The document discusses the impact of a PR-driven approach to branded content, highlighting a successful campaign by Start-Rite Shoes that engaged with children about technology. The campaign generated substantial media coverage and social media engagement, demonstrating the effectiveness of genuine storytelling in marketing. It emphasizes that emotional connections and credible engagement lead to positive brand perception and significant results.

1. Do you have a brand that
wants to get people talking?

2. PR brings to
marketing, an
ability to add real-
world consumer
perspective to
what makes a
good story. It can
find the most
credible way to
engage with
multiple
audiences.
Joan O’Connor, head of brand
PR, Coca-Cola
Source: PR Week Feb 2014 Image source: Twitter

3. Seth Godin, Sept 2015
Image source: www.drewgneiser.com
The most
valuable forms of
marketing are
consumed
voluntarily.

4. Here we show you how a PR
approach to branded content
can deliver powerful results.

5. This summer,
we uncovered
a compelling
insight and
spoke to our
audience in
an emotive,
credible way.
The campaign
was voluntarily
shared around
the world.
Jane Pavia-Davis, managing
director, Vista PR. Sept 2015

6. We went into
schools to ask
700, 7-11 year
olds about new
technology in
the home.

7. Amid various
headlines
criticising
children’s
use of tech,
we were the
first to give
children the
chance to
reply.

8. What the 7-8 age group had
to say was eye-opening.

9. So we
filmed
them.

10. 1.57 mins of unscripted,
unrehearsed, heart-felt
feelings, that closed with a
positive call to action, got
people thinking, talking and
sharing.

12. Sky News
was the first
to engage
with the
story.

13. The Mirror and Mail online set it
alight.

14. A film that cost very little to
create, with no spend on
promoting ‘views’ was still
being shared across the world,
three weeks later.

16. 74 pieces of online editorial
coverage, one national TV
feature and 280 Sky News
radio stations inspired over
23,000 shares, likes and
comments across four
continents.

17. ‘We absolutely love it.’
‘Wow, that is powerful.’

18. Every piece of coverage was
branded and not one was
negative towards the brand,
because the core brand
principle was undeniable:-

19. That Start-rite
Shoes listens to
children,
understands
children and
cares about
their future.

20. But that isn’t the end of our
story.

21. Four weeks after
launch, Mail online
used the content
again to support a
complementary
story.

22. This new story inspired 4,800
shares and 271 comments.

23. We will never know the true
reach of the film, or the power
of the message to drive sales
for our client. But, we do know
that this Back-to-School season
was the brand’s most
successful yet.

24. Our film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzIKphe9ZVM

25. Do you want to get
people talking?
jpd@thevistavillage.com
01295 369 182
@VistaMums
VistaPR
Vista_PR
www.thevistavillage.com