other acts of kindness. These photos promote a positive brand reaction and help foster a new, caring image for McDonalds service.

However, not all McDonalds customers were enthralled with the new promotion. In an article on Wall Street Journal, one customer was left feeling publicly embarrassed after being told to ask someone to dance. The authenticity of the feel-good stunt somewhere was lost in translation from the commercial that appears on the television commercial to her present reality.

Almost sixty years from its founding, McDonalds’ is trying to prove that they are listening to and taking into consideration its consumers changing values. Whether or not consumers like the performing the random acts of kindness, it raises the question— is McDonalds’ actually giving its customers what they want?

Happy Holidays from Paramount Public Relations, Inc.

By Paramount Public Relations on December 24, 2014 in Holidays, Paramount Public Relations, Press

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Paramount Public Relations, Inc. would like to wish you and your families a happy holiday and a wonderful New Year. It has been a very memorable year, and we would like to share the top 10 newsworthy events of 2014:

Ice Bucket Challenge: In what quickly became a viral internet sensation, countless people took on the Ice Bucket Challenge which raised over $100 million for ALS. People dumped freezing cold buckets of water on top of their heads before sharing the hilarious videos on social media – but not before nominating someone else to take on the challenge.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Disappears: Malaysia Airline flight 370 vanished Saturday, March 8 with 239 people on board traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The largest search in aviation history slowly spread from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean but as weeks stretched to months and the numerous reports of floating debris led nowhere. Baffled aviation experts have admitted the MH370’s final resting-place could take years to discover, leaving the missing passengers families to wait without answers.
Polar Vortex: As we head into another winter, it is hard to forget about this January’s negative temperatures which started 2014 with some of the coldest weather across the country since the 1970’s.
All About That Bass: Meghan Trainor stole hearts across America this June with her debut single “All About That Bass” which promotes health body image. The song was nominated for a People’s Choice Award, a MTV Europe Music Award and two Grammy Awards.
Tight Rope Walk Across Chicago: Nik Wallenda, a seasoned daredevil tightrope walker, did the unthinkable this Fall – he walked between two Chicago skyscrapers on a tight rope. The first 454 ft long walk was at an incline and Wallenda completed his second 94 ft walk blindfolded.
#BreakTheInternet: After marrying Kanye West and coming out with her own video game, Kim Kardashian managed to shock the world again this year with scandalous photos for the winter cover of Paper Magazine. The photos sparked countless internet spoofs across Facebook and other social media channels.
The Death of Robin Williams: Comedy will never be the same after Robin Williams, stand-up comedian and well-known TV and film star, died at age 63 from an apparent suicide.
Leaked Celebrity Photos: After a hacker stole thousands of private photos off of Apple’s iCloud of female celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and Victoria Justice, the security of iCloud storage was heavily scrutinized.
Ebola: What started with just a few cases in Guinea became the deadliest outbreak of Ebola on record. The virus spread throughout West Africa claiming more than 5,000 lives and in September, the first case of the disease in the United States was diagnosed at Texas Presbyterian Hospital.
The United States and Cuba Mend Relations: The United States and Cuba took the first step in mending diplomatic relations on December 17 after Cuba released two Americans who had been imprisoned for years.

Paramount Public Relation’s Client Highlights of 2014

By Paramount Public Relations on December 19, 2014 in Clients, Holidays, Paramount Public Relations, Public Relations

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It has been a busy year here at PPR, our clients have been doing some exciting things. From launching a new care booking site to partnering with the Marriott Hotels, here are a few highlights from 2014:

Chicago Travelers Eat Well: Farmer’s Fridge, a new vending kiosk concept that dispenses gourmet salads and snacks made fresh daily with over 15 locations in the Chicagoland area, added a new location at the Chicago Marriot O’Hare hotel. Chicago Marriott O’Hare reached out to Farmer’s Fridge this year to be a part of their Travel Brilliantly campaign, offering Marriott travelers healthy on-the-go meal options made with local, fresh ingredients.
Big Success in a Short Time: SuiteHop, the online marketplace for fans to book full suites as well as individual seats in suites across the country, announced the completeion of $1 million in equity funding this year. SuiteHop creates access to luxury suites with amenities to concerts and sports games around the country by allowing fans to purchase extra tickets to suites that would have otherwise gone unused. Even though SuiteHop was only launched this year, they recently announced they have over $5 million of inventory for booking luxury suites at more than 550 events nationwide.
Celebrity “It” Drink at the Emmys: HYDRIVE Energy Water jetted to Los Angeles to hang out with some of their favorite TV stars for a little pre-Emmy fun this August. Emmy red carpet host Ross Mathews and actors from Emmy-nominated shows such as Veep actor Matt Walsh, Michael Gill from House of Cards, Game of Thrones actress Sibel Kekilli, RJ Mitte from Breaking Bad and more enjoyed a low-calorie and refreshing boost from HYDRIVE Energy Water before the event.
Give Back to Charity While Talking on a Cell Phone: GIV Mobile continues to appeal to customers nationwide with their new all-time low $20 Unlimited talk and text plan with 150g of data. This consumer conscious no-contract service plan donates 8% of each customer’s monthly plan amount to up to three charities of the customer’s choice.
A Unique Thanksgiving: This year, MealSharing.com, a website that connects travelers and locals over home cooked meals, connected over 1,000 on Thanksgiving through their ThanksSharing initiative. Whether a person was traveling, alone for the holiday or simply wanted a different experience—ThanksSharing helped connect people over home cooked meals for the special occasion.
Company Launch: CareBooker.com, the only FREE “Open Table” of family and pet care services, launched this year. CareBooker.com’s streamlined platform allows users to directly book interviews, single or repeated appointments and communicate with providers through real-time availability—plus online payment is available, eliminating any in-person transactions.
Grand Opening Event: Our team had a blast attending Granite City’s Grand Opening Event this October in Naperville, IL. The polished casual Modern American restaurant features a wide variety of dishes prepared from made-from-scratch recipes as well as an on-site microbrewery. The new Naperville location is the 31st restaurant that celebrates gourmet food and drink in a family-friendly atmosphere.

Giving Tuesday Kicked Off the Celebration of Generosity this Holiday Season

By Paramount Public Relations on December 5, 2014 in Community, Feel Good, Holidays, Public Relations, Social Media

The third annual Giving Tuesday, a movement that takes place after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, took place this past Tuesday on December 2, 2014. The day was designated to remind Americans that generosity of the holiday season should extend beyond friends and family and give back to the community. Last year, Giving Tuesday raised $19.2 million and had over 10,000 nonprofits worldwide participating in this global day dedicated to giving back.

This year, 68 countries and over 15,000 nonprofits participated in Giving Tuesday, increasing donations by nearly 63% since last year. An estimated $45.68 million was donated to charities across the globe. Part of the success of spreading the word on Giving Tuesday was due to the help of social media. Charities, families, businesses, community centers and students around the world were encouraged to share their stories of how they celebrate generosity and give back to their communities with the hashtag #GivingTuesday, inspiring others to do the same. This Giving Tuesday alone, #GivingTuesday had 698,600 hashtag mentions and 32.7 million Twitter impressions.

Beyond Giving Tuesday, there are companies who provide an easy way for consumers to give back year-round. GIV Mobile, the first no-contract consumer conscious wireless service, was proud to participate on this day and every other day of the year by donating 8% of every customer’s monthly bill amount to up to three nonprofit charities of his or her choice. Some of these charities include Scholarship America, Kids In Need Foundation, The Conservation Fund, Alzheimer’s Association and many more.

Although Giving Tuesday has past, don’t forget there is still plenty of time to help out your favorite cause this year! J

Find out more information on Giving Tuesday on their website: http://www.givingtuesday.org/

Halloween: What PR Professionals Can Take Away From the Spooky Holiday

By Paramount Public Relations on October 31, 2014 in Holidays, Public Relations

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Happy Halloween from Paramount Public Relations! Kicking off the holiday season, Halloween can provide inspiration for implementing PR strategies throughout the rest of the year. As the days seem to get shorter and the workload increases due the year coming to an end, The Huffington Post gives us four great ideas to bring PR strategies “back from the dead” this Halloween. Here are our favorite two:

1. Don’t be a zombie: Mindless zombies wander around at Halloween without a clear goal where they are going. Don’t let your PR activities turn into a zombie by not having a clear goal for how you will communicate with your customers. You need a PR strategy for your business to help target your communication to the right audience and the right publications at the right time.

Also zombies aren’t the most engaging creatures. Avoid becoming a PR zombie by engaging and building relationships with the media. Journalists are more likely to read your emails and call for interviews if they know who you are and that they can rely on you for an interview. You can start to build a relationship with a journalist by understanding what they are interested in, knowing the topics they write about, being mindful of their deadlines, getting their name right and delivering on your promises.

2. Use evergreen stories: Halloween comes but once a year! Each year there are many calendar events which the media will publish stories about such as Halloween or Christmas. From a media perspective, stories around these events remain interesting and newsworthy every year.

You can use these evergreen stories to your advantage to gain publicity for your business by coming up with a fresh new angle. For example, a business media angle around New Year’s Eve could be ‘New Year business resolutions’.

The world of PR, holidays can create the perfect tie-in to promote your brand in a timely fashion. With Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, it is time to get into the creative holiday spirit. PPR wishes everyone a safe and fun Halloween! We hope this tips help everyone get through the holiday season J

Read the full article here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catriona-pollard/bring-your-pr-strategy-ba_b_6058288.html

Budweiser Tugs at the Heart with Their New Responsible Drinking Ad

By Paramount Public Relations on September 26, 2014 in Advertising

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Budweiser has done it again. Last week, their new ad campaign for Global Be(er) Responsible Day which promotes responsible drinking went viral almost instantly after being posted. Using something as relatable as the love we have for our pets, Budweiser managed to turn a commercial into a tear-jerking, emotional message. The video has already shown great success, garnering over 17 million views and countless shares on social media since its release a week ago.

Advertising Age commented on the ad’s success in an article stating:

“The brew is seeking to recapture some of the magic of its popular “Puppy Love” Super Bowl spot with a new anti-drunk driving digital video featuring a man and his dog. The spot uses the same breed — a Yellow Lab — as the Emmy-nominated Clydesdales Super Bowl ad. The dog in the ad is not the same one shown in “Puppy Love,” which actually made use of several pups. But Bud stuck with the same breeder for both spots”

According to AdAge, the spot came out as a promotional tie-in Budweiser has in the works, “The 60-second video will be supported with paid media, according to the brewer. The ad’s release is timed with the brewer’s fifth-annual “Global Be(er) Responsible Day” on Friday, in which the brewer will be “promoting responsible drinking worldwide,” according to a statement.”

Read the full AdAge article here: http://adage.com/article/see-the-spot/budweiser-drunk-drivers-kill-puppy-love/295058/

Watch the commercial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eubWYPhcEEo

HYDRIVE Energy Water was Celebrity “It” Drink at the Emmys

By Paramount Public Relations on August 29, 2014 in Events

HYDRIVE Energy Water set off to Los Angeles earlier this week to hang out with some of their favorite TV stars for a little pre-Emmy fun. Actors from Emmy-nominated shows such as Veep actor Matt Walsh, Michael Gill from House of Cards, actress Sibel Kekilli from Game of Thrones and RJ Mitte from Breaking Bad enjoyed a low-calorie and refreshing boost from HYDRIVE Energy Water along with Emmy red carpet host Ross Mathews, Jaime Pressly, Missi Pyle, singer Kate Nash, sister to Miley Cyrus, Brandi Cyrus and more. The low-calorie energy water is the hottest new trend among celebrities who need an energy boost both on and off screen at only 30 calories/bottle.