Designing a Media Campaign: A JCX Case Study
Background
Surveys conducted on the UK public in 2003, 2005, and 2007 to measure perception of JCX UK presented an unambiguous picture of decline in prestige of brand, products, and associated corporate entities such as the JCX Stadium. This decline occurred despite funding for PR activities being proactively escalated within this period to fulfill the 2003 objective of increasing the frequency and quality of JCX public-reaching opportunities. The surveys suggested that volume of and expenditure on PR activity cannot be considered correlative with successful image building.
Goal of the Campaign
The campaign aimed to overturn, through change of methods, the PR deficit accrued from 2003 to 2009. The goal was to reinvest the company with prestige through fewer but better crafted image-building stories. The campaign utilized a selectivity- and integration-based approach in place of preceding plans’ saturation and investment strategy. That is, this campaign focused on releasing a small number of higher quality press releases, each covering a selection of target-pertinent themes. Put simply, quality rather than quantity was the goal. This quality would – it was hoped – be attained through issuance of stories containing greater relevance to regional economic/environmental conditions, addressing target publics with improved specificity, and, whenever possible, bringing positively associable celebrities and events into proximity with the corporate brand.
Target Publics
The principle target public was unchanged: working-age, employed adults. Within this public, was a critical subset, namely younger employed adult males (late teens to mid 30s). Market research identified this subset as the most representative of purchasers of key JCX product lines and the most representative age/gender profile among professional sports followers and concert attendees (Fujitsu, 2007).
Media List
An Appendix document listed the media contacts and online channels utilised to meet the campaign’s objectives. This list was not conclusive and expanded during the campaign. Keeping media list details current is an ongoing challenge.
Channels
Although online news customarily feeds from traditional sources, in this campaign, seeding began through online placement of pseudo stories and faux comments posted on message boards. Later, issue of formal press releases to newspapers or television channels prompted uptake by larger entities such as BBC Online.
Attention from traditional media has an authenticating effect on messages (McQuail, 1998), and because online news typically draws from print and broadcast channels, we anticipated (correctly) that the second online phase would be enriched by the intermediary of the conventional media. This tactic of inserting press releases between layers of online delivery reflects the campaign’s efforts to maximize audience specificity: the Internet constitutes our target public’s media of choice.
Local radio will also be an effective (albeit lesser) platform. The audience of Radio UKM fell within our target public parameters, making this a suitable channel. However, messages relayed by radio and television, while powerful, suffer from transience and buffer effects (surrounding programming exerts significant influence on how a story is perceived). By contrast, online stories and message threads are static (locatable for later reference), fluid (messages are posted and content evolves), economical, and to an extent open to manipulation. Online media are also favoured by our target public subset.
Stories
Every story released during this campaign featured an integration of themes, and belonged to one of two broad types:
- The sport/event/celebrity type, and
- The employment/environment/economy type.
Because circumstances were opportune, portmanteau stories consisting of the two types (and other improvised current elements) were also issued.
At the initial stage of planning, there were two background themes for potential stories fitting the types described above. These are the Stadium theme and the JCX product theme. Stadium stories report major sports and entertainments events at the JCX Stadium and, naturally, capitalize on significant participant names; JCX product-related stories addressed the subset target public more specifically.[1]
Timescale
The campaign began in July 2009 and in its first phase was initiatory and supportive in nature. Initially, the chief focus of the campaign was the assisting of the JCX Stadium Events Committee by acting as media observer and public relations advisor. The public-targeting phase of the campaign commenced with full force in April 2010. This second phase continued for one year, covered six major Stadium events, and issued JCX product-themed stories on a monthly basis between April and September of 2010, and then on a fortnightly basis until the closure of the campaign in April 2011. The date of closure coincided with the completed introduction of the JCX manufacturing expansion project.
Costs
Expenditure was lower than that of the 2007/8 campaign and was covered by the Stadium Sponsorship finance stream. As far as was possible, publicity activities were managed in-house. The actual estimated operating budget for the campaign is classified.
[1] The JCX Midlands plant became the European centre of assembly, service, and technical support for the new generation JCX product X. This allocation required expansion of the existing plant and necessitated direct hiring, which in turn attracted secondary and tertiary businesses that filled – albeit to a modest degree – some of the economic vacuum left by the flight of business from the region during 2008.