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The Fortune 500 & Their Best PR Techniques You've Ever Seen

2016-12-09by Hannah Whittenly

Fortune 500 companies are known to generate massive amounts of revenue while trying to maintain a public image that reflects ethical principles, prosperity and positive outreach. In other words, once companies make it to the Fortune 500 list, they are expected to increase their public relations efforts with creative and effective campaigns.

The following five PR campaigns formulated by Fortune 500 companies in recent years are certainly memorable due to the masterful methods used to formulate and carry them out:

Visa

Since 2010, this major credit and debit card network had been losing considerable brand appeal until their PR agency launched a creative and successful social media campaign. For this particular effort, Visa went with a simple theme: the number six. By featuring a series of six-second videos, six-word catch phrases, and six-picture stories, Visa was able to reconnect with customers on social networks such as Twitter and Instagram.

Southwest Airlines

Like other airlines operating in the United States, Southwest draws on the strength of their workforce to handle PR efforts. Southwest takes pride in making the work experience enjoyable so that employees can feel empowered to share their experiences with passengers on the Nuts About Southwest blog as well as on various social media channels. Many of the interactions take place in real-time, adding a layer of authenticity to the campaign.

Purina

This recognized brand of pet food and pet care supplies was having a hard time retaining its brand leadership, and thus it decided to borrow a page from the Southwest PR book and coordinated an attractive campaign that featured not just happy employees but also their pets. The Purina Trust campaign relied on employee ideas, and one particular idea was a shining moment as the company sponsored a shelter for victims of domestic abuse who were comforted by friendly animal companions.

Honda

This respected Japanese brand of passenger vehicles took a traditional approach to PR, looking for opportunities to engage directly with the community by sponsoring a youth hockey league affiliated with the NHL.

General Motors

From 2005 to 2010, this American automaker had a terrible PR run due to a failed Chevy Tahoe advertising campaign that was widely mocked in 2006; a few years later the company needed a financial bailout from the U.S. government and the brand was tarnished. These days, the company is bouncing back thanks to a solid PR campaign focused on the Chevy Bolt electric car, which started with tech-conscious drivers and is now moving towards the environmental conservation crowd.

As customers and clients of these name brands, we don’t think too much about who exactly is behind the PR strategy. We just see what we see and judge whether or not we like it. Yet, do we realize that the people behind the scenes may actually have a master’s degree in public relations and that everything we are seeing is due to the goals that they have and the estimations and calculations that they did to ensure that their message comes across to us just right? In fact, it takes teams of people who have such expertise and capabilities to pull off a successful PR campaign like the above five have done.

Without the good PR work, there would be no success—and the Fortune 500 would be a lot less fortunate. Although there are only five of the 500 listed here, I am sure that the rest of them have done similar campaigns and have put in just as much hard work into them.

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