
Wouter Glaser (Glasnost) is working on a model to get the PR message through using paid content.
Wouter Glaser is lucky. He got stuck in traffic in the French city of Cannes. Then all of a sudden a parking spot opens, right in front of the restaurant where he needs to be asap. In the back of his car there are a few boxes filled with Magnum ice cream, which are starting to melt. Ice cream for the bloggers dinner later that night. Earlier that morning he was busy washing guests’ towels and ironing pink and black pillowcases. All for a group of international influencers (a few journalists and a lot of bloggers), who where invited by Unilever for the launch of their new edition Pink & Black Magnum ice creams. The group was welcomed to a villa and invited to the special Pink & Black Magnum party, with top model Miranda Kerr as special guest. All of that, during the Cannes film festival. If that doesn’t guarantee amazing content…
Glaser: “We like working together with bloggers. Journalists are always looking for news hooks; bloggers prefer the experience. This why they are appealing for a big fan group. Bloggers are icons and people want to know everything about them. For us, this makes it easier to find the right ‘sweetspot’; the spot between the client and publicity.” This sweetspot is different for every person, which means you have to define it for every individual. Glaser: “In this situation we had a good hook for the Dutch edition of Vogue; Miranda Kerr stayed an extra day so they could interview her.”
3 Trends
According to Glaser, finding the sweetspot is the future of PR: “There are 3 big trends happening in PR, which all refer to the sweetspot:
- The diversification of media and the entrance of a new group of influencers, who are appealing to a new group of consumers no longer reached by traditional outlets.
- Next to that, creating relevance by using the right mix of messages (and the impact that has on your strategy and creation).
- Finally, the use of tailor-made tactics to get your story told. Traditional communication tactics are outdated.”
New model for Native Advertising
Glaser is currently working on a model to not only get the PR message across through free publicity, but also through paid content. “So far, I haven’t seen the promise of native advertising returned by the companies claiming that they offer it. Often, they still work with exclusive contracts and transparency is scarce. And still there is no guarantee the reader will absorb the commercial message, unlike, for instance, an editorial piece. I want to turn this around, and put together a network of paid people. So: how do you get the reinsurance of advertising with the value of PR, even for less common products? There are still a lot of companies that keep the native advertising door closed.”
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