Social media influencers unboxing beautifully wrapped and well-arranged packages on their Instagram stories. Television and radio features on up-and-coming brands to watch out for. Glitzy media events patronised by your favourite celebrities. We witness these events unfolding in front of us, yet we are often unaware of the work that goes into organizing them. Beyond the surface level, Public Relations is the unsung hero that toils away behind the scenes that facilitate and makes these events possible.
The Role of Public Relations
But what exactly is Public Relations, and what role does it play that makes it so important? To put it simply, Public Relations refers to the strategic communication from a brand or a company, to the public to maintain or cultivate awareness or build an image. In essence, Public Relations acts as a link or a bridge between a brand and the general public, acting as a middleman who handles any media and/or presses inquiries related to the brand.
Without a proper Public Relations team, brands (especially smaller and lesser-known ones), are unable to effectively liaise with reputable and big media publications and social media influencers, and subsequently unable to grow their branding and image. With a wealth of knowledge on how the media landscape works, coupled with a well-established database of various media connections, an effective Public Relations team is able to not only better gain the trust of the media, but also have the tools and know-how on how to successfully pitch your brand, maximizing your budget to gain the greatest exposure as much as possible.
And that’s exactly what Saltine Communications does. We not only secure affordable media features and interviews for our clients, but we promise guaranteed results with no costly retainers — that is what differentiates us from other Public Relations firms.
The Importance of Effective Public Relations
Smaller-owned businesses often have little knowledge on how exactly to get their brand onto the media, and that’s where Public Relations comes into play.
The Happy Moo is a homegrown local brand that started the world’s first shaker jerky. Despite having such an innovative never-done-before idea, the brand was unable to receive any coverage or features from even the smaller media publications. However, as soon as he got on board with Saltine Communications as his Public Relations team, he received close to 30 media interests that included top-tier publications such as Straits Times, after we sent out a single media pitch. They even had to stagger their stocks in order to accommodate the number of media publications that were interested in trying out his jerky!
Besides relying on media publications, utilizing social media influencers who are slowly but surely emerging as a means for gaining exposure for your brand is also an element of Public Relations that is difficult to obtain without a proper team who acts as the bridge of communication. The effectiveness of targeted influencer marketing can be again highlighted by one of our clients, Peachy Skin Bar, who paused their influencer marketing campaign with us by one month and saw their inbound sales drop by over 30%.
It is important to hire a team that not only understands your brand’s interests and needs well, but also one that fits your marketing and publicity budget.
So the next time you tap through Instagram stories and see an influencer unboxing a media kit for a brand or happen to tune in to a radio feature, you now know the unsung hero that made it all possible and the importance of its role in growing a brand.
Read more about our clients' PR successes here.