{"id":141849,"date":"2023-01-09T10:36:12","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T09:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=141849"},"modified":"2023-01-10T11:19:24","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T10:19:24","slug":"3-reasons-pr-budgets-must-be-protected-in-a-downturn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/3-reasons-pr-budgets-must-be-protected-in-a-downturn\/","title":{"rendered":"3 campaigns that prove PR budgets must be protected in a downturn"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post from Patrick Jeffrey, managing partner at Contagious<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Bank of England has warned that the UK is hurtling towards recession. And not any old recession: the worst since records began.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This news is galling for any industry, but it is particularly depressing for comms because we know the drill by now: recession hits, clients pull budgets, spend decreases. Agencies then have little choice but to hunker down and weather the storm until brighter days return.<\/p>\n

And recent news would suggest this cycle is under way. Meta recently reported a 4% decline in ad revenue; Google\u2019s grew just 3% (compared to 43% last year) and YouTube\u2019s revenue decreased for the first time in its history. Clients are feeling the pinch.<\/p>\n

Public relations is not immune either. The IPA\u2019s Bellwether report found that PR budgets were cut 4.8% in the last quarter and warned the \u2018financial outlook is at its most downbeat since the start of the pandemic\u2019. So agencies of all hues are feeling the pinch, too.<\/p>\n

Cut it out<\/h3>\n

Plenty of marketing experts have already explained why<\/a> reducing spend is the worst thing you can do in a recession. But if brands are hellbent on taking a scythe to their budgets, PR should be one of the last areas to be cut. Why? Because, at Contagious, we see first-hand how the combination of earned media and creativity can punch well above its weight.<\/p>\n

In fact, as we selected the campaigns to feature at our Most Contagious event in November, it struck us that the ideas defining the year have been just that: powerful PR stories that have generated outsized levels of fame. Here are three of our favourites:<\/p>\n

\"Contagious<\/p>\n

In August, Heinz\u2019s AI Ketchup stunt cleverly piggy-backed upon the interest in OpenAI\u2019s image-generating technology DALL-E 2 in order to reinforce how distinctive the product is. Working with Rethink in Toronto, Heinz fed the AI tool with all sorts of keywords \u2013 such as \u2018Ketchup Renaissance\u2019, and \u2018Ketchup outer space\u2019 \u2013 and in turn created a funny, engaging and PR-able idea that got people thinking of their own Ketchup creations.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Sheba\u2019s Hope Grows project, where the pet food brand worked with AMV BBDO to create a living coral reef in Indonesia\u2019s Spermonde Archipelago. This was designed to raise awareness of scientists\u2019 estimations that 90% of the world\u2019s tropical reefs will disappear by 2043. A living billboard spelling \u2018Hope\u2019 sat at the centre of the campaign and helped to generate some impressive results: 2.5 billion earned media impressions; ROI of 308% and a 300% increase in fish populations around the regenerated reef.<\/p>\n