My Top 5 PR Campaigns Of February 2023

FINALLY, spring is on its way. I’m not sure about you, but I’ve just about had enough dark mornings and evenings – bring on the bees and the blossom because I’m such a spring baby at heart. Anyway, enough of that for now, we’ve got February to look back on first.

Last month, some great PR campaigns caught my eye – from inclusivity in the Sims 4, to a loveable crisp campaign from Walkers that turned up multiple angles from the original story itself, to how it went very wrong for one customer.

My Top 5 PR Campaigns Of February 2023

1. Trans-Inclusive Updates – Sims (EA)

Representation is important. So EA releasing a new, free update for its Sims 4 game to include medical wearables for characters, such as hearing aids and glucose monitors, as well as top surgery scars was great to see this month. Gender nonconforming and disabled persons can see themselves through their characters in the game now, and for these groups of people, I imagine popular and mainstream games such as Sims 4 making these changes feels like a successful step in the right direction! I love the way this was marketed, my only complaint is that it wasn’t done sooner.

2. Nappy Shelf Risers – Pura & ASDA

Eco-friendly babycare brand Pura is not only a friend of this blog but this girl. Being a client of mine, sure I’m a little biased, but I’m so obsessed with everything this brand does. It’s an honour to work with them. Our most recent story is of the shelf risers they’ve created in partnership with Asda that are made of recycled nappies. You could pick up a packet of nappies off a shelf, and a few months later that used nappy may well have been recycled and now be supporting the new nappies in the store. It’s so cool because nappies aren’t easily recycled, but Pura always finds a way to come through. I love the work they do, and so did the press because my fabulous colleagues Jess and Adam got LOADS of coverage for this one.

3. Superbowl Rihanna – Fenty Beauty

I had to include this one because PR Twitter went nuts for it. Alongside announcing a second pregnancy during her first live performance in over half a decade at the Superbowl, Rihanna also plugged her brand Fenty through a quick and casual top up of her makeup mid-show. It’s stunning how such a simple act can cause such a stir, and rouse attention it did – with searches for the brand increasing by 833% according to Famous Campaigns. Allegedly, the business also scooped $5m in ‘media value’, says WWD. Her latest product releases were also Superbowl themed, tying the whole thing together with a neat bow. Traditional. Nice.

4. Love Letters To Toilet Paper – Who Gives A Crap

There were a lot of ‘name a [insert grim thing here] after your ex’ campaigns again this year, proof that not all ideas are new ideas, just reinventions of the wheel. I did think about including my favourite version of this stunt within this roundup, but ultimately I love a campaign that feels different and new – which is why eco toilet paper company Who Gives A Crap had the edge this month. The Australian brand seemed to attract a good deal of PR coverage across the pond by offering to turn love letters from exes into toilet paper – with their USP being this specific kind of recycling capability. What I liked the most about this stunt is a familar story amongst most campaigns that make this list: it was creative, yet relevant to not only the time of year but most importantly: the business itself. This is lost on so much PR activity now, especially in the digital space, but staying on brand is crucial.

5. Heart-Shaped Crisps – Walkers

Finally this month is another luurrvvvee themed PR campaign, and this time it’s from Walkers. Most of us have come across a heart-shaped crisp once or twice in our lives… Now you can make money if you find one. The British brand called on crisp lovers to send in their best discovery, with £100,000 up for grabs for the winner. A campaign like this from a big brand was always going to do well around Valentine’s Day for coverage, but what I found particularly good was the follow up coverage from the stunt too. Only recently did a story do the rounds of a guy who accidentally ate his chance to bag the cash. Which the papers, especially the tabloids, went mad for apparently! It goes to show even the simplest of stories can yield decent PR results, if you package it up well.

Conversation Corner – Paper Red Noses?

It’s another shoutout to my colleague Adam for putting me on to this campaign. This year, Comic Relief have announced a new style for their annual Red Nose Day celebration. This isn’t a new thing. Only this year, it’s a completely reworked product – made of honeycombed paper. Originally this had a place on my top five favourite campaigns, but I had a few hang ups with it which meant it just couldn’t make the cut (sorry!).

Pros

• The Red Nose is famous for its iconic quirky designs with faces – this is lost in the new design
• I understand the eco-element, but Amazon has been announced as the official distrubution partner, a company notorious for its negative impact on the environment!
• And finally, my biggest bug bear, is that there was next to no coverage of the initative. Packaged up properly this could have been a great eco story, but there is very limited information about the new noses.

Cons

• On the other hand of course, this is another step in the right direction in using environmentally-friendly alternatives to plastic based products, which is always a win.

@JessicaPardoePR I think…

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That’s it for February! Thank you as always for reading and for supporting me, and always happy to continue the conversation on my socials. Also, if you ever spot any campaigns you’d like to hear my opinion on, please send them my way. Always happy to hear from you. Read my other blogs here whilst you wait for the next one.