Dissertation Report

DISSERTATION REPORT

As an industry, public relations are moving more towards working alongside, and utilising influencers for campaigns, as well as managing their reputations and media visibility. Because of this, this report will be drawing on the research ascertained in my dissertation and look into a public relations organisation, specifically exploring their influencer sector, and how they use them for marketing, and how effective this marketing technique is. Their strategy will be compared alongside academia focussed on influencer marketing that was previously addressed in the dissertation.

Industry

As an industry, public relations work to achieve brand visibility, support reputation of brands and individuals and build relationships between companies and audiences or clientele. The ‘Public Relations Society of America defines public relations as “a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” Essentially, public relations specialists manage an organization's public image and reputation.’ (PRSA, 2022)

It is interesting that the current trends within the industry seem to focus on social issues, activism, diversity, authenticity and social media influencers. This, arguably could be due to the pandemic changing audience’s values, as Kiely (2022) suggests ‘the pandemic itself has led to a shift in content marketing, messaging, and branding. Fake news and misinformation abounded, leaving consumers wary of whom to trust.’ Further, companies discussing social issues and proving how they are changing for the better, for example to be more economically conscious or ensuring equality and diversity in the work place is on the rise in 2022, which allows consumers and clientele to perceive the companies as progressive, mindful and understanding when it comes to dealing with more sensitive issues. Below are some examples of how my chosen organisation, the PHA group, are promoting these brand values through blog posts and visibility of some of the aforementioned issues.

Moreover, brands using social media influencers is a positive way of suggesting brand authenticity and honest values, as they are perceived to be reliable as stated in the conclusion of my dissertation. Within public relations, there is a sector called ‘influencer relations’: “The liaison between a company and those considered to be influencers within the social media community” (Boone, Kurtz, Mackenzie, & Snow cited in Gallagher, 2021, pp. 39). Influencer relations is growing within the industry, and is now a large part of public relations, with influencer marketing being a main marketing technique within campaigns. Many public relations agencies are starting to steer their main focus towards influencers and social media personalities, and handle strategies of growth, reputation and media visibility for this talent. However, as concluded in my dissertation, it is vital that using influencers does not take away from the authenticity of the brand, and the brand does not distract from the authenticity of the influencer. This is why it is important to carefully select influencers to create a cohesive match between brand and endorser. Further, over advertising, or advertising brands that do not typically match their content can put an influencer at risk of losing their sense of authenticity, and their relationship with their audience.

Organisation

The organisation I will focus on throughout this report is The PHA Group, public relations and communications agency. I am focussing on this organisation as they are an impactful company who work with a vast variation of clientele across 11 different sectors, which are:

Consumer

Corporate

Reputation

Fitness

Healthcare

Personal

Social media

Sport

Technology

Third sector

Digital

The agency describes themselves as ‘a PR and Digital agency that creates real impact. Our consumer, corporate and reputation specialists deliver transformational results for clients, including household brands, international corporations, ambitious start-ups, and individuals with a story to tell.

Our unparalleled network integrates top-level media and influencer contacts with strategic, creative, digital, and social insight, as well as global connections, to create a truly bespoke service.

Our dedicated teams provide passion and specialist insight across a variety of sectors so, whatever the challenge, impact is guaranteed.’ (thephagroup, 2021)

The founder and chairman of the agency is Phil Hall, who is a ‘former national newspaper editor and editor in chief of a global magazine. Renowned for his contacts in senior media roles and in the sporting world and business. He specialises in reputation management of businesses and individuals. He has been recognised as an industry leader by Spears, PR Week and Chambers and Partners.’ (thePHAgroup, 2021) Hall founded the company in 2005, and has become one of the most highly regarded PR company in the UK. His first ever client was Paul McCartney. (Smith, 2020)

Further, I have personally spoken to employees of the company, who have demonstrated the incredible team atmosphere and working environment, and have proven it to be a company worthy of the awards they have won, including ‘PR agency of the year’ in 2018, and ‘media employer of the year’ in 2015. It is also a top 15 independent agency.

Literature Review

This section will explore the theoretical links between the academia discussed in my dissertation literature review and the practices The PHA group use, specifically regarding influencers. As mentioned in the literature review, Giles (2018, pp. 72) states that ‘the global explosion of social media created audiences many times bigger than those achievable by any television network’. This is exemplified by the blog post on the PHA group’s website, titled ‘Consumer PR: 2021’s Top Campaigns’ in which they showcase their three top PR campaigns in the consumer sector for 2021. One of these campaigns was for brand STYLE iQ and their new hair dryer. This campaign consisted of giving ‘top journalists and influencers an exclusive preview and first-hand experience of the product, drum up excitement, and secure coverage pre-launch, we hosted an exclusive event at Duck & Dry’s Mayfair salon.’ From this launch event, the 'total potential reach from attending titles and influencers of 237,544,256+’ with ‘23 journalist and influencer attendees’. (Hunt, 2021)

Further, Sara Rosengren and Colin Campbell (2021) suggest that ‘research shows that content by influencers can be as effective as or more effective than advertising by either brands or celebrities.’ The PHA group have clearly effectively utilised influencers and their platforms due to another top PR campaigns of 2021, for inclusive fashion brand, Snag hosting an event for influencers, who posted to their social media followings throughout the event. Influencers were also gifted clothing from the collection ‘creating additional ‘buzz’ around the launch.’ (Hunt, 2021) Finally, the third top campaign of 2021, was for flower delivery service, Floward, which needed to stand out in the UK market amongst other popular flower delivery service competitors. In less than a year, Floward has been established as a strong contender in the flower delivery service market, due to PHA ‘[a]ctivating an organic influencer gifting strategy across the premium, fashion, beauty, interiors and lifestyle space who would reach and resonate with Floward’s primary audience base.’ As well as, ‘securing an influencer design partnership with esteemed reality TV star turned credible jewellery designer, Rosie Fortescue, who has created two seasonal collections for Floward.’ They also gifted products to over ‘109 influencers’ (Hunt, 2021).

Purely from this blog post summarising the three top consumer campaigns of 2021 for The PHA Group, it is clear to see that they use influencer marketing as a key way to sell products and gain audiences and engagement for products. However, not only do they conventionally use influencers as endorsers, they invite them to attend events and gift them products, as an organic way of utilising the large platforms and followings that come with these personalities. Rosengren suggests that influencers regularly interacting with their audiences contributes to the progress of influencer marketing. (Rosengren et al, 2021) This supports this organic marketing technique that The PHA group utilise, as they understand that the engagement comes from the influencers regular posting, updating and interacting with their followers; a simple post to an Instagram story of a product they have received will gain thousands of views, and consequently the product will have a lot more visibility.

Further, The PHA Group prioritised influencer marketing when creating a campaign for RED Driving School. Xu et al (2021) state that that ‘viewers want to spend lots of time on vlogs, participate in the interaction and develop a vlogger friendship when they feel similar to the vlogger’. Utilising this knowledge, the agency worked alongside celebrities and influencers, to help them pass their driving tests with the company. PHA state that ‘PHA has developed and executed RED Driving School’s social media influencer strategy for several years, using public figures who are tapped into the brand’s core demographic of 17 – 25 year-olds. Our strategy builds trust and credibility with these hard-to-reach potential learners through an approach based on trust.’ (Thephagroup, 2021) After the influencers passed their tests, they posted about it on social media and targeted the exact demographic who were in the same position, learning to drive. The fact that these influencers are actually taking driving lessons, makes for a very authentic form of advertising, explaining the success of this campaign because ‘increased authenticity is what makes endorsements from micro-influencers more effective than those of mega-influencers.’ (Park et al cited in Rosengren et al, 2021) Knowing and understanding the effectiveness of influencer endorsement when the consumer feels similar to the influencer, PHA managed to gain a 50% increase in website traffic for RED following this campaign.

Findings and analysis

Throughout my research and literature review, my dissertation drew on multiple main conclusions that could benefit the PHA group when utilising influencers when creating campaigns. When done correctly, influencer marketing can be one of the most effective forms of marketing and advertising, however it can easily go wrong. Firstly, many people struggle to trust the opinions of influencers unless they are familiar with them and trust them, and are therefore super fans, or the influencer has proven their authenticity and honesty when posting promotional content. When audiences have a parasocial relationship with an influencer, they feel as if they know them and are able to believe their opinions more when advertising (Horton and Wohl, 1956). Therefore, when creating a successful influencer campaign, it is important to look into the interactions between fan and influencer before selecting someone to endorse a product or brand. The more often the micro celebrity communicates with their audience and allows them to participate in their content, the more trust and belief the fan will feel for the influencer, therefore they will be a more suitable endorser for the product.

Looking into why the fans of these influencers subscribe to them and engage with their content is the first step in understanding if they would be a good fit for companies’ promotional content. My conclusion states that ‘authenticity is a large deciding factor for audience members, when choosing who to follow and watch on YouTube. This should give clarity to brands opting to use YouTube influencer advertising, that looking into the relationship between a YouTuber and their audience is more important than looking at subscriber count, as it shows that if the influencer lacks perceived authenticity, loyalty and trust in their relationship with their audience, it is unlikely they will successfully sell products, or even capture their attention with advertisements.’ (Page, 2022) Many people are passionate about only subscribing to people they believe they can genuinely trust, therefore looking at influencers past promotional content and checking the response they get from their audience is vital before hiring them to advertise. The way their fans respond to their advertisements is the most important aspect, as it shows whether they will actually gain visibility and engagement for the advertised product, or if it will be continuously skipped through and overlooked. In the case of the Sidemen in my case study, it was proven that they had a loyal fan base, the most loyal of which would watch through all of their ads in order to support the creators. Consumer loyalty is the first thing that should be analysed when deciding whether an influencer is a good fit for a companies’ marketing campaign.

Moreover, I concluded that there is a shared, common theme of distrust and belief of inauthenticity when it comes to using influencers for marketing campaigns. In this case, I think it is clear that companies should be careful when choosing who to send PR products to, who to use in marketing campaigns and who to represent when it comes to talent. Because the influencers are getting paid to promote products, audience members struggle to believe that they are expressing a genuine opinion, rather than just creating content for the money. The PHA Group have utilised this knowledge extremely well in the aforementioned RED driving school campaign, as they used the influencers real life situations to promote the company. Showing their positive results and sharing their experience of driving lessons in real time, allows the audience transparency, as they can clearly see that the company is having a positive impact on their lives.

Further, there should be a clear link between the chosen influencer and the product or brand they are promoting. Kapitan and Silver (2016) suggest that for endorsements to be effective, consumers should see resemblance between the endorser and the product. For example, if a beauty influencer is endorsing a product, that product should be makeup, a hair tool, skin care or something that fits their category of content. If this influencer was to promote videogames, they would be targeting the wrong demographic, and would be lacking benefit to the company in the long run. Kim and Kim (2021) state, influencers ‘serve as experts within their content areas.’ The audience cannot see similarity between the influencer and the product and would therefore begin to question their trust in the micro- celebrity, and believe they are promoting anything that they get offered, which would begin to break down the perceived appearance of authenticity.

Also, the idea of aspiration should be taken into account when looking into influencers and their audiences. If it is clear in the influencers’ comments section or social media that their audience aspires to be like them or look like them, this would be a good inclination that they are a good endorser. Fans that want to be like an influencer, would be willing to purchase the products that they are promoting as they want to be similar to them, therefore feeling closer to them and heightening the feeling of parasocial relationship.

My dissertation highlighted the reasons why audience members get frustrated at influencer marketing. They hesitate to watch some influencers who they believe advertises too much, promote overly expensive products or products that do not fit in to their category of content, or who they believe come across as inauthentic and they cannot trust their opinion. This is why my research and findings can be beneficial to PR companies who are moving towards using influencers more regularly for marketing campaigns and promotional materials. I will use my audience research and conclusions to create a public relations playbook, aiming to provide clarity to these companies about how to select the correct influencer for what they are looking for. It will address what these agencies can do to gain maximum brand visibility, engagement and site traffic by using influencers correctly and effectively, by increasing understanding of consumer and audience priorities, brand vs influencer values and the direction they need to take their influencer marketing campaigns in in the future.

2557 words

Bibliography

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The PHA Group (2021) Available at: https://thephagroup.com/

Xu, Z, Islam, T, Liang, X, Akhtar, N and Shahzad, M (2021) ‘I’m like you and I like what you like’ Sustainable food purchase influenced by vloggers: A moderated serial- mediation model.’ Journal of Retailing and Consumer services, 63